Donald Trump’s first foray into email fundraising is not off to the greatest start.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was hesitant to fundraise before his paltry May fundraising statistics were publicized this month, but now it seems the Trump campaign is overcompensating by sending fundraising emails overseas.

Numerous members of the British parliament have complained that they have received multiple emails from the Trump campaign asking for a donation.

Natalie McGaraff, a Scottish MP, complained on Twitter this week that she has received several fundraising emails from Trump.

May be Donald Trump bought lists – bizarre for grassroots campaign – but how does he opt out of foreign donations? pic.twitter.com/jVwfdFnI6U — Natalie McGarry MP (@NatalieMcgarry) June 27, 2016

She rebuked Trump’s son in an email that she also posted to Twitter.

“Quite why you think it appropriate to write emails to UK parliamentarians with a begging bowl for your father’s repugnant campaign is completely beyond me,” she wrote in the email. “Given his rhetoric on migrants, refugees and immigration, it seems quite extraordinary that he would be asking for money; especially people who view his dangerous divisiveness with horror.”

Forgot to include @realDonaldTrump. why your son is contacting us is beyond bizarre. pic.twitter.com/QGiArA8YWD — Natalie McGarry MP (@NatalieMcgarry) June 23, 2016

Scottish MP Stuart McDonald also complained about the emails.

Dear @nytimes, could you pass a message to @realDonaldTrump for me? Please stop sending campaign begging letters to MPs. It’s pathetic! — Stuart McDonald MP (@Stuart_McDonald) June 27, 2016

The Scotsman newspaper reported that one fundraising email that appears to be from Donald Trump himself was “received by many MPs last week.”

A staff member with the Scottish National Party, Christopher Mullins-Silverstein, told Fusion that members of the party have received several fundraising emails from the Trump campaign.

“They’ve been getting these emails for the past week,” he said. “Ever since he came to Scotland.”

Mullins-Silverstein told Fusion that he has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

It appears that English MPs also received the fundraising emails from the Trump campaign, as one complained about them to the Speaker of the House Commons, according to Politics Home.

“Members of Parliament are being bombarded by electronic communications from Team Trump on behalf of somebody called Donald Trump,” Sir Roger Gale said on Tuesday, according to Politics Home. “Mr Speaker, I’m all in favour of free speech but I don’t see why colleagues on either side of the House should be subjected to intemperate spam.”

Sir Roger seemed to have trouble even deleting the Trump emails.

“Efforts to try to have these deleted have failed. I wonder if you’d be kind enough to intercede with the Digital Services Department to see if they may be blocked,” he lamented.



Campaign finance law bars campaigns from accepting donations from foreign nationals and from soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. However, it’s “unlikely” that the Trump campaign’s emails would lead to any legal action because campaigns are held accountable if they purposefully solicit the donation, Richard Skinner, a policy analyst at the Sunlight Foundation, told TPM. It’s not clear whether the Trump campaign included British MPs on the fundraising email lists on purpose.