As you likely know, it is my fervent hope that Donald Trump loses on November 8. As I have written before, my hope for his loss is based on his words against Mexicans, like me. However, even if Trump loses the presidential election in the end he wins politically and economically. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the Trump business empire has been declining because of Trump’s politics. Whether this is true or not will not be known until well after the election. Let’s not forget that Donald Trump has built his empire on a façade of make believe so it would be a while before we know for sure whether his businesses suffered because of his words. However, there is one place that Donald Trump wins regardless of the election outcome.
You all likely know that Donald Trump is an avid Twitter user. It has, as a matter of fact, gotten him in trouble more times than I can count. Watching his use of Twitter, and Facebook it caught my attention that Trump knows how to leverage the Internet, or the digital world. Trump has based his election on hateful words and the masterful use of social media channels to create a base of millions of followers.
From my vantage point it looks like Donald Trump, a creature of the analog world, has abandoned the analog world and jumped fully into the digital world. Clinton, and other politicos are still mired in the analog way of building a core base of voters. Trump has stood fast to building a platform of millions that will empower him to keep his politics in the forefront of US voters, possibly allow him to mount another presidential campaign and will make him money in the long run.
What Donald Trump has been building is a database of voters who fervently believe in him. Trump can now reach millions of voters via Facebook, Twitter, email or directly to their smartphones. They are a core group of millions that represent between 30% to 45% of the US electoral base. That is a powerful grassroots base that he controls.
Not only is this base of voters able to expand overtime through direct social media grassroots efforts but they can be leveraged for other candidates or political activities. In other words, Donald Trump now owns millions of voters whose contact information he can rent for a profit. They are a recurring revenue source for the Trump organization. It is likely the biggest database of conservative voters ever assembled.
Yesterday, Bloomberg published an article by Joshua Green where the Trump “bunker” is exposed. According to the article, “Inside the Trump Bunker, With 12 Days to Go,” Donald Trump has amassed a contact database and metric data of between 12 to 14 million email addresses of conservative voters. They include the original Republican database that the Republicans spent millions and years compiling. These are voters that will support Trump well into the future. They represent the future of political outreach.
I have written previously how Donald Trump is the destruction of the Republican Party in the US. The latest information, uncovered by Bloomberg, shows that not only has Trump hijacked the Republican Party but he took their voter base and made it his own.
From a business perspective, Donald Trump now controls a huge database of intellectual property that he can rent repeatedly. Renting qualified mailing lists for marketing purposes varies from $2 to $10 per name. Bloomberg argues that it is more like $3 to $8 per email address.
Conservatively, Donald Trump stands to make about $30 million each time he leases his contact list. It is unclear how much Donald Trump has spent on creating the list. Much of the money quoted by Bloomberg is mixed in with social media buys and donation outreach. Regardless, even if it is millions, the return on investment (ROI) for Trump is enormous.
Owning the starting block for the future political races allows Trump not only a monopoly on conservative voters and an ongoing revenue source but he gets to grow it each time he makes money from it.
I still hope Donald Trump loses on election night, but now, I worry about the monster he has created.
