Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump was a television star long before he rode a slow-moving escalator into our hearts last June. He hosted The Apprentice in 2008, a reality show he hosted until his campaign forced NBC to replace him with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now it seems his television status has reached impressive new heights. Why? Because according to one intrepid reporter, Trump (or someone in his campaign) seems to think Matthew Weiner’s phenomenal series Mad Men was a documentary, and that the advertising agency Draper Sterling a legitimate business operation.
According to Mediate, ThinkProgress editor Judd Legum discovered three payments of around $10,000 each to the fictional agency founded by Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) while digging through the White House hopeful’s latest campaign expense report:
Trump report includes three 10K payments to "Draper Sterling" for advertising
Who is going break it to him that it's a fictional ad agency?
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 21, 2016
“Wait a minute,” you’re probably yelling at your smartphone, hopefully somewhere in public. “Maybe ‘Draper Sterling’ is just the name of a real person, and this is all a coincidence?”
Perhaps, but the more Legum kept digging for details about the so-called advertising agency, the less he was able to find that proved its validity. For example, its listed address is a residential home in New Hampshire. Here’s a shot of it from Google Maps:
It’s a real house at a real address, and it looks nothing like the Time-Life Building.
“Okay, so there’s nobody named ‘Draper Sterling,'” you respond, probably to the annoyance of your fellow subway passengers. “But that doesn’t mean any of this is real. Maybe Legum is just some muckraking journalist who’s making it all up!”
Despite the abysmal nature of Trump’s latest campaign finance report, which reveals the Republican nominee only has $1.3 million in cash, it seems all anyone cares about at the moment is who, or what, this “Draper Sterling” character or organization is. Most responded to the news with a predictable amount of gleeful snark:
Trump paid out $35k to Draper Sterling based out of NH for advertising. I didn't know that Don Draper moved to NH pic.twitter.com/XoohUJuBcS
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) June 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/GaryLegum/status/745099288317919232
Trump hired an ad firm called "Draper Sterling?" I guess it's better than "Heisenberg"
— Ike Barinholtz (@ikebarinholtz) June 21, 2016
Once the smoke cleared, however, many began to question what, exactly, this “Draper Sterling” was. That, and why Trump’s campaign paid it $35,000:
Easy scoop:
Drive to 18 Crosby Lane, Londonderry, N.H. Knock the door. See who lives there. pic.twitter.com/kpxygiJpip— Greg Greene (@ggreeneva) June 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/745107983000952834
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/745111258198794244
Owner of Draper Sterling, web consulting vendor for Trump, is in “medical devices”
pic.twitter.com/ZxdbgsXgZM— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) June 21, 2016
Meanwhile, Trump’s fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is probably sitting somewhere in the wilds of New Hampshire, achieving nirvana while brainstorming Monster Energy’s latest ad slogan for its line of energy drinks.
UPDATE–11:44 a.m. ET: While everyone else was honing in the snark, Legum’s curiosity paid off with a few increasingly weird revelations about Draper Sterling. For starters, the LLC isn’t any kind of advertising agency, but its corporate intentions aren’t that clear either. It was created on March 25, 2016 and registered with New Hampshire’s corporate division by Jon Adkins, who co-founded a medical device startup in Boston with Paul Holzer, a medical student at Dartmouth. Both men were paid $3,000 for “field consulting” by the Trump campaign.
What’s more, Draper Sterling is connected to Patriots For America, a federal Super PAC run by Adam McLain that aims to influence the Missouri gubernatorial race. Oh, and guess what? McLain is Hozer’s brother. Legum admits he still doesn’t know “what Draper Sterling actually does,” but emphasizes that all three men “are going to considerable lengths to obfuscate their activities.”
That’s when things took a turn for the surreal:
The number listed by McLain for “Patriots For America” forwards to a voicemail for Grace’s Grantham Cafe, a New Hampshire coffee shop that, according to its website, was supposed to open on Memorial Day. Grace’s Grantham Cafe is registered to Jon Adkins, the same person who registered Draper Sterling.
When ThinkProgress called Grace’s Grantham Cafe directly on the number listed on its website, Adam McLain answered. (McLain’s super PAC filing says he lives Virginia.)
Asked about his connection to Draper Sterling and what services it provided to his super PAC, McLain said he had “no comment.” Asked whether Grace’s Grantham Cafe was a real cafe that has opened, McLain said he had “no comment.” Asked whether Paul Holzer was his brother, McLain also said he had “no comment.” McLain said he didn’t find the questions “relevant.”
Aside from McLain’s accidental participation, no one else tied up in the Draper Sterling-caused mess — Adkins, Hozer and the Trump campaign — has commented officially. As for Lewandowski, he’s probably still in nirvana.
(Via Mediaite and Huffington Post)