am first policy inst afpi

---

SEE ROLLINS BROOK AFPI = TWO

yikes primary 10 24 gotv

NO MERRI

SEE MEADOWS DHS GRIFT

SEE AM 1ST WORKS // ACTION C4 SHUFFLE --> $ HERIT ACTION --> 2025

SEE VOTER SUPPRESS ~ 2026 FLYNN CONF ELECTION INTEGRITY

GROUND GAME GOTV?

KUDLOW FOUNDER DUNN FUNDER MOORE

SEE CHAD WOLF DHS NOEM

trump funds 1 m$

similar names? plural? rebrand? find EIN?

see gidley vote ref db

note grift dark$ xian

SEE XIAN NATL THEOCRACY

see wallnau roadshow

BERNHARDT

ZELDIN?

see pension bench strength

MAROCCO ~ USAID

intern = incub

BAK 1 25

---

-=-=

DOGEBAG CENSUS FUCKERY

QUESTIONS CHANGED TO GET RID OF STATS

RWW

9 26

Vittoria Elliott and David Gilbert @ Wired: A US Census Report on Noncitizen Voting Used Bad Data to Reach Faulty Conclusions

Trump has touted a recent Census report. WIRED found grave flaws in its analysis and the process behind it, and confirmed the identity of several of its authors—among them a one-time DOGE affiliate.

RWW -->

A reportpublished by the US Census Bureau last month purported to uncover evidence backing up President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that noncitizens voting cost him the 2020 election. It was the latest salvo in Trump’s broader assault on the safety of US elections. “I WON THE ELECTION,” Trump quickly declared on Truth Social after the publication of the report.

However, though Trump and other government officials quickly shared and praised the report, a WIRED investigation has uncovered significant flaws in the data used to compile the report, as well as in the approval process used prior to publication. WIRED has also learned that a number of the report’s authors have links to the Trump administration and the Republican party. They include one former affiliate of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and two researchers from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a highly influential think tank founded by veterans of Trump’s first administration.

The report, titled “Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election: A Beginning Analysis,” claims that an analysis of over 128 million voter records from the 2020 election identified 24,000 people tied to administrative records indicating noncitizen status. The numbers range from 4,300 in California to fewer than 15 in Wyoming—not nearly enough to have affected the outcome of the presidential race. But even these figures seem extremely questionable, and experts and Census Bureau employees who spoke to WIRED allege it is much likelier that they represent basic analytical errors than actual instances of noncitizen voting.

The Census Bureau did not respond to a request for comment. The White House directed WIRED to President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s post on X, where both officials praised the report.

The number of noncitizens voting in US elections has been repeatedly shown to be vanishingly small. In Utah, for example, the state’s top election official, Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, reviewed the state’s approximately 2.1 million registered voters. The result was the discovery of 27 “confirmed noncitizens,” none of whom was ever confirmed to have voted. Studies in Pennsylvania and Idaho have returned similar outcomes. Still, the idea that a flood of noncitizens have been voting in US elections for over a decade, skewing the outcomes, has remained one of the central conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and his allies.

John Abowd, former associate director for research and methodology and chief scientist at the Census Bureau, called the Census report “statistical nonsense” and wrote on LinkedIn that “it is extremely uncommon for the US Census Bureau to publish a research report, even one of blog length, without the authors explicitly listed.”

Census Bureau sources who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity could not say what prompted the report. Records reviewed by WIRED, though, show it originated at the Center for Economic Studies, a division within the Census Bureau that uses confidential data to conduct research.

According to those records, one of the authors was Dan Sweeney, currently a deputy general counsel at the Department of Commerce overseeing the Census Bureau. He previously worked as the “DOGE legal liaison and deregulatory attorney” at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to his LinkedIn profile. Michael Lachanski was also an author, according to two sources with knowledge of the report’s origins, and he was appointed to his current role as the deputy director for data, policy, and science at the Census Bureau just two months ago. Previously, he was a fellow at the Trump-aligned Claremont Institute.

_{ Claremont InstituteThe Claremont Institute}_4,439 followers4,439 followers11mo • 11 months ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

Please join us in welcoming Michael Lachanski, our newest 2025 Speechwriter Fellow.

Michael Lachanski is a doctoral candidate at the Penn Population Studies Center, where he focuses on using data science to improve empirical social science and public policy. He is especially interested in applied statistics, demography, and labor economics.

Michael holds an M.P.A. and A.B. in Economics from Princeton University.

The two America First staffers involved in authoring the report, according to records reviewed by WIRED, were Matthew Jensen and Jeff McCrea. McCrea previously served as campaign manager for former congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, who has expressed a belief in creationism and signed an amicus brief contesting the 2020 election results. Jensen previously worked for the American Enterprise Institute, where, according to his bio on the America First Policy Institute website, “contributed to the design of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” the tax law passed during the first Trump administration.

Sweeney, Lachanski, Jensen, and McCrea did not respond to requests for comment.

INSERT

-=-=

9 26 WIRED MAG CENSUS FUCKERY

Jeff McCrea is from Seattle, Washington, and serves as an Engineer with AFPI’s Office for Fiscal and Regulatory Analysis. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science and Software Engineering from the University of Washington and has published research on applying reinforcement learning to large-scale distributed graph computing.

Before joining AFPI, Jeff served as Campaign Manager for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, held a range of roles across the technology sector, and ran a small IT consultancy delivering personalized IT and software solutions. Outside of work, he enjoys hiking, trying to improve his golf game, and restoring classic cars.

Matthew Jensen is from Bloomington, Indiana and serves as the Executive Director, Office for Fiscal and Regulatory Analysis and in the Center for American Prosperity at AFPI. For over a decade, he has contributed to building budgetary and economic modeling facilities that are used extensively by US policymakers and those in numerous states and countries around the world. He was the Founding Director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Open Source Policy Center and co-creator of projects and organizations including the Policy Simulation Library and Open Research Group. His work in these roles contributed to the design of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and major pandemic fiscal responses in the US and elsewhere, among other policy achievements. Beyond scorekeeping, he has experience in government information security and Internal Revenue Service oversight in addition to private sector experience in technology product development. Jensen and his wife live in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey with their two boys.

PAXTON https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22O155/163550/20201211132250339_Texas%20v.%20Pennsylvania%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20126%20Representatives%20--%20corrected.pdf

ENDIT

Sources who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity confirmed that Jensen and McCrea are working in government on loan from America First through what is known as the Intergovernment Personnel Act. The IPA is meant to allow people with specialized skill sets from certain institutions, like nonprofits and universities, to work for the government for up to two years on a temporary appointment.

Danah Boyd, a professor at Cornell University who studies the census, says that the Bureau has long used IPAs for scientific work. “But they do what the civil servants require them to do, not what the political [appointees] require them to do.”

Boyd says that the group of people who records indicate authored the noncitizen voting report appear to be of a different stripe. “These ultimately appear to be people coming from a Republican operation that’s pretending to be a 501c3,” she says. “Rather than doing the work for the agency, it appears they’re doing work in political interest.” The AFPI did not respond to a request for comment.

The report was approved by the Census Bureau’s disclosure review board on August 7 through an email vote, which is typically used for publications with tight deadlines or in response to demands from Congress or the White House. The members of the review board who approved the report were shown the three tables contained in the final publication, but not the analysis that accompanied them, according to one source within the bureau who had access to the materials submitted to the review board.

The report concludes that the author’s analysis “readily determined with high confidence that over 128 million of these voter records represented citizens, and that over 24,000 of these voter records represented noncitizens at the time of the election. Over 32 million voter records remain to be analyzed.”

According to documents viewed by WIRED, the authors used data from the DataClear 2020 voting file—a commercial dataset—as well as USCIS immigration records (both the 2025 extract and the February 2026 A-number and case files); USCIS DACA approvals from 2025; State Department immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for 2017 through 2023; ICE student, removal, and national-docket records; IRS form 1040 for 2020; Social Security Numident (2019 and 2020); and State Department passport issuances across 50 vintages from 1978 through 2025.

Former Census officials say the breadth of data used, as well as the lack of clear explanation of the methodology employed to analyze it, raises significant red flags.

“We don't know whether or how the sources are updating their citizenship info,” Amy O’Hara, a former official who used to run the administrative data linkage unit at Census, tells WIRED. “It is really hard to join and deduplicate these files, especially across a range of years.”

In order to match people between surveys and records without revealing their identities, the Census Bureau uses what are known as Protected Identification Keys (PIKs), which replace identifying information with a unique code. Sources who spoke to WIRED say that they are unsure which data points were used to match PIK data across the many datasets, though something like an address could be used for cross-referencing.

