Eric Trump campaign lunch contest laden with onerous fine print

On its official Facebook page, the Trump campaign is promoting a “Lunch with Eric Trump” contest promising one lucky winner an “all expense paid” round-trip to New York to have lunch with Eric Trump where the winner will “talk campaign strategy and Making America Great Again!”

But according to the fine print, not all expenses will be paid, contest winners are not purely selected at random and the “Sponsor” of the contest — the Trump Make America Great Again Committee — can change the contest rules at any time.

While the campaign will spring for “[r]ound-trip coach class airplane tickets for winner and one guest” as well as “[o]ne (1) night accommodations for winner and winner’s guest at a hotel to be designated by Sponsor,” the Trump campaign retains “sole discretion” over virtually all elements of the “Trip logistics and details,” according to the official rules.

“Except as expressly set forth in the description of the Trip above, each winner and his or her guest are responsible for ground transportation to and from the airports and hotel, all meals and all other expenses that such winner and his or her guest incur in connection with the Trip,” the rules state.

According to the official rules — accessible online at https://action.trump2016.com/lunch-with-trump-rules — eventual winner(s) selected will come from a pool of 50 potential winners selected on Sept. 1, who may be screened through a campaign-conducted background check. 

From there, the 50 semifinalists will be whittled to no more than “three (3) winners from the list of eligible potential winners on the basis of criteria determined and applied by Sponsor to provide for an appropriate range of views, backgrounds, and interests,” the rules state.

And while the Facebook ad promises that the winner will take a tour of Trump campaign headquarters in Trump Tower and have lunch with Eric Trump, the campaign reserves to “determine, in its sole discretion, the date, location, attendees, and all other relevant details of the Trip.”

Indeed, the campaign reserves the rights to change contest rules at any time, to be the sole and final interpreter of contest rules and “to suspend or cancel the Promotion or any entrant’s participation in the Promotion should viruses, bugs, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond Sponsor’s control affect the administration, security or proper play of the Promotion, or Sponsor otherwise becomes (as determined in its sole discretion) incapable of running the Promotion as planned.”

As the Daily Caller reported at the time, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had a similar “Dinner with Hillary” contest in July 2015 which was loaded with similar fine print, including stipulations about background checks and language about ensuring an “appropriate range of views, backgrounds, and interests” in the finalists selected.