David Bossie said in a statement Monday he was being targeted by “unabashed left-wing activists.” | Darren McCollester/Getty Images 2020 elections Trump campaign distances itself from David Bossie over alleged scam Trump’s longtime friend was accused of using his political group to scam elderly Republican voters for his own financial gain.

The Trump campaign is distancing itself from one of its highest-profile supporters, David Bossie, two days after the president’s longtime friend was accused of using his political group to scam elderly Republican voters for his own financial gain.

“President Trump’s campaign condemns any organization that deceptively uses the President’s name, likeness, trademarks, or branding and confuses voters,” the campaign said in a statement on Tuesday.


“We encourage the appropriate authorities to investigate all alleged scam groups for potential illegal activities,” it added.

The statement did not mention Bossie by name but appeared to be a clear rebuke of his group, the Presidential Coalition, which added $18.5 million to its coffers from 2017 to 2018 after promising donors it was “dedicated to identifying and supporting conservative candidates running for office at the state and local levels of government.” Fundraising materials produced by the group often featured images of the White House and of Bossie and Trump together.

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According to Internal Revenue Service filings first reported by Axios on Sunday, only $425,442 of the $15.4 million that Bossie’s group spent over the past two years went toward boosting conservative political candidates by contributing to their own committees or running supportive advertisements. The remaining money was spent on outside consultants with close ties to Bossie and on books he authored with Corey Lewandowski, the former manager of Trump’s 2016 campaign. The two men have remained close to Trump since his victory, and have penned two books together about his campaign and presidency.

Following the release of the campaign’s statement on Tuesday, a White House official said Trump was furious to learn of Bossie’s alleged scheme and demanded that his former deputy campaign manager be publicly scolded.

“This literally came from the top,” added a person close to the White House, who said that Trump himself “was pissed that this was the equivalent of taking from him.” The campaign statement was intended to “make it very clear that [Bossie] is persona non grata,” the person said.

A person familiar with the president’s thinking said Trump was “apoplectic“ when he learned about what Bossie’s group is accused of doing.

An adviser to the Trump campaign said: “The thing Trump hates is for anyone to make money off his name. He hates others using the Trump name for personal gain. He’s a branding and marketing genius. Rule number one of brand marketing is to be in control of your brand at all times.“

President Donald Trump shakes hands with co-host David Bossie at the Freedom Summit, Saturday, May 9, 2015, in Greenville, S.C. | Rainier Ehrhardt/AP Photo

The person close to the White House disagreed in part, saying that Trump doesn’t actually object in principle to people making money from their association with him. “What he doesn’t like is not getting credit for it, or people being shady about it,” the person said.

Bossie, who did not respond to a request for comment, said in a statement on Monday that he was being targeted by “unabashed left-wing activists” at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog organization that first reviewed his group’s filings.

“It’s fairly obvious that TPC Founder and President David Bossie’s long time association with President Trump dating back to 2010 has brought significant value to the organization,” Bossie said in the statement. “We are unfairly targeted by left-wing smear tactics because we are outspoken defenders of the President.”

“We will never back down,” he added.

Bossie’s group came under further scrutiny when it appeared that the primary victims of his alleged scam were middle-class and elderly Trump supporters. Roughly two-thirds of the contributions to his group came from small-dollar donors who gave less than $200 annually, most of whom also indicated in tax forms that they were retired. Several elderly donors who spoke with Axios said they felt duped by Bossie’s group after hearing details about its expenditures.

A veteran conservative activist and the former head of Citizens United, Bossie was tapped for a senior role on the Trump campaign in September 2016 and was there on election night when Trump and his barebones team celebrated their historic victory. At the time of his hiring, Trump called Bossie “solid, smart” and “a friend of mine for many years.”

“He’s a battle-tested warrior and a brilliant strategist,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, then Trump’s campaign manager, said of Bossie at the time.

Despite not being offered a job inside the West Wing after the election, Bossie has remained close to the president and to many of his aides. He was briefly mentioned as a possible candidate for White House chief of staff after Trump pushed John Kelly out of the role in December — “This White House needs a Bossie chief of staff,” read a glowing endorsement in the Washington Examiner at the time — but quickly flamed out as a serious candidate for the top job.

In its statement Tuesday, the Trump campaign excluded Bossie’s group from a list of “four official fundraising organizations” approved by Trump or the Republican National Committee that exist in addition to America First Action, a White House-aligned group described by the campaign as “a trusted supporter of President Trump’s policies and agendas.”