Scammers are taking advantage of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base by selling them products without ever actually fulfilling their orders.
That’s according to a Wednesday article by Jezebel’s Jim Vorel, who wrote that numerous products marketed to pro-Trump conservatives are frequently accused by those same customers of ignoring them after taking their money. Vorel focused mostly on customer reviews for MAGA-branded alcoholic beverages, though he noted that scammers targeting MAGA customers do so through a variety of products.
“Here’s the thing about grifters in this mold: They truly don’t care who they’re stealing from, and the ideology they’re wearing ends the moment the mark is no longer buying, or the ideology is no longer selling,” he wrote. “They will steal from anyone, or appropriate any image, personality or movement without permission, in order to move some units.”
Vorel observed that one product dubbed “Tears of the Left” — which proclaims to be a Kentucky-made bourbon that sells for $100 complete with a tear-shaped whiskey stone — has a Facebook page that is rife with irate consumer reviews. Some reviewers wrote about their frustrations with the company’s customer service, saying they had yet to receive an estimated shipping date despite making their order several weeks prior.
“One of the people lodging their complaint even notes that the company’s tracking information claims that the $100 bottle of what is no doubt cheaply sourced bourbon was already delivered to him, when it never actually was. Would you believe that no one has been responding to his repeated inquiries about that?” Vorel wrote. “By the end of the post, he’s already settling into exactly the frame of mind that a grifter prizes above all: Annoyance, but resignation. When your political tribe is more important to you than defending your rights as a consumer, that makes you the perfect mark — someone who will lodge a testy complaint, but take it no further than that.”
The Jezebel writer also asserted that President Donald Trump also participates in the practice of grifting MAGA customers out of their money, pointing to his cryptocurrency “memecoin” that quickly lost most of its value not long after it was publicly introduced in January of last year. While the $TRUMP coin was initially valued at more than $27, it sells for just $4.95 today.
“Even when Trump is stealing directly from his most ardent supporters, they’re all too happy to keep falling for the same con, over and over,” Vorel wrote.
