Make MAGA Rich Again!

Trump’s incoming team of grifters already set up a brand new PAC to solicit bribes, or unlimited corporate contributions as the FEC prefers to say, from megadonors looking for favors come January.

They couldn’t even wait 48 hours.

At some point yesterday, Bulldog Compliance, a political consulting firm headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, registered MAGA Inc. a new Political Action Committee created to raise money for Donald Trump. Bulldog has set up and managed dozens of fundraising vehicles for Trump and his right-wing allies since the nation’s once and future leader launched his 2016 presidential campaign: Make America Great Again Inc.; Make America Great Again, Again!; More Jobs, Less Government; Parents' Voices Matter; Conservative Action Fund Super PAC; Conservative Values PAC; America First Action; and on and on and on and on.

Many of the previously established vehicles still operate, but with Trump’s return to the White House now guaranteed, it makes perfect sense to create a new one dedicated to taking payoffs – or campaign donations, as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) prefers to call them – from megadonors looking to purchase favorable policies and legislation once the Great Leader is officially coronated in January at the inauguration.   

Which is no doubt what MAGA Inc. is designed to do, as it’s what the FEC calls a “Hybrid PAC.” That means it can accept unlimited corporate contributions, which are the best type of political bribes of all.

Bulldog Compliance, the DBA of Make America Great Again Policies Inc., is legally registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit. The image above is a screenshot from its latest publicly available disclosure to the IRS, which was filed last year but covers 2022.

Quite amusingly, Bulldog was set up as nonprofit company, which must have made for a good laugh at Mar-a-Lago when Trump and his pals first heard the joke. So who’s in charge of Bulldog?

• Charles Gantt, who in the group’s most recent nonprofit disclosure to the Internal Revenue Service is identified as Bulldog’s “principal officer,” is the treasurer for numerous Trump fundraising outfits. In December of 2021, Gantt held that title with Make America Great Again, Again! — which later folded and transferred it’s last $8.9 million to a new pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., as the New York Times reported — when it paid Melanie Trump $155,000 for a “speaking engagement.”

• Bulldog’s CEO Pam Bondi, who in 2022 was paid $200,000 by Bulldog for 30 hours of work per week. I’m surprised she had the time to do the job because Bondi, who’s the former attorney general of Florida, a lobbyist, and lawyer who represented Trump at his first impeachment trial., has quite a few daytime responsibilities as it is.

• Richard Grenell, who was Acting Director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term, was also paid $200,000 by Bulldog for his role as vice president. Grenell, who is fiercely loyal to Trump and was a leading hatchet man for his on this year’s campaign trail, is likely to get a senior position in his new administration.

• Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s longtime fiancee, though the couple is apparently going through a rough patch at the moment as news accounts in September said Jr. was having a “dalliance” with a Palm Beach socialite. She took in $231,483 from Bulldog as the nonprofit’s National Finance Chair.

• Matthew Whitaker, The former president’s probably illegally appointed acting Attorney General from November 2018 to February 2019, who has served as executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a pro-Trump advocacy group. He received $200,000 as Bulldog’s Vice President.

MAGA Inc. will have to file a post-general election report by December 5 and disclose contributions it received between its creation yesterday and November 25. The next report due to the FEC after that will be the MAGA Inc.’s 2024 year-end report on January 31, 2025, after Trump is inaugurated.

So Trump may not take office for another two months or so, but there’s no reason not to get the payoff palooza up and running now. In the immortal words of former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy regarding the Citizens United decision, “The appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.”