A fundraiser has been launched to support medical care for the young son of Douglass Mackey, the man who was prosecuted by the Biden-Harris administration for posting a meme during the 2016 presidential election.
The online campaign seeks to help pay for extensive treatments and therapies for Mackey’s 2-year-old son, Roy, who faces significant health challenges.
According to the fundraiser, Roy suffered a stroke in utero that caused a brain injury and likely resulted in cerebral palsy.
He is also undergoing genetic testing for what doctors believe may be Kabuki Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that can cause developmental delays, muscle weakness, and other medical complications.
“Simple skills that come naturally to other children take tremendous effort for Roy. Right now, Roy is working hard to learn how to eat food—he’s currently fed almost entirely by G-tube. He’s also working hard just to roll all the way over—a stepping stone that will eventually help him learn to crawl, sit, and walk. Every gain he makes requires countless hours of therapy, dedication, and support,” the fundraiser states.
The Mackey family is pursuing a wide range of treatments in the hope of improving Roy’s quality of life and long-term independence.
These treatments include stem cell intervention, which costs $15,000 plus approximately $2,000 for travel expenses; the “All Kids Are Perfect” intensive therapy program in North Carolina, costing around $16,000 including travel; and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which can cost several hundred dollars per session or $14,000 for a home chamber.
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The family is also seeking treatment with a specialist in New Orleans, which carries an additional estimated cost of $14,000.
“These are just the beginning of the expenses that Roy’s family is facing on their journey to give him the best chance at independence,” the campaign description adds.
As of Wednesday morning, the fundraiser had raised more than $33,000 to assist with Roy’s ongoing care.
My wife and I are blown away and deeply humbled by the massive outpouring of support.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. https://t.co/LVKHqPj6Ef
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) November 4, 2025
In a post shared Tuesday, Douglass Mackey provided an update on his son’s progress.
“Some progress this week in feeding therapy! Our little Roy is learning to drink water from a cup—slow and steady progress, but a big step forward! We are so proud of him. Thank you all for your support and for your prayers—we are extremely humbled and grateful for the massive outpouring of support for Roy these past few days!” he wrote.
Douglass Mackey, who gained national attention in 2023 after being convicted of election interference, was charged for a meme he posted in 2016 that joked Hillary Clinton supporters could vote by text message.
He was sentenced to seven months in prison, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals paused his sentence later that year while his appeal was under review.
In July 2025, the appeals court overturned his conviction and vacated the sentence, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove Mackey had engaged in a conspiracy.
The court wrote, “The mere fact that Mackey posted the memes, even assuming that he did so with the intent to injure other citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, is not enough, standing alone, to prove a violation of Section 241. The government was obligated to show that Mackey knowingly entered into an agreement with other people to pursue that objective.”
The court added that “the government failed to offer sufficient evidence that Mackey even viewed—let alone participated in—any of these exchanges. And in the absence of such evidence, the government’s remaining circumstantial evidence cannot alone establish Mackey’s knowing agreement. Accordingly, the jury’s verdict and the resulting judgment conviction must be set aside.”
Following the ruling, Mackey was cleared of the federal charges that stemmed from the meme.
Now, as the family turns its focus to Roy’s recovery, supporters across the country have rallied to contribute to the ongoing fundraiser, which continues to gain attention and donations online.
