Revealed: The Trump campaign NDA that volunteers must sign

Trump volunteers also sign away their rights to work for other candidates.

Joe Mullin – Mar 15, 2016 3:28 pm | 439

A photo of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is illuminated with flood lights, in a backyard in West Des Moines, Iowa. Credit: Tony Webster

Working a call center job is a rite of passage for many geeks; back in the day, our own Lee Hutchinson manned the lines as a contractor for computer manufacturer Gateway. The job was, naturally, soul crushing.

But what’s it like when you want to work the phones for a presidential candidate—say, Donald Trump?

We found out this week, when New Yorkers who e-mailed the Donald Trump campaign as volunteers were told to attend one of two “Call Center Training Sessions” at the Trump Tower in Manhattan. In fine print at the bottom, the volunteers were told they’d need to sign a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, to be part of the campaign.

Today, The Daily Dot published the key parts of that Trump NDA. It’s a broad gag order that says volunteers “promise and agree not to demean or disparage publicly” Trump, his family members, or his companies. The contract is apparently life-long, lasting for the “term of service and at all times thereafter.”

It’s hard to think of a contract more blatantly unconstitutional than a never-ending agreement to not disparage a political candidate, and impossible to imagine a judge enforcing a contract like this. In case anyone missed that point, Daily Dot reporter Patrick O’Neill spoke to employment lawyer Davida Perry about the contract. She described it as “really shocking,” adding, “I guess [Trump] doesn’t know about the First Amendment.”

The contract also bars volunteers from working for, or volunteering for, “any person that is a candidate or exploring candidacy for President of the United States other than Mr. Trump.”

Contracts that bar disparagement, disclosure, or competition are common in business deals but generally can’t be applied to uncompensated volunteers. (Some states, notably California, don’t allow most non-compete deals even in employment contracts.)

If that weren’t far-reaching enough, the contract actually goes on to tell volunteers what they can and can’t do in coming election cycles. If Trump becomes president, the contract purports to bar volunteers from working for competitors when he runs for re-election in 2020—or even 2024, when he would be termed out. And if Trump loses but wants to run again? His volunteers still won’t be allowed to work for another candidate, the contract states.

“The tight control of volunteers stands in stark contrast to not only American political-campaign norms but also Trump’s reputation for speaking his mind,” O’Neill writes.

NBC news reported on Friday that the Trump campaign had mentioned NDAs in its e-mails to volunteers, but no real details were available then. The contracts were shown to volunteers yesterday, which is when The Daily Dot read the contract and acquired photographs of it. The contract reads, in part:

2. No Disparagement. During the term of your service and at all times thereafter you hereby promise and agree not to demean or disparage publicly the Company, Mr. Trump, any Trump Company, any Family Member, or any Family Member Company or any asset any of the foregoing own, or product or service any of the foregoing offer, in each case by or in any of the Restricted Means and Contexts and to prevent your employees from doing so.

3. No Competitive Services. Until the Non-Compete Cutoff Date you promise and agree not to assist or counsel, directly or indirectly, for compensation or as a volunteer, any person that is a candidate or exploring candidacy for President of the United States other than Mr. Trump and to prevent your employees from doing so.

At Trump’s NYC headquarters, about two dozen volunteers showed up yesterday, gave their ID, submitted to a voluntary background check, and signed the contract.