On June 15, a screenshot of an advertisement on Craigslist made rounds on social media. The advertisement read that they are seeking minority actors and actresses to hold signs at an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Paid Trump supporters?
When the screenshot was posted online, Twitter users connected the advertisement to President Donald Trump's upcoming rally this June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the netizens believe that the Trump team is looking for hired minorities to fill in the stadium and show that there are minorities who support the President.
President Trump's rally was originally scheduled on June 15, which is also known as Juneteenth, a day that is commemorated as the end of slavery in the United States.
The announcement of the date and location of his rally draws criticism because Tulsa was the site of the massacre of hundreds of Black people by a white mob in 1921. The advertisement also placed the location for the event, which is at "Third St. near Denver Ave," right across the street from the Bok Center where the President's rally will be held.
The advertisement also offered a payment of $10 for those who will participate, however it is not clear whether the amount is an hourly payment or if it the payment for the whole day of work.
While there are a lot of factors that can connect the advertisement to the date and location of the Trump rally, no one was able to contact the person who posted the advertisement.
This means that no one knows if the advertisement is real or if it was just made up. The advertisement was immediately taken down by Craigslist administrators on June 16, it was flagged for removal and it only stated that it violated the site's terms of use.
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Although a lot of people on social media are calling out the Craigslist advertisement because it is soliciting paid actors and actresses to show up as supporters of President Trump, no news site was able to confirm the authenticity of the advertisement.
Not the first time
In 2015, when Donald Trump first announced that he was running for president, his campaign reportedly paid actors and actresses $50 each to cheer for him.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, denied the claim and told Business Insider that there is nobody who believes that when Trump goes somewhere he does not generate the largest and biggest crowds on the planet. He said that it is not true that the Trump campaign hired people to attend his announcement.
A complaint was sent to the Federal Election Commission back in July 2015. In its complaint, the American Democracy Legal Fund claimed that Trump's campaign had run afoul of the reporting provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 because they failed to disclose its alleged payment to actors and actresses.
However, in January 2017, the Federal Election Commission closed the case, not because it found the Trump campaign innocent but because the Trump campaign admitted that it paid Gotham Government Relations $12,000. Gotham told the Federal Election Commission that it had hired Extra Mile as a subcontractor to hire administrative support at Trump's announcement.
Trump's campaign still stands by what it said that it had no connection to Extra Mile, and the subcontractor did not submit a response to the commission so it is not clear who issued the alleged casting call for actors and actresses at Trump's event.
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