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The Koch brothers are freezing out Donald Trump from their influential political operation — denying him access to their state-of-the-art data and refusing to let him speak to their gatherings of grass-roots activists or major donors. Continued stiff-arming by the powerful Koch network could limit Trump’s ability to build a professional campaign operation to mobilize supporters ahead of primaries and caucuses. The Koch operation has spurned entreaties from the Trump campaign to purchase state-of-the-art data and analytics services from a Koch-backed political tech firm called i360, and also turned down a request to allow Trump to speak at an annual grass-roots summit next month in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, POLITICO has learned.
Despite a long and cordial relationship between the real estate showman and David Koch, as well as a raft of former Koch operatives who are now running Trump’s presidential campaign, the Koch political operation appears to have concluded that Trump is the wrong standard-bearer for the GOP. And the network of Koch-backed policy and political outfits is using behind-the-scenes influence to challenge Trump more forcefully than the Republican Party establishment — by limiting his access to the support and data that would help him translate his lead in the polls into a sustainable White House campaign.
In addition, Trump was not invited to the annual summer gathering of the network of hundreds of conservative mega-donors and operatives helmed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. That’s despite the Trump campaign filling out a questionnaire detailing the candidate’s policy positions and submitting it to Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the Koch umbrella group organizing the summit. The three-day meeting in Orange County, California, will feature appearances from a handful of candidates whose politics reflect more closely the Kochs’ fiscally conservative worldview — including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker — and even long-shot Carly Fiorina. Rand Paul, who is also fondly regarded by some in the Koch operation, was invited, but he has not accepted and is unlikely to attend.
It’s unclear whether the Koch network intends to weigh in more directly against Trump, with the preferred approach seemingly being to allow him to flame out on his own. But if the network were to decide to mobilize against him, it could strain its efforts to remain above the GOP fray, while also testing its ability to shape the primary.
Read more: Donald Trump 2016 The Kochs freeze him out - POLITICO
It appears the Koch brothers have decided that Donald Trump is not the man who they want to see in the White House. But have they made a mistake? Trump doesn't need their formidable resources and winning a nomination will all but ruin their hopes of being political Godfathers not to mention the problem of having a president of the United States at serious odds with them.
The Koch brothers are freezing out Donald Trump from their influential political operation — denying him access to their state-of-the-art data and refusing to let him speak to their gatherings of grass-roots activists or major donors. Continued stiff-arming by the powerful Koch network could limit Trump’s ability to build a professional campaign operation to mobilize supporters ahead of primaries and caucuses. The Koch operation has spurned entreaties from the Trump campaign to purchase state-of-the-art data and analytics services from a Koch-backed political tech firm called i360, and also turned down a request to allow Trump to speak at an annual grass-roots summit next month in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, POLITICO has learned.
Despite a long and cordial relationship between the real estate showman and David Koch, as well as a raft of former Koch operatives who are now running Trump’s presidential campaign, the Koch political operation appears to have concluded that Trump is the wrong standard-bearer for the GOP. And the network of Koch-backed policy and political outfits is using behind-the-scenes influence to challenge Trump more forcefully than the Republican Party establishment — by limiting his access to the support and data that would help him translate his lead in the polls into a sustainable White House campaign.
In addition, Trump was not invited to the annual summer gathering of the network of hundreds of conservative mega-donors and operatives helmed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. That’s despite the Trump campaign filling out a questionnaire detailing the candidate’s policy positions and submitting it to Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the Koch umbrella group organizing the summit. The three-day meeting in Orange County, California, will feature appearances from a handful of candidates whose politics reflect more closely the Kochs’ fiscally conservative worldview — including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker — and even long-shot Carly Fiorina. Rand Paul, who is also fondly regarded by some in the Koch operation, was invited, but he has not accepted and is unlikely to attend.
It’s unclear whether the Koch network intends to weigh in more directly against Trump, with the preferred approach seemingly being to allow him to flame out on his own. But if the network were to decide to mobilize against him, it could strain its efforts to remain above the GOP fray, while also testing its ability to shape the primary.
Read more: Donald Trump 2016 The Kochs freeze him out - POLITICO
I dunno that they really encourage him to run as a third party. But, yes, the Kochs (and Adelson and Freeze) control the GOP. A candidate cannot veer from the anti-regulation of capital, pro-uberZionism and Christian fundamentalist ideology. And Jeb is toast with his moderate view of immigration reform. And Trump is theoretically a threat to all of that.
It appears the Koch brothers have decided that Donald Trump is not the man who they want to see in the White House. But have they made a mistake? Trump doesn't need their formidable resources and winning a nomination will all but ruin their hopes of being political Godfathers not to mention the problem of having a president of the United States at serious odds with them.
The Koch brothers are freezing out Donald Trump from their influential political operation — denying him access to their state-of-the-art data and refusing to let him speak to their gatherings of grass-roots activists or major donors. Continued stiff-arming by the powerful Koch network could limit Trump’s ability to build a professional campaign operation to mobilize supporters ahead of primaries and caucuses. The Koch operation has spurned entreaties from the Trump campaign to purchase state-of-the-art data and analytics services from a Koch-backed political tech firm called i360, and also turned down a request to allow Trump to speak at an annual grass-roots summit next month in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, POLITICO has learned.
Despite a long and cordial relationship between the real estate showman and David Koch, as well as a raft of former Koch operatives who are now running Trump’s presidential campaign, the Koch political operation appears to have concluded that Trump is the wrong standard-bearer for the GOP. And the network of Koch-backed policy and political outfits is using behind-the-scenes influence to challenge Trump more forcefully than the Republican Party establishment — by limiting his access to the support and data that would help him translate his lead in the polls into a sustainable White House campaign.
