Donald Trump stood on the U.S.S. Iowa yesterday giving a speech billed by Corporate Media as a pro-military message in support of veterans. Corporate Media even announced that the group’s sponsor Veterans for a Strong America endorsed him.
There is a big problem. Veterans for a Strong America is a fake organization. It has one member, it’s creator Joel Arends, an attorney from South Dakota. It has $30 in cash on hand, and $318 in debts. Trump claimed at the event that the organization has hundreds of thousands of members, but it appears to be only one person, Arends, its founder. It’s not a Veteran’s organization. It’s a Super PAC fundraising business.
Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, tweeted after the event, “Just learned Trump did an event today announcing he’s been endorsed by a vets group that nobody’s ever heard of. w/out a real vets platform. Are they a 501c3/c19? Have they ever testified on the hill? Do they have any real programs? What have they done? These are questions to ask.”
For more on this story, click Veterans for a Strong America: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Watch Rachel Maddow discuss this fake organization:
