ok so maybe I should clear up some facts about what we can and cannot do legally.
Let's start with the can nots:
1. We cannot contribute more than $2700 from a single entity directly to Donald Trump's official campaign.
2. If we register as a Super PAC, we can NOT...
a. contribute even one penny directly to him or his official campaign.
b. communicate with him in any way, shape or form during the elections.
c. expect any endorsements or acknowledgements from him during the elections.
Things we CAN do:
1. Encourage anyone not directly affiliated with the Super PAC to donate up to the $2700 maximum to Donald Trump's official campaign.
2. Combine our talents, resources, and finances to indirectly support Donald Trump for President with media and grassroots campaign efforts.
3. Solicit unlimited donations to our PAC in order to help us towards our goals.
4. Buy commercials, billboards, and advertising of any kind to promote Trump for President and/or the TrumpCoin initiatives.
Why are these points important?
Because folks seem to believe that we are going to be allowed to pump the coin value up to around $5 and just give Trump a million bucks.
No. That's illegal. He cannot accept it.
I do not feel like it is sensible for a prominent public person to just sit on the funds for us (they will be constantly having to manage and document movements). I do not feel like it is sensible to lock the fund into any escrow or other long term commitment. I feel like the fund should be handled by an internal official treasury like any other PAC with publicly available ledgers and accountability and put to good use to help fund our agenda(s). yes, I am drafting a plan.
All that said, we have yet to decide definitively the true scope of our official agenda, which should be our very next step after establishing some sort of organized leadership.
Once we have more thoroughly discussed the pros and cons of Super PAC vs. donation fund, we will be able to finally commit to a direction and make a responsible decision as to how the fund should be stored, used, protected, etc.
I am going to assume, given what you have posted here, that devising a way to disburse the final fund amount to a group of individuals who have agreed to use the payment as their $2,700 contribution directly to the Trump campaign would be blocked by: Encourage anyone
not directly affiliated with the Super PAC to donate up to the $2700 maximum to Donald Trump's official campaign. Is this correct? Not that this is an ideal solution (there are tons of issues administering this), I'm just looking to strike it from the get go so we can explore alternatives.
Are you suggesting that we break the fund up into smaller stacks, distribute it out to multiple people, and ask them to please, pretty please liquidate it without damaging the market and please, pretty please donate it all to Donald Trump for President, Inc?
Basically yes albeit with more checks in place to ensure this occurs (smart contracts, some punitive action if the money isn't donated, etc). I'm really more interested in understanding the legality of this route, rather than devising ways to put it into practice at this stage.
I believe that sort of practice would most likely lead to a fraud investigation. I don't think it's in our best interests to challenge the FEC like that.
My other question is: What is the incentive for potential donors to make their contribution buying Trumpcoins, rather than just donating to the PAC or specific causes with fiat?
My opinion (and I'm open to suggestions) is that we should actually set the PAC up around a fiat account to accept fiat donations from average Americans and focus part of our efforts on teaching these donors about crypto while making entrance as easy as possible for them.
On the crypto side of things, we do what we do and we teach newcomers how we do it and we make crypto donations into our Trump Fund. We maintain our minimum fund of 200k while we grow our value, and liquidate donated surplus from the fund to donate from the LLC into the PAC.
As we advance and lobby for changes in laws that allow crypto expenditures in Super PACs, we can transition into a full blown crypto-based company to support full-blown crypto-only Super PACS.
Something along those lines, if all can be validated as a fully legal approach.
Perhaps the answer ties in whit Trumpcoin holdings being related to voting on the direction or recipient of the fund, but this calls back to issues that already exist with special interests.
I do not ask any voter how many coins they hold and never will. Of course anyone taking the time to involve themselves with voting in this community is most likely holding coins, but that is no way a requirement and never, ever should be in my opinion. No vote should have any weight attached to any monetary value. But you do make a good point about actually creating new special interests with this. It is something that deserves much discussion.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses here. Regarding the appeal of the crypto angle, I believe a strong marketing point (although there are risks associated with this as well) would be that anyone in the world can buy Trumpcoin and effect the value of the final donation. This creates potential legal risks regarding foreign campaign contributions in US elections, so I agree that a tiered system wherein the PAC takes verified US fiat donations is prudent, while contributions from the LLC can be managed to accommodate the legalities of the foreign aspect (although this does not seem so different from a multinational corporation making a donation from profits accrued in foreign countries).
I could see the LLC becomes a donation vehicle in itself used to effect different causes around the world, with the causes selected BEFORE donations begin to ensure 'whale' donors or special interests can't effect the target of the donation and allowing only those who are invested in the particular cause that cycle to donate, rather than having their donation go towards something they don't support. Something like:
1) Democratic verified cause vote (perhaps with a criteria that voter holds at least 1 coin?): stop growing carrots, ban bottled water, MAGA
Winner: MAGA
2) Trade and effect value of coin in given timeframe (e.g. 6 months)
3) Make donation (in this case to Trump PAC)
4) New cause vote
A few questions:
There have been recent advancements in federal law that allows the use of crypto in election efforts, although there are restrictions and gray areas that I believe we can help advance further.
I have to hit the road for a bit but I'll post some links for you when I return to a computer.
Just for my understanding, the 200k fund is an initial purchase of trump coins, to be sold at a given date for fiat to be donated (then repeat). Is this correct?
The 200k is a pre-mine that was set aside in the beginning specifically for supporting Mr. Trump.
Finally, I have no issue for the time being, but are you married to the Trumpcoin branding as this moves forward? If this is going to be a sustainable Causecoin, I believe it will eventually need to be rebranded.
I think the current branding is perfect for demonstrating the power of crypto in the political arenas in the current environment, but we are really just setting the stage, right? Yes, we can do much more later. We are only limited by our own creativities.