Though PIKs have been used for years to allow academics and government employees to conduct studies without compromising the privacy of the people whose data it is, they are not foolproof. A January 2026 study published by the Census earlier this year found that “while PIK assignment is generally accurate, some person records are not successfully assigned a PIK, which can lead to sample selection bias in analyses of linked data.”

“The brief says ‘high confidence,’ which indicates some probability,” one bureau source who spoke on the condition of anonymity over fears of retribution by the administration, tells WIRED. “However, no confidence intervals in the tables of the brief are shown. The supposed count of non-voters is small relative to the total state population.” The source alleges that there are probably PIK errors and not actual noncitizens who voted.

Abowd says that false match rates—in this case, when a voting record is assigned the wrong PIK, and then when it is “matched” with citizenship data–are likely to be higher when using commercial data like those used in the report. This means that the analysis is more likely to return a “false positive” showing that a noncitizen had voted. “You can’t estimate the false positive rate without more technical details” that were not included in the report, Abowd tells WIRED. “Because the false match rate is much greater than the estimated noncitizen voting rate, the alleged noncitizen voters are more likely to be data errors.”

All of this, Boyd worries, could undermine more than just trust in voting and elections—it could make academics and researchers doubt the quality and reliability of the products and data that the Census Bureau produces. “They're putting it out with the imprimatur of the Census Bureau so it looks legitimate,” she says. “But there’s no authors, no methods, no discussions of the limitations of the data, or the Bureau's approach.”

Republicans have already attacked the accuracy of the 2020 census, alleging that an algorithmic process used by the Bureau to protect data privacy had disproportionately favored Democrats in terms of the drawing of congressional districts. In August, WIRED reported that an internal memo circulated by the Department of Commerce, which oversees the Census Bureau, proposed excluding immigrants from the count, a move that could radically reshape how congressional districts are apportioned.

The report is also just one part of a broad attack on the integrity of American elections by the Trump administration, which includes weaponizing the Department of Justice, dismantling voter protections, attempting to wrest control of election administration from states, and pushing an endless barrage of baseless conspiracy theories about voting in America.

---

chosun korea

Exclusive: U.S. Energy Secretary Calls Nuclear Leadership Loss to Russia, China 'Madness'

Wright criticizes climate policies, promotes fossil fuels and nuclear revival at AFPI event, opposes COP 30 and IMO rules

By Kim Eun-joong

Published 2025.10.23. 04:59Updated 2025.10.23. 13:38

note bkdrop:

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright (left) speaks at the 'Global Energy Summit' held in Washington DC on the 22nd. Right is Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. /Courtesy of Kim Eun-jung

“They talk about carbon emissions as if they were an existential threat to the planet, but there’s no data to support that. In Denver, Colorado, where I grew up, people used to say the environment was being destroyed due to population growth and economic expansion, but the air is incredibly clean now. Moose and bears, which I never saw as a child, are everywhere in nature. Even our allies privately agree when I say this, though they find it hard to speak openly.”

Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy, made these remarks at an event in a Washington, D.C. hotel on the 22nd, drawing a standing ovation. The event was hosted by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a prominent think tank in the MAGA (Make America Great Again) faction loyal to U.S. President Donald Trump. Attendees included Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources and a key Trump supporter; Chris Wright; Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture; John A. Husted, Republican senator representing Vice President J.D. Vance’s Ohio district; Rep. Ashley Hinson; and Luke Lindberg, Undersecretary of Agriculture. They emphasized the importance of “America First” energy policies.

The Trump administration’s energy policy, encapsulated in the slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill,” prioritizes maximizing fossil fuel development and use. While critical of renewables like wind and solar, it views nuclear power as vital for stable electricity supply in the AI era. Wright stated, “People say I only support oil and gas, but our government is making significant efforts to revive America’s nuclear industry. Nuclear is a fascinating energy source that can be reliably used 24/7, regardless of wind or sunlight.” He added, “Recently, all global reactors have been built by China and Russia. Handing leadership to such countries is madness.” Wright vowed to make the U.S. a leader in nuclear technology, highlighting progress in nuclear recycling and commercial fusion.

The U.S. also hinted at pressuring allies and partners on energy policies. Wright announced he would skip the COP 30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, next month, calling climate change a “hoax” and noting that other delegations privately agree. The U.S. recently blocked International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations on ship carbon emissions. Wright praised Trump, saying, “We have the world’s biggest megaphone,” and revealed contacting over 20 countries to oppose the rules. He called it a “critical moment” against “climate nonsense.” Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, criticized net-zero targets as “crazy,” stating, “Bioethanol is impossible without American farmers. We are now the world’s energy hegemon.” She quoted Trump calling net-zero a “stupid idea harmful to Americans” and suggesting military enforcement if needed.

Rollins also shared Trump’s trade negotiation style: “The president personally calls leaders to finalize deals. We’ve secured dozens of agreements, including major ones with the EU and Japan, which no one thought possible.” Regarding the UK, she noted, “Trump called Prime Minister Kier Starmer at 3 p.m. on a Sunday, saying, ‘I don’t care about dates.’ Starmer was watching soccer with his family. The president effectively closed the deal, achieving what was once deemed impossible for U.S. farmers.” However, Rollins made no mention of South Korea.

Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources and a long-time supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as a major figure in the conservative camp (left), speaks at the 'Global Energy Summit' on the 22nd. Right is Carla Sands, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Denmark during Trump's first administration. /Courtesy of Kim Eun-jung

Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, stated, “To drive AI innovation and change the world, energy is essential. We must take pride in America’s energy sector and promote its global benefits.” Hamm, born to a sharecropper and now an energy tycoon, is a major conservative influencer. His company previously partnered with SK E&S on shale gas projects. Trump once called Hamm “the man who taught me everything about oil.” Hamm urged expanding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to prepare for emergencies like disasters or wars, warning of potential Chinese exploitation. While praising energy department leaders, he emphasized, “We still have much to do. We must create change every day.”

---

Right-wing media rally behind Trump’s efforts to trigger regime change in Cuba

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published 02/06/26

After right-wing media pushed for and then celebrated the Trump administration’s ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and seizure of the country’s oil supplies last month, they quickly pivoted to the administration’s reported efforts to overthrow Cuba’s government, which for now primarily involves starving the island of oil.

## The Trump administration is working to cut off oil supplies to Cuba, seeking regime change

- President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on imports from countries that provide oil to Cuba. The Guardian reported that an executive order from Trump, “which ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple the communist government, declares a national emergency and establishes a process for the US secretaries of state and commerce to assess tariffs against countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to the island nation. The White House has yet to specify tariff rates for violating its new policy of blocking Cuba from buying oil.” The Guardian, [1/29/26]

- Mexico announced a pause on oil shipments to Cuba amid reported pressure from the Trump administration. According to The Associated Press, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the decision to pause oil shipments to Cuba “was a ‘sovereign decision’ not made under pressure from the United States,” but it came amid overt Trump administration efforts to isolate the Cuban government and amid threats from Trump to “take military action against Mexican drug cartels.” The Associated Press, [1/27/26]

- Politico: “Trump administration weighs naval blockade to halt Cuban oil imports.” Politico reported: “The Trump administration is weighing new tactics to drive regime change in Cuba, including imposing a total blockade on oil imports to the Caribbean country, three people familiar with the plan said Thursday.” Politico, [1/23/26]

- Trump has said Cuba is “ready to fall” and threatened Cuba to “make a deal, before it is too late.” BBC, [1/11/26]

- Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. Is Actively Seeking Regime Change in Cuba by the End of the Year.” The Wall Street Journal reported: “Emboldened by the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year.” The article continued: “In meetings with Cuban exiles and civic groups in Miami and Washington, administration officials have focused on identifying somebody inside the current government who will see the writing on the wall and want to cut a deal.” The Wall Street Journal, [1/22/26]

## Right-wing media rally behind the Trump administration’s tactic of starving Cuba of oil and its goal of overthrowing the Cuban government

- Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald on an oil embargo against Cuba: “This is Trump getting communism out of the western hemisphere.” MacDonald asked her guest, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), “Do you see ... Cuba collapsing [as] a 2026 event?” Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [1/26/26]

- Heritage Foundation's Victoria Coates on Fox Business: Cuba is a “proximate threat to the United States. It's been a deadly enemy of the United States for more than 60 years. It would be great to see positive change in Cuba.” Coates continued: “I think we could see that through economic means through this oil embargo. … We have the extraordinary diaspora in the United States starting with the secretary of state, who are prepared to help Cuba in a very positive transition to become a friend of the United States.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [1/28/26]

- America First Policy Institute's Fred Fleitz on Newsmax: “I love Rubio's answer to this. When he was asked, do you favor regime change in Cuba? And he said, yes.” Another guest, former deputy assistant secretary of state Joel Rubin added, “I think the Cuban regime has to go, clearly.” Newsmax, *American Agenda*, [1/28/26]

- Fox Business anchor David Asman: “Let’s hope, let’s pray that the communist system” in Cuba “comes to an end as a result of not having oil.” Asman continued: “I say the same prayers about Nicaragua.” Fox Business, *The Big Money Show*, [1/30/26]

- America First Policy Institute’s Carla Sands on Fox Business: “What we're doing is by strangling the energy, we're not allowing Mexico to send energy, we've stopped the Venezuelan energy. I think for the first time in my lifetime there will be regime change” in Cuba. Sands continued: “And I'm sure that the United States has someone in their sights within Cuba, or in the Cuban community in the United States, because they will have to seize power, and then they're going to need a lot of investment to — I mean, to bring Cuba into the 21st century, it's still in the mid 20th century, sadly, for these people, because of communism.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [1/30/26]

- Coates on Fox Business: Letting the Cuban government survive the collapse of the Soviet Union was “a mistake we can’t afford to make again.” Coates added that blockading oil from the island is necessary “to get to the change that everybody, I think, who’s reasonable, wants to see in Cuba.” Fox Business, *The Bottom Line*, [1/30/26]

- Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo to Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL): “Is the Cuban regime entering its final chapter?” Salazar replied: “Thank God for that.” Fox Business, *Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street*, [1/30/26]

- Newsmax guest Antonio Mora: “Few things would make me happier than the collapse of this malignant cancer that has been the Communist Party-dominated regime in Cuba for the last 67 years.”Newsmax, *Saturday Agenda*, [1/31/26]

- Heritage Foundation’s Andrés Martínez-Fernández: It’s a “perfect moment for an opening to be created for a restoration of stability and democracy” in Cuba. Newsmax, *Saturday Agenda*, [1/31/26]

- Coates on Newsmax: “Getting Cuba into a better condition is a great strategic gain.” Coates added that Cuba “is a very proximate threat to us.” Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [2/2/26]

- Fox senior strategic analyst Jack Keane on Cuba: “I think the president's team is moving in the right direction here. Pressure this regime, maximum pressure.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [2/3/26]

- Newsmax guest Tony Shaffer on Trump’s actions against Cuba: “Just sit back and get some popcorn and watch the expatriates get their boats ready to go from Key West into Havana.” Shaffer added that Trump should “just continue to allow their own economy to fail” from an oil embargo. Newsmax, *Wake Up America Early*, [2/3/26]

- Heritage Foundation’s Brent Sadler: “This is not the time to relent on the economic and certainly the military pressure” on Cuba. Sadler added: “So, pressure, much like Iran, the pressure needs to be sustained. The United States has both these terroristic regimes right in the place that we want them, a very weakened one, to get the most out of negotiations, preferably. But this is also a moment in time where the people in both Cuba and Iran can actually seize their own countries back.” Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [2/3/26]

- Fox Business host Stuart Varney to Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) on Cuban regime change: “When you say push it over, how do we push it over?”Gimenez replied: “I think right now what the president's doing is the right thing. He is basically taking away all the economic benefits that it gets from free oil from Venezuela. They also get free oil from Mexico. He's making sure that they're not going to get free oil from Colombia. I want some more harsher measures against Cuba.” He continued: “And that regime is a cancer, a cancer to the Cuban people, a cancer to the western hemisphere. We need some harsh medicine to cure the patient, Cuba, so that we can get rid of this cancer which is the communist regime that has basically oppressed its own people for over 65 years, and has exported its revolution to the western hemisphere. So they've been a real thorn in our side for a long time, and I'm very glad that the president is taking decisive action.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [_{2/3/26}_]

MMA //

### Trump delivered on right-wing media’s desire for regime change in Venezuela over oil

01/06/26

### Greenland, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, and more: After Maduro’s capture, right-wing media encourage escalating US involvement around the globe

01/07/26

### Fox Noticias host suggests military buildup in the Caribbean could lead to toppling of Cuba's government

12/11/25

---

OMFG

Washington D.C.—Today, AFPI Executive Vice President andformer Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt released the following statement regarding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin’s July 29, 2025, announcement of a proposed rule to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding:

“Under the decisive leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the Left’s bureaucratic overreach is finally being rolled back. The effort to dismantle the Obama-era Endangerment Finding, a cornerstone of the radical climate agenda, has advanced. For over a decade, it has been the lynchpin for $1 trillion in crushing greenhouse gas regulations that have been weaponized against the American public. Unelected bureaucrats have imposed top-down mandates on light, medium and heavy-duty on-highway vehicles, harming consumers, small businesses, and rural communities.

If finalized, this proposal would strike at the heart of the regulatory regime. It will deliver more than $54 billion in savings annually, gutting costly mandates.

This is a victory for American jobs and will reclaim our economy from the grip of bureaucracy and regulation. America is on offense.”

---

AN 12 25

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a pro-Donald Trump think tank run by his former chief of staff, helped secure a $1 billion Department of Homeland Security contract tied to new planes for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Noem has already spent $200 million on a pair of luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for her team during a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the fast-tracked contract is closely linked to AFPI’s top donor. That donor, William Walters, runs the company that received a separate $140 million Noem-approved contract to buy six Boeing 737 planes for use in deportations, as the Post reported last week.

Under the larger deal, AFPI is set to oversee “Project Homecoming,” which will deport people the administration deems unlawfully present to their home countries or to third countries.

"The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls 'self-deportation,'" the report explained.

"The larger contract involves a DHS program called Project Homecoming that offers cash bonuses, free flights and a 'concierge service' at airports for departing migrants," the report said. "The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls “self-deportation.”

DHS claimed that the nonpartisan federal officials ensure the legitimacy of contracting decisions. Indeed, they do, but not in this case. The Post obtained emails exposing that it was the political appointees who chose the Meadows outfit for the $1 billion contract.

The main contract went to an Arlington-based firm, Salus Worldwide Solutions, incorporated in 2023, which advertises expertise in coordinating international travel, disaster relief, and security facilities. It has never previously held a federal contract, but documents show Walters, its CEO, is a major donor to AFPI.

DHS promoted its self-deportation program with various reels, including a vintage messagetrying to make it sound like self-deportation could earn them money.

Read the full report here.

DHS fast-tracked $1 billion contract to pro-Trump donor’s company

A DHS official leading the process previously worked at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump nonprofit where the contractor’s CEO was a donor.

December 17, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. ESTToday at 6:00 a.m. EST

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem in the Oval Office in October. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

By Isaac Arnsdorf

The Department of Homeland Security fast-tracked a contract worth almost $1 billion to a company led by a donor to a pro-Trump nonprofit group where one of the officials overseeing the deal previously worked, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.

...

---

CNBC

Politics

Trump-allied dark money group joins forces with a think tank run by ex-president’s former aides

:{Published Mon, Nov 22 20211:48 PM ESTUpdated Mon:{, Nov 22 2021 }:

Brian Schwartz @schwartzbCNBC

Key Points

America First Works, a dark money group that once promoted former President Trump’s policies, is joining forces with a think tank headed in part by former key members of his administration.

The think tank, America First Policy Institute, is led in part by former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow and former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon.

The collaboration comes as Trump considers running for the White House again in 2024. They could provide another platform for Trump and his allies to keep his “America First” agenda in the spotlight.

America First Works is permitted by law to engage in some partisan politics. America First Policy Institute claims to be nonpartisan.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at his first post-presidency campaign rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington, Ohio, U.S., June 26, 2021.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

A dark money group that once promoted former President Donald Trump’s policies is joining forces with a think tank headed in part by former key members of his administration, including Larry Kudlow and Linda McMahon.

America First Works launched after Trump’s 2016 victory and was previously known as America First Policies. It was reformed and changed its name after Trump lost his bid for reelection.

Now the group is working directly with another freshly formed nonprofit organization, think tank America First Policy Institute, according to Ashley Hayek, a Trump campaign veteran who has a leadership role at America First Works and is also chief engagement officer for the think tank.

Other leaders at the AFPI think tank include:

CEO Brooke Rollins, who was once the director of domestic policy in Trump’s White House

Board chair McMahon, a former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who served as Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration

Board vice chair Kudlow, who was director of the National Economic Council under Trump

Neither America First Works nor America First Policy Institute is required by law to publicly disclose their donors. America First Works has given money to a group that claimed to have helped write Georgia’s voting law and another organization that is pushing to amend the Constitution to further impose limits on the federal government’s powers.

