GoFundMe "Trump Wall" donors have given $7 million to organizer's new idea

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Donors have given Brian Kolfage, the wounded veteran behind the viral GoFundMe "Trump Wall" campaign, permission to transfer at least $7 million to his new plan to privately fund and build a southern border wall, according to Kolfage and another source familiar with the effort. President Trump has asked Congress for more than $5 billion to build the same project, but Kolfage says he can do it for half the cost.

Kolfage first launched the "Trump Wall" campaign in December, and $20 million was pledged from more than 300,000 people. His original goal was to raise $1 billion and hand over the money to the federal government to subsidize the cost of the wall.

But last Friday, Kolfage changed course and announced that funds would instead go toward his new non-profit, We Build the Wall, Inc., which he said would use contributions to build a wall on private land. In a GoFundMe post, Kolfage wrote that the "federal government won't be able to accept our donations anytime soon."

Because of the change and the fact that the initial campaign fell short of the fundraising goal, GoFundMe said donors would automatically get their money back unless they actively opted to roll over their donation to Kolfage's new venture.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gofundme-trump-wall-donors-have-given-dollar7-million-to-organizers-new-idea/ar-BBSl0LJ?li=BBnbfcL

What's the likelihood the guy pulls a Jill Stein and pockets the money?

[Vinca]

1. Good lord. I've got a Great Wall of China to sell to these nitwits.

[shanny]

2. A sucker is born every minute

but look at it this way: this will do nothing except enrich some grifters and the donors will have less to invest in campaigns.

[delisen]

3. Let's a Go Fund Me to build a giant burping puppet doll of Trump

to be erected the middle of the desert.We can say up front that 10% of the money raised will go to building the giant puppet

and 90% will go to our unspecified overhead expenses and capitalist profit. His cult members will still send in money.

[blueinredohio]

4. Where's the private land he's going to build this wall?

[Flaleftist]

8. I suppose if he was serious, he would need permission of private landowners

or buy the rights to build the wall on their property. That would leave a lot of gaps and be pointless. However, it does appear to have the potential for a lot of grifting.

[bitterross]

5. I bet the management fees are going to be yuge!

I'm putting money on his non-profit paying him and other executives quite well and paying management/consulting fees to a lot of friends and family.

Yep, it will be just like the Trump Foundation - from the article:

Last Thursday, BuzzFeed News reported that Kolfage had misused funds from a previous GoFundMe campaign intended to help other wounded soldiers. Kolfage had raised $16,246 for a veteran mentorship initiative, but BuzzFeed News reported that it had no evidence that Kolfage had used the money for the program: none of the partners he claimed to have worked with — including Walter Reed, Brooke Army Medical Center and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany — have any records that Kolfage worked with their patients or donated money, according to representatives at the centers that BuzzFeed News spoke to.In an email to CBS News, Kolfage disputed the BuzzFeed report, claiming that he used the funds to travel to the hospitals where he conducted his mentorship program. He called the piece a "fake article."

[D_Master81]

6. Damn, conservatives are easy to scam

Unless you raise tens of millions of dollars you wouldnt have enough money to even begin to build a wall worth anything. How much does it cost just to get equipment down to the border?

[GReedDiamond]

7. Exactly, not to mention that his privately run project...

...would have to acquire privately owned property, but unlike the govt, they would not be able to proclaim eminent domain to force the owners to give up their properties.