MSNBC anchor Katy Tur was shocked to learn Friday that a pro-Trump PAC was using the president’s summit with Vladimir Putin to solicit donations.
Tur, moments after an applauding Trump gave a red carpet welcome to his Russian counterpart in Alaska, said Trump National Committee JFC was “crazy” for the tactic.
“What I find interesting… is the way that Donald Trump has made absolutely everything political in a campaign sense, political in a fundraising sense,” said Tur, who then showed the printed email to the camera and began to read from it.
“‘Today I’m meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. It’s a little chilly,’” Tur quoted.
“‘This meeting is very high-stakes for the world. The Democrats would love nothing more than for me to fail. No one in the world knows how to make deals like me. Tonight at midnight, my very critical fundraising deadline hits, and the radical left is watching our numbers, this night of all nights, to see if we miss.’”
Tur then mentioned his call for cash.
“And then it’s like, ‘Give $10,” she said. “You know, ‘Stand with Trump, give $10.’”
Trump National Committee JFC launched last March to raise funds alongside the Republican National Committee and is now also doing so with two other PACs, Never Surrender, Inc. and Working for Ohio. The Daily Beast has reached out to the committee for comment.
Tur asked MSNBC foreign policy editor Ravi Agrawal to weigh in.
“How crazy is it to see this fundraising email linked to this very important meeting he’s having with an autocrat to stop killing people in Ukraine?” she wondered.
“I’m kind of stunned,” Agrawal replied. “I mean, I should know better, but it’s not presidential. It’s not right to be fundraising off of these images right now.”
“I think it just gives off a really bad sign to even Trump’s supporters,” he added. “I mean, the president of the United States does not need money in this moment. What he needs is, you know, a spine, guidance, the right advisers in the room, Russian experts… people who’ve dealt with Putin and know how he might be trying to play him.”
At a press conference after three hours of talks, Trump claimed that “we really made some great progress today.” But he did not provide details or take reporters’ questions, and an actual ceasefire deal does not appear to have been made, if his or Putin’s comments are any indication.
“We haven’t quite got there, but we’ve got some headway,” Trump said. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
The idea that a president could welcome an autocrat with one hand and hold out the other for ten dollars from his supporters was more than a little jarring to observers. For Tur and Agrawal, it summed up the way Trump has blurred presidential diplomacy with campaign urgency, turning a meeting about war and peace into yet another pitch for small-dollar donations.
Even for Trump’s own base, critics argue, the move could feel like poor timing. The stakes of a Putin summit are about lives and global stability, not campaign metrics. But the fundraising email kept the Trump playbook on brand: every event is an opportunity to raise cash, whether it is a rally in Iowa or a sit-down with Russia’s president in Alaska.