The groups’ collaboration comes as Trump considers running for the White House again in 2024. They could provide another platform for Trump and his allies to keep his “America First” agenda in the spotlight. Members of the think tank have been moving ahead with publicly promoting these pro-Trump policies through op-eds, interviews and pre-recorded videos.

watch now

VIDEO00:33

House January 6 panel issues more subpoenas

While it’s unclear how much cash AFPI has on hand, Axios reported that it has a first year budget of $20 million. It was launched earlier this year. America First Works finished 2020 with just over $7 million in assets, according to their annual 990 tax filing.

America First Works is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which by law can engage in some partisan politics, while America First Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which by law should be nonpartisan. The group claims on its website that it is nonpartisan despite being aligned with the former president.

Hayek told CNBC that America First Works was formed “as a new organization to work closely with AFPI” and as “an extension of AFPI, it is entirely focused on advancing policy at all levels of government, including to promote economic opportunity, school choice, affordable healthcare, foster care reform, election integrity, and criminal justice reform.”

A growing influence network

Almost half of the nearly $40 million in grants from America First Works last year went to its affiliated super PAC, America First Action, according to AFW’s most recent 990 filing. America First Works also donated to other conservative organizations that continue to wield influence across the country. The filing was first reported on by the Center for Public Integrity.

Previous tax records show that America First Works, formerly known as America First Policies, never doled out this much cash in one year. The 990 form shows that as of the end of 2020, it was also chaired by McMahon. Longtime Republican operative Brian O. Walsh is listed as the president of the group.

The nonprofit also had a record fundraising year, raking in just over $50 million, with the form listing top individual donations of $5 million. Just like other dark money groups, America First Works is not required to publicly disclose the names of their donors. MapLight reported that previous corporate donors to America First Policies included utilities firm Southern Company, CVS Health and Dow Chemical.

Last year, America First Works donated $994,000 to Heritage Action, a conservative group that works to counter policies often aligned with the Democratic Party.

Heritage Action has also claimed credit for helping create voting laws that advocates say limit access to the ballot box. Mother Jones obtained a video showing Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, speaking to donors about how the group helped craft such laws in Georgia and other states.

“In some cases, we actually draft them for them, or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe,” Anderson is seen saying on the recording.

Heritage Action’s website takes aim at the “For the People Act,” also known as H.R. 1, which was introduced by Democrats and passed in the House. Democrats say the legislation would help people have better access to the ballot box. It is unlikely to pass in the Senate since Democrats do not have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. The site features a script for anyone interested in volunteering to call up their House or Senate representative to push back against the Democratic bill.

America First Works also gave $250,000 to a group called the Convention of States Action, which has been pushing state lawmakers to bring together a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit the government’s powers.

“Washington, D.C., is broken. The federal government is spending this country into the ground, seizing power from the states and taking liberty from the people. It’s time for we the people to take a stand against tyranny with a coordinated, nationwide effort to curb the unrestrained and growing power of the federal government,” Convention of States Action’s pocket guide says. The group’s website says that over a dozen states have passed Convention of State resolutions that could lead to an Article V convention.

The New American Populist, a nonprofit group that claims to want to “empower citizens and encourage greater involvement in the government process,” received just over $1 million from America First Works in 2020.

Jeff Webb, the group’s president, has also funded two Republican super PACs, including one with an identical name as the nonprofit he runs, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Webb is the founder of cheerleading company Varsity Spirit and is the president of the International Cheer Union.

Webb, of Tennessee, has ties to Trump ally Charlie Kirk and his own organization, Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that tries to promote conservative voices on high school and college campuses.

Webb was a speaker at Turning Point’s Student Action Summit earlier this year. His speech took aim at progressives, saying they want to alter capitalism.

“The left’s real goal is to reshape American capitalism. To move us to a more socialist model. One where the American economic engine runs more like a European system. They do so in the name of equity,” Webb told the crowd at the time.

Webb joined Kirk on the Turning Point USA’s podcast in March to discuss, among other things, how populism is gaining power in the Republican Party post Trump’s loss.

“I think there’s no doubt that the populist movement within the party is winning. And it’s irreversible,” Webb said then.

---

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The Honorable Larry Kudlow

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Co-Chair, American Security

[### The Honorable Larry Kudlow

Vice Chair of the Board and Chair, American Prosperity](https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/team/larrykudlow)### The Honorable Chad Wolf Chair, Homeland Security & Immigration ### The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell Chair, Election Integrity ### Jack Brewer Chair, Opportunity Now and Vice Chair, 1776 ### Norm Champ Chair, Financial Freedom Initiative ### Kellyanne Conway Chair, American Child ### Erika Donalds Chair of Education Opportunity and Chair of the AFPI-Florida State Chapter ### Michael John Donohue Chair of AFPI-New Jersey ### The Honorable Michael Faulkender Co-Chair, American Prosperity ### The Honorable Fred Fleitz Vice Chair, American Security ### Riley Gaines Vice Chair, America First Athletes Coalition ### Mike Garcia Chairman, America First California ### Hogan Gidley Vice Chair, Election Integrity & Senior Advisor for Communications ### Lou Holtz Chair, 1776 ### The Honorable Bobby Jindal Chair, Healthy America ### Dr. Alveda King Chair, American Dream ### Richard Lawson Vice Chair, Litigation ### The Honorable Robert Lighthizer Chair, American Trade ### Jondavid “JD” Longo Chair, America First Pennsylvania ### Oliver McPherson-Smith,Ph.D Vice Chair, Energy & Environment ### Christie Mullin Chair of Rural Policy ### Frank D. Murphy Chair, Athletes for America Coalition & Director of Community Impact ### Dr. Richard Rogers Vice Chair, American Values ### Ambassador Carla Sands Chair, Foreign Policy Initiative & Senior Fellow for Energy Policy ### Stacey Schieffelin Chair, America First Women's Initiative and Senior Advisor, American Worker ### Michael Shires Vice Chair of Education Opportunity ### Scott Singer Chair, America First Mayor’s Council & Fellow, Economy and Trade ### Brett Tolman Chair, American Justice ### Kip Tom Vice Chair of Rural Policy ### Bob Unanue AFPI Board Member and Hispanic Leadership Coalition Chair ### The Honorable Robert Wilkie Co-Chair, American Security

Dr. Ge Bai

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

Dr. Richard Valentine Burkhauser

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

Dr. Jeffrey Campbell

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

Dr. Ben Judge

Chair, Academic Board of Advisors

Dr. Casey Mulligan

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

Dr. Lee Ohanian

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

Dr. Kiron K. Skinner

Member, Board of Academic Advisors

---}:

an 11 25

no lnx

Trump ally's claim about 'left-wing violence' just doesn't add up

Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf testifies in the Senate. Picture: Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Jordan GreenNovember 02, 2025 |

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf’s appearance before a Senate hearing on political violence this week resurfaced inconvenient remarks for a witness called by Republicans intent on painting rising political violence as a left-wing problem.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) read back Wolf’s Senate testimony from five years ago.

“White supremacist extremists, from a lethality standpoint over the last two years … are certainly the most persistent and lethal threat, when we talk about domestic violent extremists,” Wolf said at the time.

On Tuesday, before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Wolff offered a strikingly different assessment.

“The increase in politically motivated violence over the last several years has been driven largely by radical, left-wing extremist groups and individuals that believe violence is a legitimate means to achieve political goals,” Wolf testified.

Wolf is now executive vice president of the America First Policy Institute. Founded in 2021 and closely aligned with Trump, former leaders include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a statement to Raw Story, Wolf did not disavow his 2020 assessment on white supremacist violence, but said: “America has experienced a historic rise in left-wing violence, especially following President Trump’s second election victory.”

At the time of Wolf’s September 2020 hearing, the U.S. had experienced a series of mass shootings by white supremacists, including Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people, mostly Latinos, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019, and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

Both killers echoed Donald Trump’s rhetoric depicting immigrants and refugees as an “invasion” or “invaders.”

U.S. counterterrorism officials also took note of the 2019 massacre carried out by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Crusius cited Tarrant as an inspiration. So did Payton Gendron, who killed 10 African Americans at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2022.

Tarrant’s attack catalyzed the emergence of the term “saints” among white supremacists to glorify terrorists. The U.S. Justice Department is currently prosecuting three Terrorgram leaders on terrorism-related charges.

“White supremacist violence is clearly not the primary threat facing our country today,” Wolf told Raw Story. “All you have to do is look at the data, which has changed significantly in the last five years.”

Wolf cited incidents often mentioned by the administration and allies to make the case that political violence now emanates from the left: the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two attempts on Trump’s life, the attempted assassination of conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and attacks on centers that offer an alternative to abortion services.

