Earlier this week the New York Times revealed that Donald Trump had been forced to return tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations after donors realized they’d been duped into making repeat donations, oftentimes putting them in dire financial consequences. Specifically, emails from the Trump campaign came with boxes pre-checked for repeat donations that many contributors didn’t see and didn’t find out about until they started seeing their bank account balances rapidly shrinking. Witnessing this outright grift, the RNC decided they wanted in on the action, and started including a pre-checked box on their campaign website that included text that reads:

“If you uncheck this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a defector and sided with the Dems. Check this box and we can win back the House and get Trump to run in 2024.”

In this clip from The Damage Report, John and Dr. Rashad Richey share the sad-sack stories of low-income Trump supporters who unwittingly send thousands of dollars to Trump that they could ill afford to lose, while the hosts also light into Trump and the RNC for using such underhanded tactics on their own most ardent, if gullible, supporters. John also takes the RNC to task for blatantly lying to supporters, noting that there’s about a negative zero chance that any list of alleged “defectors” is going to be put in front of Trump like he’s Santa Claus reviewing a “naughty” list.

Rashad says this “defector” strategy merely confirms suspicions that Trump support is more of a cult than a political ideology.

“They’re not talking about politics or policy,” he says. “Instead, they're utilizing this cult leader methodology by saying, ‘If you don't do this, if you don't give money, we're going to let the cult leader know.’”