'Pirate' Trump campaigns are reportedly plundering the conservative grassroots

Trump Campaign.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The Trump re-election campaign isn't pleased with everyone who says they're trying to help the president secure a second term in the Oval Office.

Several unaffiliated pro-Trump PACs, dark money groups, and off-brand Facebook advertisers that haven't received Trump's stamp of approval have pulled in a combined $46 million from donors so far through a variety of means including selling Trump merchandise, Politico reports. And the actual campaign — which winds up competing with the groups for cash — wants it to stop, especially since most of those "pirate" groups are reportedly spending little money to help Trump's re-election and appear to be targeting grassroots donors.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.