He did not cite the murder of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband by an abortion opponent; a recent death threat against Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) by a Jan. 6 rioter; or the bludgeoning of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), by a QAnon follower.

Nor did Wolf mention some 1,500 individuals pardoned by President Trump over the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.

William Braniff, a former director of DHS’ Center for Prevention Programs under President Joe Biden testified alongside Wolf.

Braniff agreed that violent incidents are on the rise. But he told the subcommittee, “Violent events do not fit neatly into any one ideological category.”

Braniff noted that DHS contracted with the University of Maryland in 2005 to create a global terrorism database, by congressional mandate. In March, the Trump administration canceled funding.

Drawing on the database, Braniff said: “This year, compared to last year, terrorism events are up 67 percent. Fatalities are up nearly 150 percent. Americans are dying from ISIS-inspired, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-government, anti-vax, anti-law enforcement and nihilistic attacks.”

‘Black Lives Matter and antifa riots’

In 2020, when Wolf flagged white supremacist violence, he was overseeing DHS as the first Trump administration deployed federal agents against protesters in Portland, Ore., a harbinger of the current standoff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city.

On Tuesday, Sen. Schmitt and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) cited rioting related to protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, a familiar Republican talking point.

“There is an epidemic of politically motivated violence,” Cruz said. “And the politically motivated violence in this country is overwhelmingly emanating from the left. We saw that during the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots across the country, as cities across America burned.”

Schmitt complained that some studies of political violence “systematically ignore antifa and Black Lives Matter riots.”

Michael Knowles, a podcast host at the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, complained in testimony that “the Black Lives Matter riots, overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead … fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence.”

Cruz, Schmitt and Knowles did not delve into who was responsible for such violence. The data suggests they were presenting an incomplete picture.

Drawing on data provided by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), and multiple news reports, Raw Story counted 34 deaths plausibly linked to racial justice protests and unrest in 2020, not counting the police killings that sparked protests. Of those, three appear to involve perpetrators directly linked to Black Lives Matter, “antifa” or their supporters.

On May 28, 2020, the second night of rioting in Minneapolis, rioters set fire to a pawnshop. The charred remains of 30-year-old Oscar Lee Stewart Jr. were found in the ruins. Montez Terriel Lee was convicted of arson and sentenced to a decade in prison.

The following month, 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. was shot inside a stolen Jeep Cherokee that sped through an area of Seattle known as the CHAZ — Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — and occupied by protesters. No charges have been brought, but bystander video appears to implicate an activist security team patrolling amid fears of a right-wing attack.

In late August 2020, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was fatally shot in Portland, Ore. Michael Reinoehl, the self-described “antifa” shooter, claimed self-defense. Before he could be apprehended, Reinoehl was killed by federal agents, an event President Trump described as “retribution.”

Danielson’s death is the only politically motivated homicide in the U.S. linked to an identified antifascist in the past quarter-century.

In contrast, one study found that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists killed at least 329 between 1994 and 2020.

The circumstances of Danielson’s shooting remain unclear. As noted by ACLED, Trump supporters were staging a car caravan through downtown Portland, and some right-wingers “sprayed pepper spray and shot paintball guns at counter-demonstrators rallying in support of the BLM movement and against police brutality, as well as journalists.”

The entry also notes video showing right-wing demonstrators driving vehicles through left-wing counter-demonstrators attempting to block the streets.

‘Might shoot looters’

Eight other deaths in 2020 could be linked to racial justice protests, if not directly.

In some, civilian bystanders were killed by criminals who appeared to be exploiting chaos. Victims include David Dorn, a retired police captain in St. Louis whose widow spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention; Chris Beaty, a former college football player murdered in Indianapolis while assisting a woman being mugged; and Marvin Francois, a photographer killed in a robbery while leaving a protest in Kansas City.

Among the most shocking deaths associated with the 2020 protests is that of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, shot by an alleged Bloods gang member manning a barricade in the area where Rayshard Brooks was killed by Atlanta police. Julian Conley was convicted of murder and other offenses, and sentenced to life in prison.

But in at least 23 cases — roughly two thirds — Raw Story found that perpetrators of unrest-related deaths were not linked to Black Lives Matter, antifa or their supporters. They include five people killed by police, one killed by the National Guard, others killed by motorists and shopkeepers, a man with severe mental illness, and a security guard for a news crew.

In one example, Steven Carillo, an airman active in the far-right Boogaloo movement, took advantage of unrest after Floyd’s death to murder David Patrick Underwood, a federal security officer guarding the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., and Damon Gutzwiler, a Santa Cruz County deputy sheriff attempting to serve a warrant.

Raw Story’s analysis tallied 11 Black Lives Matter protesters killed: roughly equal to the number of unaffiliated civilians.

Two — Summer Taylor and Robert Forbes — were struck by vehicles. Barry Perkins III was dragged by a tractor-trailer. Others, including James Scurlock and Italia Impinto, were shot.

Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran marching with BLM protesters in Austin, Texas on July 25, 2020, was fatally shot by Daniel Perry, a former soldier who reportedly searched for locations of protesters and told a friend he “might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Perry was convicted of murder, then pardoned by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Perhaps most memorably, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two BLM supporters during unrest in Kenosha, Wis. in 2020. He was acquitted on all charges.

---

Public Education Partners

November 16 ·

A slew of conservative groups will lead a new coalition to spur civics education and push the subject in a more "patriotic direction," the U.S. Education Department announced last month, raising alarms for some traditional civics and education groups that were not included in the initiative.

The America 250 Civics Education Coalition includes right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation — the architect of the sweeping conservative policy agenda known as Project 2025 — as is America First Legal, a conservative advocacy group founded by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff.

Turning Point USA, co-founded by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, is also part of the initiative. PragerU, a conservative nonprofit that has drawn questions among researchers and scholars regarding the accuracy of its content, was also listed as a member of the coalition.

OHIO CAP JRNL

WASHINGTON — A slew of conservative groups will lead a new coalition to spur civics education and push the subject in a more patriotic direction, the U.S. Education Department announced last month, raising alarms for some traditional civics and education groups that were not included in the initiative.

The America First Policy Institute, a think tank with close ties to the president, is organizing and coordinating the America 250 Civics Education Coalition made up of more than 40 national and state-based groups, including prominent conservative advocacy organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA.

The vast majority of the groups in the coalition promote a vision of U.S. identity that downplays historical wrongs associated with race and gender and projects the country as an exceptional force for good. Many are well-known conservative groups that have promoted President Donald Trump’s political agenda.

The coalition lacks many of the more traditional civics education groups who say their nonpartisanship is a fundamental element of civics education, leading to concerns from those groups.

“Our organization serves students in every state and over 80% of counties,” said Shawn Healy, the chief policy and advocacy officer at iCivics, a group that promotes public support for civics education. “You can’t do that if your curriculum is shaded red or blue — it has to be fiercely nonpartisan.”

The coalition will have nothing to do with school curricula, a department official said last month, acknowledging that the agency legally cannot dictate what schools teach. And it will not receive any federal funding from the department, the official added.

But the agency has taken other steps that appear designed to steer curricula in a more partisan direction.

The same day the coalition launched, the department announced it would be prioritizing “patriotic education” when it comes to discretionary grants. The agency said patriotic education “presents American history in a way that is accurate, honest, and inspiring.”

Earlier in September, the department said it would invest more than $160 million in American history and civics grants — a $137 million increase in the funds Congress previously approved.

Civics as cultural battleground

Civics — a branch of social studies that focuses on rights and obligations of citizenship and the basic mechanics of government — has been a bipartisan priority, though it’s become a hot-button issue within education culture wars regarding how and what is taught as America grapples with its complicated history.

Many on the political right, including Trump, have long bristled at how that history is taught. Going back to his first presidency, Trump has sought to exert control over the subject.

After retaking office in January, he reestablished the 1776 Commission — an advisory committee meant “to promote patriotic education.”

“Despite the virtues and accomplishments of this Nation, many students are now taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but rather villains,” notes the executive order first establishing the commission during his first term.

The commission released a 41-page report in January 2021 that drew criticism from historians and educators, including the American Historical Association.

In a statement signed by 47 other organizations, the association wrote that the report makes “an apparent attempt to reject recent efforts to understand the multiple ways the institution of slavery shaped our nation’s history.”

Trump formed the commission after The New York Times published the 1619 Project, which aimed to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”

Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA sign up

In its September announcement, the department said the coalition “is dedicated to renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation.”

The coalition will include more than 100 events and programs across the country over the next year as part of the administration’s celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary.

