(RepublicanInformer.com)- A Republican event in Staten Island last week resulted in the local Republican Party generating some $16,000 in donations from thousands of anti-Trump trolls who tried to sabotage the event. It came after a teenage TikTok user encouraged followers to sign up to attend the event without turning up.
The New York Post reports how on September 19, thousands of people from out of state started signing up for the free event, using fake names like “F*ckyou Trump” and “Ivana Punchyou.”
Staten Island GOP chairman Brendan Lantry described how they had around 1,500 RSVPs from people living in Staten Island, but quickly starting seeing the numbers rise to the tens of thousands.
“We knew something was not right,” he said.
Jessica Lantry, the GOP chairman’s wife, found a video on social media platform TikTok that had more than half a million views. The video was published by a 19-year-old user who went by the name Felisrae. In the video, which has since been made private, viewers were encouraged to sign up and fail to attend the event in the hope that it would fail.
Felisrae used vile language, asking users, “Do you have this orange b*tch as much as I do?”
“It turns out that Trump is having a rally in Staten Island…so what I did was, I reserved myself two seats. But I’m pretty sure I have something to do that day,” the user added. “So, do what you want with this information.”
It prompted a huge number of anti-Trump trolls to start signing up for seats, but the Staten Island GOP took swift action and immediately introduced a non-refundable fee of $5 to reserve tickets. People who are passionate about supporting the president we’re put off by the small fee, and it turns out the trolls weren’t either.
“But they kept coming,” Lantry said. “From Colorado and California and Chicago and Houston, all over the country…They hate this president so much that they’re willing to donate to the Republican Party to troll him.”
The decision to implement a small fee meant that anti-Trump trolls donated almost $16,000 – $15,785 to be exact.
As Democrat voters and campaigners use online tactics like this, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign continues its grassroots efforts. It was recently announced that the 2020 grassroots campaign for President Donald Trump is the biggest in the history of presidential campaigns – even bigger than Barack Obama’s 2012 efforts.
