AOC: To Each According to Her Merchandise Sales

She will never admit to it. But according to recently-released federal disclosures, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the wealthiest people in Congress.

And it’s easy to understand why; she completely dominates every other member of Congress when it comes to fundraising. In fact her total fundraising haul just in the first half of 2025 was a whopping $15.4 million (whereas most politicians are lucky to bring in a few hundred thousand).

So AOC is on pace for more than $30 million in total fundraising for 2025.

Some people might argue, “but that’s not AOC’s money. That money is donated to her political campaign.”

Come on. Let’s not be naive here, folks. Politics is business. Big business. And it’s a business that provides tremendous personal benefit to members of Congress.

Politicians often arrive to office nearly flat broke. During their tenure they have access to inside information that positions them for lucrative bets in real estate or the stock market… which is why the average Congressman’s net worth skyrockets during their time in office.

Then, whenever they do finally step down, they fall ass-back into highly lucrative board positions or six-figure speaking fees in the very same industries that they used to regulate.

And if you had a business that brought in $15.4 million in the first half of this year alone (with hardly any expenses, by the way), that would make you a pretty darn successful individual.

In short, at $30+ million (annualized), AOC is about as successful as a person can be. The fact that she doesn’t put the money directly in her pocket isn’t terribly relevant given that she has complete control over the funds and can direct them to maximize her long-term benefit.

The irony is that AOC even sells wildly overpriced merchandise— like a $27 “tax the rich”.

Most people would consider having complete discretion over $15.4 million to be pretty rich.

But AOC doesn’t pay any tax on that money. Her campaign doesn’t pay any tax on that money.

Even merchandise sales are tax-free to AOC and her political campaign— because merch purchases are considered ‘donations’ rather than commercial sales.

So clearly the ‘tax the rich’ mantra is for other people… not for AOC’s wildly successful merchandise business.

She also sells cheap plastic buttons with her face on it that say “People Before Profits”. They cost $10. I imagine such a handsome prices generates a very healthy profit for her campaign… at the expense of the people who buy them.

If she really wanted to put her money where her mouth is, she could donate 90% of that money to non-profits that focus on education or foreign aid… assuming that she truly cares about the defunding of the Department of Education or USAID.

Heck, she could just write a check to the Treasury Department if she actually thought giving the government more money would solve problems.

But instead the money just piles up in her campaign account.

The other irony is that AOC hails from one of the most Leftist districts in Congress. She doesn’t have to spend a single penny to win reelection.

She clearly doesn’t even need the money. Whatever happened to the old Marxist dictum “to each according to his needs” ?

She hates the wealthy and wants to decide how much everyone else ‘needs’ (and then set a wealth tax accordingly).

But for AOC, there’s never enough money. Despite her massive cash balance, she keeps putting on fundraisers to bring in more.

And one final point: these campaign donation systems are remarkably easy to manipulate.

Just out of curiosity, I visited AOC’s campaign website while using a foreign VPN, essentially mimicking as if I were visiting her site from a foreign country. I wanted to see if it would block me for appearing outside the US, since federal law prohibits foreign contributions.

It did not. Instead the site just let me browse, shop, and donate away like I was buying socks on Amazon.

So if you’re sitting in Beijing and feel like investing in the slow-motion destruction of core American values, you don’t need a spy balloon or even a team of hackers.

Chinese state-owned enterprises (like Bank of China) already have US banking licenses, not to mention authority from Visa and Mastercard to issue credit cards in the US.

Hypothetically, the Chinese Communist Party could just spin up some bots, drop thousands of micro-donations to AOC using bank-issued US credit cards, and voilà—another socialist politician rolling in cash and pushing policies that erode the very system that allowed them to get rich in the first place.

Source

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur and permanent traveler. His daily letter is both educational and entertaining, and we suggest that those who want unbiased, actionable information about global opportunities sign up for Sovereign Man’s free, actionable newsletter at http://www.SovereignMan.com.

From Simon Black of SovereignMan.com

Source: https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/aoc-to-each-according-to-her-merchandise-sales-153227/