One of Donald Trump’s most trusted intelligence officials has admitted that fans of the president were essentially duped into donating to his campaign with a fake promise of access to his private national security briefings.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made the revelation after Trump came under fire over a shameless fundraising email featuring an image of the president attending a dignified transfer honoring six fallen soldiers.
The email, sent out by one of the president’s political fundraising committees, was also controversial because it promised access to the president’s “private national security briefings” in exchange for donations.
Trump supporters were urged to donate and then “claim your spot” in what was described as an exclusive group that would receive updates and “the inside scoop” from the president himself.
“As a National Security Briefing Member, you’ll receive my private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America,” the document says.
“The straight truth on border invasions, foreign adversaries, deep state sabotage, and every danger the fake news hides. You’ll get the inside scoop DIRECT from me, President Trump, the leader who’s rebuilt the greatest military in history, and put America First like no one else.”
The email was sent by Never Surrender Inc, a political action committee (PAC) that ended last year with almost $50 million of cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
But Ratcliffe, who briefs Trump on national security threats as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, revealed under oath this week that donors were never given the national security briefings they were promised.
“I don’t know what the document is, but regardless of what it says, it didn’t happen,” Ratcliffe told the Senate Intelligence Committee, under questioning by Democrat Mark Kelly.
“The Hatch Act would prevent me, in an apolitical role, from engaging in that. I’m not aware that anything like that happened.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment. But this was not the first time that Trump’s questionable fundraising has come under scrutiny.
In the weeks after the January 6 attack in 2021, his campaign and affiliated groups sent a barrage of emails urging supporters to “defend election integrity,” in turn raising tens of millions of dollars.
However, congressional investigators later found that much of that money flowed into a leadership PAC—Save America—rather than being used for legal challenges as donors were led to believe.
Trump also faced a backlash for his “election defense fund,” which, according to the House January 6 Committee, did not formally exist.
Fundraising emails repeatedly invoked the fund as a vehicle to contest the 2020 results, but investigators said the structure described to donors was misleading, and that tactic was part of a broader strategy to capitalize on false claims of widespread voter fraud.
But the latest fundraising pitch, featuring a photo of Trump wearing a baseball cap at a ceremony for fallen soldiers killed as part of the Iran war, was particularly contentious.
“Donald Trump is fundraising off of dead soldiers. He is a deeply SICK and DISGUSTING MAN!” wrote Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s office.
“I hope the donors’ national security briefing doesn’t skip the ‘Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz’ section that Trump and Hegseth missed,” added Senator Andy Kim of New York.
As CIA director, Ratcliffe was by Trump’s side as the president launched his strikes against Iran and Venezuela earlier this year.
But Ratcliffe wasn’t the only Trump administration official asked about the email during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this week.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was also grilled by Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Jon Ossoff.
“This says ‘unfiltered updates,’” Kelly told Gabbard, holding up a printed-out copy of the document.
“Director Gabbard, do you have any comment on whether unfiltered updates of private national security briefings should be made to individuals that donate to the president?”
“I’m not familiar with that document,” she replied.
