Trump to Turn State of the Union Address Into Live Fundraising Event

‘Your Name Deserves to Be Displayed During Tuesday Night’s Speech’ Campaign Website Hawks

The president’s annual State of the Union is a constitutional requirement. Article II of the U.S. Constitution requires the president to deliver “to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Trump is now, for the first time in history, turning that constitutional obligation into a partisan fundraising drive, as The Washington Post reports.

“Your Name Displayed during the State of the Union,” the Donald J. Trump for President official website offers.

“This is a movement,” the fundraising plea says. “It’s not about just one of us. It’s about ALL of us. Which is why your name deserves to be displayed during Tuesday night’s speech. Please make a special State of the Union contribution to have your name broadcast on the Official Donald J. Trump for President livestream.”

For a minimum donation off $35 Trump supporters can see their name scroll on the campaign’s livestream of the president’s first State of the Union address.

Trump sent a text to his followers advertising the fundraising pitch:

“This reminds me of when the Orange Bowl became the Capital One Orange Bowl & the Sugar Bowl became the Allstate Sugar Bowl,” former Obama-era U.S. Attorney Joyce Alene, a frequent MSNBC guest said via Twitter. “But a lot more sinister because it’s the Presidency.”

Larry Sabato, the well-known founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, had a different – albeit sarcastic – suggestion.

“Why not sell each paragraph to the highest bidder?” he asked, rhetorically, on Twitter, suggesting it could say: “This section brought to you by…”

“Of course,” Sabato noted, “many special interests have already purchased large pieces of the speech.”

Trump is expected to be talking about his tax cuts and reductions in regulations Tuesday night.

So seemingly preposterous is this move by the president and his re-election campaign that the urban legend debunking website Snopes even quickly fact-checked its veracity. Conclusion: “True.”