Trump Campaign Makes Volunteers Promise To Stop Their Employees Campaigning For Clinton

Volunteers for the Trump campaign who sign up online have to sign a long agreement that contains several worrying conditions. Volunteers must promise never to criticize Donald Trump, even when the campaign is over, and requires them to prevent their future employees from criticizing him, too. The information was brought to light by Rachel Sklar of CNN, who is also a lawyer.

Anyone who volunteers for the Trump campaign on the official website must agree to a document that contains more than 2,000 words. The volunteer must agree not to criticize any ‘Family Member Company’. This is defined as any organisation even partly set up by a member of the Trump family or for their benefit. This has drawn criticism for being extremely broad.

The agreement also contains a clause that requires volunteers never to disparage Trump ‘during the term of your service and at all times thereafter’. This essentially means volunteers agree not to criticize Trump for the rest of their lives. The same clause says that volunteers agree ‘to prevent your employees from doing so’. This is not only impractical, it is very likely illegal.

Further, the agreement makes volunteers promise that they will prevent their employees from volunteering for any other presidential candidate. That is almost certainly illegal. Coercing employees not to participate in the political process is illegal.

The agreement goes far beyond ‘non-disclosure’. It requires Trump volunteers to refrain from disparaging Trump and his family for the rest of the volunteers’ lives. It says that volunteers must keep secret anything that Trump decides should be private, including the candidate’s taxes.