In addition, Trump was not invited to the annual summer gathering of the network of hundreds of conservative mega-donors and operatives helmed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. That’s despite the Trump campaign filling out a questionnaire detailing the candidate’s policy positions and submitting it to Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the Koch umbrella group organizing the summit. The three-day meeting in Orange County, California, will feature appearances from a handful of candidates whose politics reflect more closely the Kochs’ fiscally conservative worldview — including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker — and even long-shot Carly Fiorina. Rand Paul, who is also fondly regarded by some in the Koch operation, was invited, but he has not accepted and is unlikely to attend.
It’s unclear whether the Koch network intends to weigh in more directly against Trump, with the preferred approach seemingly being to allow him to flame out on his own. But if the network were to decide to mobilize against him, it could strain its efforts to remain above the GOP fray, while also testing its ability to shape the primary.
Read more: Donald Trump 2016 The Kochs freeze him out - POLITICO
I think the Koch brothers have done lots wrong, but trump isn't one of those things. The Donald will never be nominated.
So you want to join the ranks of those who'll look real stupid when he is.... ok....The Donald will never be nominated.
The GOP has just admitted that it is controlled by the Koch bros.
^ thatThe GOP has just admitted that it is controlled by the Koch bros.
And by dissing T-Rump they are almost certain to give him the motivation to run as a 3rd party candidate.
Which means that the GOP with lose in 2016 and the Koch's will have wasted another couple of billion without realizing their dream of destroying American by turning it into a Libertarian nightmare.
Sounds like a win-win for the Dems.
I dunno that they really encourage him to run as a third party. But, yes, the Kochs (and Adelson and Freeze) control the GOP. A candidate cannot veer from the anti-regulation of capital, pro-uberZionism and Christian fundamentalist ideology. And Jeb is toast with his moderate view of immigration reform. And Trump is theoretically a threat to all of that.
The Koch's aren't doing it directly but you have to understand the mentality of someone like T-Rump. He will take this personally and will seek revenge for being dissed. That is just the kind of person that he is and this is a really dumb move by the Koch's IMO.
So you want to join the ranks of those who'll look real stupid when he is.... ok....The Donald will never be nominated.
The GOP has just admitted that it is controlled by the Koch bros.
How so?
The GOP has just admitted that it is controlled by the Koch bros.
How so?
Per the OP:
"the Koch political operation appears to have concluded that Trump is the wrong standard-bearer for the GOP. "
Not one source attributed to anyone within the Koch Industry.
I dunno that they really encourage him to run as a third party. But, yes, the Kochs (and Adelson and Freeze) control the GOP. A candidate cannot veer from the anti-regulation of capital, pro-uberZionism and Christian fundamentalist ideology. And Jeb is toast with his moderate view of immigration reform. And Trump is theoretically a threat to all of that.
The Koch's aren't doing it directly but you have to understand the mentality of someone like T-Rump. He will take this personally and will seek revenge for being dissed. That is just the kind of person that he is and this is a really dumb move by the Koch's IMO.
I think you are mixing up "control" versus "influential"
The Koch Bros are both influential and supportive of the GOP. However, they are using that influence to help push Trump away from it, probably in partnership with the GOP leadership.
However, Trump does not have the personality to take this laying down.
The GOP has just admitted that it is controlled by the Koch bros.
How so?
Per the OP:
"the Koch political operation appears to have concluded that Trump is the wrong standard-bearer for the GOP. "
That's the Koch Bros' decision and their money to do with what they please, just like any other donor or PAC. How does that translate into the GOP admitting the Koch Bros allegedly control their party? I saw no such admission made by any member of the GOP anywhere.
,I dunno that they really encourage him to run as a third party. But, yes, the Kochs (and Adelson and Freeze) control the GOP. A candidate cannot veer from the anti-regulation of capital, pro-uberZionism and Christian fundamentalist ideology. And Jeb is toast with his moderate view of immigration reform. And Trump is theoretically a threat to all of that.
The Koch's aren't doing it directly but you have to understand the mentality of someone like T-Rump. He will take this personally and will seek revenge for being dissed. That is just the kind of person that he is and this is a really dumb move by the Koch's IMO.
I don't really disagree with you, but I think the issue is bigger than the Kochs, and why I think the Donald may be a good thing ... overall. After the debacle in 12, some within the GOP began to think .... ah maybe Citizens United wasn't so good FOR US after all. Foster-Freeze bankrolled Rick "theocracy" Santorum, and Adelman bankrolled Newt "I give my nuts for Israel to expand wherever it wants" Gingrich. Having them in the race beyond any chance of them winning, coupled with the tea party which the Kochs were still funding at the time, caused Romney to stake himself to a hill that Obama killed him on.
That is, some ten or so multi-billionaires who own a enough stock in corporations to control them used corporate dollars to push personal agendas, and deny funding to anyone who didn't swear fealty to their agendas. Trump is a threat to them.
And, somewhat conversely, Citizens United had sort of an opposite effect on the dems. They have their own billionaire donors, but they are actually hostile to Citizens United in that they'd be ok with the scotus limiting their power, and the dems have actually been pushed towards more progressive positions in terms of immigration and income inequality. Immigration is a weird issue, in that the Kochs and Mainstreet GOP acutally support amnesty, but it's become a bit of a social wedge issue with the old and angry white people.
