Corporate giants shut down Trump texting program
A test run of one of Donald Trump's most important voter-contact programs was abruptly shut down over the July 4 weekend, potentially costing the president millions of dollars in donations and raising alarms about whether the initiative will face roadblocks in the run-up to the election.
Trump’s campaign used the weekend to test-drive its text messaging program, a cornerstone of its small-donor outreach and its voter turnout plan. But after sending out over 1 million patriotic-themed messages, the enterprise was taken offline by anti-spam monitors employed by mobile phone giants.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser who wields vast control over the president's political apparatus, quickly reached out to Verizon and T-Mobile executives to inquire about initiating communication between the campaign and the companies in hopes of fixing the problem.
It took five days to resolve the shutdown, leading Republicans to worry the same thing could happen this fall as the president urges his supporters to vote, when the stakes will be much higher.
People familiar with the chain of events said Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T flagged potential regulatory problems with the peer-to-peer messaging operation, which differs from robo-texting in that texts are sent individually, as opposed to a mass blast. But within Trump’s orbit, the episode has further fueled suspicions that big tech companies are looking to influence the election. In recent weeks, the president has accused Twitter and Facebook of censoring conservative voices and son Donald Trump Jr. has alleged that Gmail is sending reelection campaign emails to spam folders.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/trump-massive-texting-program-suspended-372302
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