Matt Ortega told POLITICO that he launched the site “completely on my own and out of my own pocket.” | AP Photo
Former Clinton staffer launches new anti-Trump site: corrupt.af
A former senior staffer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign has launched a new website to highlight Donald Trump’s alleged corruption, with a foul-mouthed URL to match its mission: corrupt.af.
Matt Ortega, who served as Clinton’s digital director for communications until he left the campaign in June, told POLITICO that he launched the site “completely on my own and out of my own pocket.”
Officially, the “af” in the site’s web address is the country code for Afghanistan, which administers the top-level domain along with some help from the United Nations.
Unofficially, in the abbreviated argot of texting and online chatting, “af” stands for “as fuck.”
The bare-bones site is topped by a full-bleed photo of the president-elect, along with the words, “Donald Trump is corrupt AF.”
Below, it reads, in all-capital letters: “4 hours since the latest instance of corruption by Donald Trump.”
For now, Ortega is manually curating the unabashedly partisan site himself -- recent links and excerpts include Variety’s revelation that Trump plans to retain his title as executive producer of “The Celebrity Apprentice”; a months-old POLITICO story on Trump bundlers that included fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder, who has since been tapped to be labor secretary; and a Forbes report noting that Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to run the Small Business Administration, was his foundation’s top outside donor.
“A lot of these examples are obvious conflicts, like having Ivanka Trump sit in on Trump's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Abe,” Ortega said. “But they also include examples that show his policy on specific issues or, say, countries [where his position] could be swayed because of financial interest either in his business or his personal finances.”
Users can also submit a link of their own, and Ortega will decide whether it’s worth highlighting.
It’s far from the first time Ortega has skewered Republicans with an Internet meme: His specialty is quickly setting up snarky websites in response to news stories and riding the viral wave. During the 2012 campaign cycle, he launchedEtchASketchMittRomney.com, which poked fun at GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s ideological flexibility, along with dozens of other rapidly launched microsites.
Since Trump won the Nov. 8 election, Democrats have watched news coverage of the president-elect’s business conflicts with deepening frustration, with many accusing the news media of treating Clinton’s alleged scandals differently than Trump’s.
“Donald Trump gave his Foundation's largest donor a CABINET spot yesterday,” Clinton’s debate coach Ron Klain tweeted on Thursday -- twice. “Did you see blaring headlines? Imagine if HRC had done that??”
Trump had great success in portraying Clinton as corrupt during the campaign, referring to her with disciplined regularity as “Crooked Hillary.”
But in the weeks since his surprise victory, the president-elect has faced a blizzard of stories showcasing potential conflicts between his new role and his vast real estate empire. Trump has pledged to announce his plan for handing over the reins of his company later this month, but is expected to stop well short of what ethics experts in both parties are demanding. The New York Times reported Wednesday that he is considering putting his business in the hands of his two adult sons, but retaining an ownership stake.
Ortega says he was motivated to create corrupt.af because he feared that the ethical questions around Trump’s presidency weren’t drawing enough sustained scrutiny.
“There were so many conflict-of-interest stories flying around, it was kind of hard to keep track of everything,” he said. “That's my fear. It will all go down a memory hole and people will forget.”
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