[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, if Phil Ruffin sent a $1 million check, Trump had to return it because there are limits to direct contributions. Look it up.
Contributors are responsible to make sure they comply. Ruffin has lawyers and he’s not dumb.
It was a stunt made for TV so Trump can claim independence from big money, and you fell for it.[/quote]I didn’t “fall” for anything, FIH. Did you read the interview of Ruffin provided in the link?
…They were having dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., when the subject came up, according to Ruffin. For Ruffin, there was one vital question: Why would Trump want to subject himself to a potentially bruising political campaign given all he had accomplished?
Trump responded that the country was broken and he knew he could fix it, Ruffin said in an interview Tuesday at his Treasure Island office. Despite Ruffin’s initial advice against the campaign, he vowed to give $1 million to his friend’s presidential run, if it ever came to pass — a promise he said he fulfilled after Trump’s campaign launched last year.
But Trump didn’t take the money.
“He immediately sent it back,” Ruffin said. Trump reiterated a standard campaign bragging point — that he’s a self-funded candidate — and said he wouldn’t budge on that, even for Ruffin.
While Trump would not accept a big campaign contribution, according to Ruffin, the candidate did accept help in another way. Last week, Ruffin and his wife donated $1 million at a Des Moines, Iowa, fundraiser for veterans that Trump held instead of participating in the Republican debate.
Ruffin said he made the donation because “it was a good cause” and was in line with his other charitable interests. He said the donation was more about charity than supporting Trump as a candidate.
Still, Ruffin’s donation and presence at the Des Moines event made him a crucial supporter during a key moment in his friend’s highly controversial campaign. Ruffin’s contribution was among about $6 million raised by that event, including $1 million from Trump and $500,000 from investor Carl Icahn, owner of the mothballed Fontainebleau Las Vegas project, according to media reports…
Okay, it’s not clear here whether this check from Ruffin (which Trump sent back) was actually a $1M check or a smaller one with the promise of more to come (from Ruffin’s various enterprises). I’m SURE BOTH of these billionaries are aware of the legal limits on the various types of campaign contributions. They’re both very successful businessmen. Based upon how close Ruffin states he and Trump were in the interview, I don’t see him promising to donate $1M to the Trump campaign for publicity for himself or to create a “publicity stunt” for Trump to stump on. But Trump ended up using the incident in the Iowa caucus because he could, which made Ruffin “come out of the closet” about it in this early February interview.
Ruffin is 80 years old and is a “dust bowl refugee.”