The coalition is set to feature a 50-state “Trail to Independence Tour,” a “Fundamental Liberties College Speaker Series” as well as “Patriotic K-12 Teacher Summits and Toolboxes” aimed at supporting “patriotic teaching nationwide.”

Turning Point USA, co-founded by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, is also part of the initiative. PragerU, a conservative nonprofit that has drawn questions among researchers and scholars regarding the accuracy of its content, was also listed as a member of the coalition.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon was the chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute between her roles in the first and second Trump administrations. She had to sign an ethics waiver to participate in the coalition, according to the department official, who did not provide further details on what exactly this entailed.

‘News to us’

While conservative political organizations were made part of the coalition, leading civics education groups were not even aware of it before its public launch.

“Certainly, it was news to us about this coalition being formed,” Healy, of iCivics, said.

Healy added that his group encourages the America 250 Civics Education Coalition “to be more pluralistic in orientation” and that the organization is “eager” to have a conversation with the coalition about what they’re doing.

iCivics, a nonpartisan organization founded in 2009 by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, launched CivxNow. The latter group describes itself as the country’s “largest cross-partisan coalition working to prioritize civic education in the United States.”

CivxNow’s nearly 400 members comprise a broad swath of mainstream civics education groups.

“It’s our fundamental belief, both as an organization and as a coalition, that civic education has to be fiercely nonpartisan and nonideological,” Healy said.

But only one group — Constituting America — is a member of both CivxNow and the America 250 Civics Education Coalition.

Momentum for civics

iCivics and others in the civics education field said the added attention the initiative brings to the subject will be positive.

The coalition “provides an opportunity for everyone interested in civic education and patriotic education to do something right now,” said Donna Phillips, the president and CEO of the nonpartisan Center for Civic Education, pointing to “decades where there hasn’t been enough, or any, attention to civic education.”

Phillips, whose organization is a member of CivxNow, said she hopes “the civic education field more widely can benefit from the momentum behind the need for this and that we can all find a place within this momentum and this moment.”

Hans Zeiger, president of the nonpartisan Jack Miller Center, described the administration’s initiative as the “latest development in what we take to be a growing movement for civics in the country.”

Zeiger, whose organization aims to empower college professors to work on civics education and is a member of CivxNow, said his group is “very interested in growing the national civics movement, and glad that there are people all across the political spectrum getting involved in the push for civic education.”

“It is always a good thing to have national dialogue on civics education,” the National Council for the Social Studies said in a statement.

The council, part of CivxNow, added that they “strive for balanced conversations that will continue to elevate high quality social studies standards.”

Teachers unions criticize coalition

The two major teachers unions, which are politically aligned with Democrats, blasted the coalition as unserious, and noted the lack of traditional civics groups.

“We have decades of research on what works in civic education,” Mary Kusler, senior director at the National Education Association’s Center for Advocacy, said in a statement to States Newsroom. “The proposal they are peddling lacks the rigor and respect our students deserve — which is evident by the lack of any respected civics or civil rights organizations as signers.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement the 250th anniversary of the nation should have been “an opportunity for parents, teachers, historians and students to learn, celebrate, critique and think critically about our democracy.”

“Instead, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the America 250 Civics Education Coalition rushed to create programming based on a single Trump-approved, ideological narrative, excluding the very people who know our history best: civics teachers and historians,” she said.

---

RWW

01/23/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Last week, Richard Rogers of the America First Policy Institute appeared on "The Jim Bakker Show," where he reported that the Trump administration would be appointing a "faith director" to serve under every Cabinet member who would be tasked with ensuring that anti-Christian policies are not enacted.

IFrame Content

On Wednesday, Christian nationalist worship leader and right-wing political activist Sean Feucht posted a video in which he reported something similar, claiming that the Trump administration intends to assign a "government-sanctioned intercessor" to every Cabinet member who will be responsible for praying for them and shaping their decisions.

Returning from the inauguration, Feucht complained again about the remarks delivered by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde at the National Prayer Service held at the Washington National Cathedral before bragging that he had been invited to hold worship services inside the Pentagon by Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and inside the U.S. Capitol by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

But that was only the beginning.

"I can't wait to tell you guys the God connections," Feucht marveled. "Mind boggling. I got invited to do worship at the Pentagon with my friend Pete Hegseth. I got invited by Speaker Mike Johnson to go into the Capitol and worship. I mean, it's crazy guys."

"It's wide open, right now," he continued. "Our government has people in it now—I've never seen this and never heard of this before—where worship is being invited in and the Trump team actually has a faith department where every Cabinet member has almost like an intercessor, like a government-sanctioned intercessor, that's responsible to pray and integrate faith and prayer and decision making into every facet of the government."

"It's absolutely unprecedented.," Feucht rejoiced.

Video URL

IFrame Content

It is unclear if the "faith director" positions mentioned by Rogers are the same as the "government-sanctioned intercessor" positions mentioned by Feucht, but either way, this is further evidence of the deep influence of dominionist and Christian nationalist activists within the MAGA movement as well as the impact that institutions like the America First Policy Institute are already having on the federal government under Trump.

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off bs

Dr. Richard Rogers is from Flowery Branch, Georgia and serves AFPI as Vice Chair of the Center for American Values. He earned his doctorate from Pepperdine University. Dr. Rich is currently on Free Chapel College's executive team and has served as the president for the last five years. In addition to his many roles at Free Chapel, he also served as a professor at Pepperdine University for over 20 years and has helped train over 2,000 teachers in Los Angeles schools. He formerly served as a high school administrator and football coach at one of the top football programs in America, Mater Dei High School, and was a part of five California State Championships and two USA Today and Sports Illustrated National Championships. During the Trump administration, he regularly met with faith directors from various departments and agencies. He is the father of four girls and was married to his wife Theresa for over 30 years before she passed in 2022 after an eight year battle with breast cancer.

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RWW

01/17/2025

Peter Montgomery

The America First Policy Institute, a MAGA movement think tank founded by former Trump aides, has raised millions in tax-exempt funds to promote policies that would undermine public education, restrict access to abortion, limit voter registration and voting, roll back environmental protections, gut government’s ability to regulate corporate behavior, pursue campaigns against transgender people, and more.

AFPI has provided money, an institutional home, and political platforms to many of the people Trump has nominated to run the country; **quite a few high-level Trump nominees have AFPI connections, including:

Pam Bondi, Attorney General (Chair, AFPI Center for Litigation; co-chair Center for Law and Justice)
Kash Patel, FBI (Senior Fellow, AFPI Center for American Security)
Linda McMahon, Education (Board chair; chair, Center for the American Worker)
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency (Chair, China Policy Initiative & Pathway to 2025)
John Ratcliffe, Central Intelligence Agency (C-chair Center for National Security)
Doug Collins, Veterans Affairs (head of Georgia AFPI Chapter)
Brooke Rollins, Agriculture (Co-founder, President and CEO)
Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council (Chair, Board of Academic Advisors)
Matthew Whitaker, NATO (Co-chair, Center for Law & Justice)
Casey Mulligan, Small Business Administration, chief counsel (Board of Academic Advisors)

Trump’s first public speech after winning the 2024 election was at an AFPI gala at Mar-a-Lago, where he was joined by other MAGA luminaries, including HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and “Department of Government Efficiency” leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

AFPI founder Rollins has bragged about the group’s “revolutionary” plans to seize control of the “administrative state.” The group’s agenda for the incoming administration—its “transition project”—is in some ways even more radical than the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. AFPI believes Trump should be allowed to fire and replace any federal employee at will – potentially converting the entire federal workforce into a massive and corrupt political patronage system. AFPI has reportedly prepared 300 executive orders for Trump.

As an officer at the America First Policy Institute, Bondi tried to undermine special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump by arguing that his appointment was unconstitutional. She oversaw what the Brennan Center has called “a number of troubling voting rights and election lawsuits,” leading the pro-democracy organization to conclude, “Her record on voting and elections raises questions about her ability to be the attorney general the American public deserves.”

In a case in which AFPI sought to empower local election officials to delay or block certification of elections, AFPI’s arguments were “meritless and radical,” according to the Brennan Center. In another case filed shortly before, even notorious pro-Trump Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rejected AFPI’s “emergency” request to block a Biden executive order on voter registration that had been in place for several years. Kacsmaryk wrote that AFPI’s request provided “no direct evidence” to support its claims. The Brennan Center noted that the lawsuit “served to amplify baseless conspiracy theories about noncitizen voting.”

AFPI is funded in part by Tim Dunn, who the Texas Monthly has called “the billionaire bully who wants to turn Texas into a Christian theocracy.” Dunn is notorious for funding smear campaigns against Texas Republicans who don’t fall in line with his demands. Dunn poured millions of dollars into the effort to elect Trump to a second term, and supports other right-wing causes, like the Convention of States’ efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. In a 2019 speech to Convention of States, Dunn argued that the Bible is “mainly about politics” and said that COS is triggering a Great Awakening.

Not so surprisingly, AFPI promotes Christian nationalist rhetoric; AFPI leaders have described their efforts as part of a “spiritual war.” AFPI’s political arm, which is chaired by Dunn, partnered with dominionist Lance Wallnau—who believes right-wing Christians are meant to control the government and every other sphere of influence in society--to help Trump return to power. Dunn himself reportedly told former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should be in leadership positions in the legislature.

Also in leadership at AFPI is Trump spiritual and political adviser Paula White, who has repeatedly called Trump’s opponents demonic and kicked off his pre-insurrection rally with a prayer for “holy boldness.” White chairs AFPI’s Center for American Values.

AFPI’s faith director Richard Rogers, who took part in Wallnau’s “Courage Tour,” appeared on The Jim Bakker show this week, where he said there will be a “faith director” in every government agency in the new administration. He predicted that the “prayer warriors” who “rose up” on Trump’s behalf in 2024 will “have more power than Elon Musk.” He described AFPI as a “data-driven machine” that worked “hand-in-hand” with the RNC to boost turnout among low-propensity voters.

AFPI claims “biblical foundations” for each of the ten “pillars” of its right-wing policy agenda, which it calls “10 Pillars for Restoring a Nation Under God.” It asserts, “The Ten Commandments and Christian teachings have been the foundation that created the American legal system.” AFPI’s website declares, “This fight is not just about the culture of America; it’s about the kingdom of God and the Church’s divine mission to be the salt and light of our day in an era of increasing darkness.”

REF DEREG ADMIN STATE:

To prevent the federal government from abusing its power, the Framers of the Constitution created an unprecedented system of a democratically accountable government with internal checks and balances. As Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 51:

*If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Based on this reasoning, the Constitution was designed to protect the American people from concentrated and unaccountable government power. It divided legislative, executive, and judicial power between three separate branches of government and further divided legislative power between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Regular elections hold the legislative and executive branches accountable to the people. The Bill of Rights further requires due process before Americans can be deprived of life, liberty, or property and protects additional rights such as the right to a speedy trial.

Unfortunately, the modern “administrative state” has largely circumvented these safeguards. Congress has broadly delegated much of its legislative authority to executive branch administrative agencies, which issue thousands of rules annually that bind the American people. Many of these rules are issued by unaccountable career staff—not political appointees. And under the Supreme Court’s Chevron and Auer doctrines, courts must generally uphold these rules.

As a result, administrative agencies now do most federal policymaking, and Congress often has little say in major federal policy decisions. For example, the government’s recent policies mandating that healthcare workers receive COVID-19 vaccines, restricting oil and gas drilling, standing down immigration enforcement, and providing federal funding to abortion providers all took effect without a vote of Congress. Indeed, the healthcare vaccine mandate took effect despite the Senate voting against it.

While the Framers created an independent judiciary, “administrative judges”—senior agency officials—typically determine whether Americans have violated administrative rules in internal agency proceedings. These administrative proceedings often lack the due process safeguards that protect Americans in criminal prosecutions. Administrative agencies now wield concentrated executive, legislative, and judicial power in a manner that the Framers sought to prevent.

Administrative agencies are also insulated from accountability to the American people. While voters can write to their representatives or senators or volunteer to work on their reelection campaigns, voters have little influence on the enormous federal bureaucracy. The career bureaucracy focuses primarily on operating its agencies, not representing citizens’ concerns. In dozens of “independent agencies,” the elected president cannot even remove agency leaders after appointing them. As a result, these agencies exercise vast regulatory power without accountability to voters or the president.

America can restore the Constitution’s checks and balances by dismantling the administrative state and returning federal authorities to their proper branches. The federal government can be made accountable to the American people.

THE FACTS

The U.S. federal government has 278 executive branch departments, bureaus, agencies, and sub-agencies.
The Biden Administration issued 3,273 final rules, including 164 “significant” final rules, during President Biden’s first year in office.
- Elected Members of Congress did not vote to approve any of these rules, but they legally bind the American people.

* Appeals courts uphold agency interpretations of the law in 71% of Chevron cases.

55% of voters believe letting government bureaucrats set rules without approval from Congress or voters is a major threat to democracy.
Only 25% of the Department of Health and Human
Services’ rules were issued by officials appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate. Many of these rules were instead issued by career bureaucrats.
28 independent agencies are led by officials whom the president cannot remove at-will. These independent agencies include the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
1,931 administrative law judges (ALJs) and 10,831 non- ALJ executive branch employees perform quasi-judicial adjudications in the executive branch.

THE AMERICA FIRST AGENDA

At the federal level, support policies that:

Prevent major agency rules or guidance documents from taking effect without an affirmative vote of Congress.
Prohibit career bureaucrats from issuing regulations. That authority should be restricted to political appointees alone.
Do not let agencies authoritatively interpret statutes and regulations they administer. That role should be the responsibility of the courts.
Make all agency heads serve at the pleasure of the president, without removal protections.
Allow only Article III Judges—not senior agency officials—to perform judicial functions, such as imposing fines or penalties.
Require agencies to provide Americans the due process protections contained in the Trump Administration’s since-rescinded “Regulatory Bill of Rights” in administrative enforcement proceedings.
Establish agency ombudsmen to investigate and redress bureaucratic abuses.

At the state level, support policies that:

Prevent major agency rules or guidance documents from taking effect without an affirmative vote of the legislature.
Give state governors final responsibility for the issuance of state rules.
Do not let agencies authoritatively interpret statutes and regulations they administer. That should be the responsibility of state courts.

REFERENCES

55% Say letting Bureaucrats Establish Rules is Major Threat to Democracyby Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com (July 2021).

Center for American Freedom Overviewby David Bernhardt and James Sherk, America First Policy Institute (Sept. 2021).

Chevron in the Circuit Courtsby Kent Barnett and Christopher Walker, Michigan Law Review (2017).

Elections don’t matter unless you have this rulemaking fixby Joe Luppino-Esposito, The Hill (March 2022).

How and Why the Trump Administration Deregulatedby David Bernhardt, America First Policy Institute (May 2021).

Non-ALJ Adjudicators in Federal Agencies: Status, Selection, Oversight, and Removalby Kent Barnett and Russell Wheeler, Georgia Law Review (2018).

The Oyster Shell Gameby Michael Ames, Newsweek (Jan. 2015).

Rules Published in the Federal Register by Presidential Year, George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center (Feb. 2022).

Significant Final Rules Published by Presidential Year, George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center (Jan. 2022).

Sourcebook of Executive Agencies (Second Edition)by Jennifer Selin and David Lewis, Administrative Conference of the United States (2018).

Trump’s ‘Regulatory Bill of Rights’ hasn’t gotten much attention — but it shouldby Oliver Dunford, The Hill (June 2020).

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DESMOG 1 25 NO PNX GRF

America First Policy Institute (AFPI)

Background

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is a nonprofit group (501(c)(3)1) founded in 2021 by two senior advisors to Donald Trump to promote Donald Trump‘s ongoing policy agenda following his departure from office.2The AFPI argues for expanded fossil fuel production by “removing undue regulatory constraints”3 and criticizes the Paris Agreement, describing it as “lopsided” and “unenforceable.”4

It counts among its staff individuals who have expressed doubt about the causes and severity of climate change, including Heritage Foundation senior visiting fellow Stephen Moore,5 who once described global warming as “one of the greatest propaganda campaigns in world history,”6 among others.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

White House domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow initially developed AFPI.15 Rollins and Kudlow had worked together in early 2020 to create a second-term policy agenda for the Trump administration. When Trump lost the election, they continued to work together to develop the AFPI.16 According to the New York Times, they approached Timothy Dunn, an American billionaire and CEO of an oil and gas company, who Rollins had worked with at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dunn and two other Texas Public Policy Foundation directors, Cody Campbell and Tim Lyles, subsequently registered the AFPI in April 2021.17 Kudlow consulted Donald Trump in the development phase for the AFPI and described him as “very enthusiastic” about the concept.18

After the AFPI’s launch in April 2021, Rollins became the president and CEO, Kudlow vice chair,19 and Tim Dunn, a board member.20 Linda McMahon, a member of Trump’s Cabinet as the administrator of the Small Business Administration, joined as chair, along with various other individuals affiliated with Trump.21

The AFPI has an “advocacy arm,” America First Works.“22 America First Works is a 501(c)(4) organization, which means that it can engage in some partisan politics.23 The AFPI itself, by contrast, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which by law should be nonpartisan.24 The AFPI also has an affiliation with America First Action, a super PAC dedicated to supporting federal candidates who back the policy agenda of Donald Trump.25 26

2025 Transition Plans

The AFPI has been preparing for a transition to a new Trump administration since June 2022 through its “America First Transition Project.” The America First Transition Project includes developing policy, creating detailed action plans “to gain full operational, management, policy, and financial control of every department and agency,” identifying critical personnel positions that need to be filled, and producing training materials for future staff.27

The AFPI’s chair, Linda McMahon, was selected by Trump in August 2024 to co-lead the official transition team. Later that month, Politico reported that they had been informed by an anonymous source “familiar with the Trump campaign’s transition prep” that while the AFPI was not going to be an official member of the 2025 transition, “by virtue of how they are situated and that we are in a very late timeline for this work, the AFPI and the transition may be a distinction without a difference.”

Source: Facebook.28

The AFPI’s “America First Agenda” has ten “pillars,” which are:29

Pillar I: Make the greatest economy in the world work for all Americans.

Pillar II: Put patients and doctors back in charge of healthcare.

Pillar III: Restore America’s historic commitment to freedom, equality, and self-governance.

Pillar IV: Give parents more control over the education of their children.

Pillar V: Secure the border, end human trafficking, and defeat the drug cartels.

Pillar VI: Deliver peace through strength and American leadership.

Pillar VII: Make America energy independent.

Pillar VIII: Make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

Pillar IX: Provide safe and secure communities so all Americans can live their lives in peace.

Pillar X: Fight government corruption by draining the swamp.

The AFPI describes the detailed agenda for each pillar in 55 chapters.30

Stance on Climate Change

December 7, 2022

The AFPI wrote in its document “Pillar VII: Make America energy independent: Provide Clean Air, Clean Water, and a Clean Environment for All Americans”:31

“The central goal of U.S. environmental policy should be to empower human flourishing, all while protecting our land, water, and air and allowing Americans to make the best use of our Nation’s vast natural resources.”

[…]

“The American people deserve a human-centered approach that delivers results, not more apocalyptic rhetoric that prioritizes lofty ambitions over real progress.”

Discussing actions made during the Biden-Harris administration, the AFPI wrote:32

“Rather than produce real environmental results, the current misguided approach uses a myopic focus on climate change as a justification for its sweeping radical agenda and massive government expansion.”

The AFPI says that there is “apocalyptic rhetoric” around environmental issues and that climate change the Biden-Harris administration used as “justification for its sweeping, radical agenda and massive government expansion.”

In a chapter under Pillar VII, titled “Lower The Price of Gas and Energy By Increasing Production of America’s Energy Supplies,” the AFPI wrote:33

“The policies of climate activists only exacerbate the difficulties of providing affordable and reliable energy. The burdensome regulatory policies pushed by ‘build-nothing’ environmentalists mean additional costs for providers of the most affordable and reliable sources of power. These additional costs for providers expose Americans to a greater risk of rolling brownouts and blackouts.”

June 13, 2022

The AFPI wrote the following in its critique of a budget released by the Biden Administration, titled “Missed Opportunity to put America First”:34

“The Biden Administration seeks to replace fossil fuels with green energy. This would cause a significant number of jobs to be eliminated. To compensate, the Biden Administration would use taxpayer funds to create ‘green’ jobs for those who lost theirs due to the Biden Administration’s anti-traditional energy policies. Instead of attempting to end fossil fuels, the United States should have a policy that embraces all energy sources and rewards American energy innovation.”

The AFPI commented on the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline in a document under “Pillar VII” titled “Create a Predictable, Transparent, and Efficient Permitting Process and Regulatory Environment”35

“Unfortunately, the Left is rolling back critical reforms and overregulating our domestic energy industry,” the AFPI wrote in the document, adding:

“The current administration’s policies seek to allow government intervention to determine the success of only certain companies, industries, and projects at the expense of others. This approach does not consider the implications for consumer costs, grid resiliency, or energy security. The cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the threatening of the Dakota Access Pipeline are just two examples of recent actions that have been taken.”

The AFPI added:36

“The administration’s flawed goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050 is set to fail because of its own approach to implementation.”

In another document under Pillar VII, titled “Provide Clean Air, Clean Water, and a Clean Environment for All Americans,” the AFPI criticized actions taken by the Biden-Harris Administration:37

“This harmful policy approach includes rejoining the Paris Agreement and reversing modernized regulatory reforms that were undertaken to address decades of accumulated red tape,” the AFPI wrote. Describing the prior Trump Administration, they claimed:

“As the pro-growth policies of the previous administration drove incredible economic growth, the U.S. improved on environmental measures by providing cleaner air, water, and land, and led the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the country became a net energy exporter for the first time in nearly 70 years and rejected lopsided, unenforceable, America- last international agreements such as the Paris Agreement.”

March 15, 2022

The following is from an AFPI document titled “The Need to Refocus International Efforts on Traditional Air Pollutants”:38

“The ongoing energy and security crises—that have prompted even Germany to take a critical look at its own climate strategy—serve as a painfully obvious reminder of the danger of an excessive emphasis on climate issues and failure to address other threats. However, the damage that the myopic focus on climate change has done even within the environmental sphere is often overlooked, diverting attention and resources from critical avenues for real progress.”

Stance on Energy

One of the AFPI’s ten pillars of its America First Agenda is American energy independence.39 The agenda promotes parity amongst all energy sources or for the U.S. to “unapologetically” expand fossil fuels, 40 stating that fossil fuels are “projected to remain a dominant player through 2050.”41 42 (Scientists are clear that there will need to be a ‘radical’ phase-down of fossil fuels to meet climate goals43). The AFPI argues for less regulation of the energy sector44 and to “end woke climate activism by federal agencies.”45

The AFPI’s America First Agenda opposes “renewable-only energy strategies” and the canceling of overseas fossil fuel projects, saying that this will lead to U.S. energy dependence and “would empower China and other foreign adversaries.” It also says this would fail to tackle global energy poverty, calling it “climate colonialism.” It claims that such an approach would lead to stagnated economic growth for the U.S.46

The America First Agenda suggests that the U.S. can expand fossil fuels and meet environmental goals. For example, Chapter 32 of the America First Agenda says, “In 2019, the U.S. became a net energy exporter, while also leading the world in CO2 emissions reductions the same year.”47(According to a fact check by PolitiFact, this is correct in metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions cut, but this is in the context of the U.S. having very high emissions from which to cut. In terms of percentage improvement, other countries showed more significant progress in 2019.48)

Energy policies that the AFPI suggests as part of its America First Agenda include:

“Encourage greater offshore and onshore oil and gas production.”49

Allow or expand fossil fuel extraction in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.50

“Promote an expedited rehabilitation of decommissioned power plants to enable the use of existing infrastructure for new power generation capacity, ensuring continued economic opportunity and energy reliability.”51

“Streamline LNG export authorizations by establishing a 30-day review process by the Department of Energy.”52

“Mitigate or remove the Department of State’s oversight of transnational oil pipeline infrastructure.”53

“Eliminate barriers to financing overseas fossil fuel projects that create market opportunities for U.S. industry and drive parity in bilateral trade relations.”54

“Halt all new discretionary regulatory policy activity and actions that would disproportionately target one sector at the expense of another.”55

“Establish content requirements of at least 75% for renewable projects, both at home and abroad, as a requirement for receiving federal financial support, guarantees, or contracts.” (Meaning producing or sourcing domestically at least 75% of the components, materials, or inputs used in renewable energy projects).56

“Prioritize meaningful and enforceable environmental agreements by using USMCA, not the Paris Agreement, as a model.”57 (The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a trade agreement that governs trade between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. In 2019, ten environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, wrote a letter opposing USMCA).58

“Conduct a comprehensive audit of U.S. associations and memberships within international energy and environmental organizations and right-size engagement toward those that advance American interests.”59

Source: Facebook.60

May 2024

The AFPI included the following on its Facebook page:61

The text reads:

“MYTH:

U.S. natural gas is not clean.

FACT:

The U.S. is the world’s cleanest natural gas.”

December 7, 2022

The AFPI wrote a chapter under its Pillar VII titled “Become an Energy Superpower by Exporting America’s Energy Abundance,” which included the following statement:62

“Thanks to the shale revolution, the removal of the crude oil export ban, and the previous administration’s pro-liquefied natural gas (LNG) export policies, the U.S. has become a major player in international energy markets. Our Nation’s successes included becoming a net oil exporter in 2019 and becoming the world’s largest LNG exporter shortly thereafter.”

Funding

In November 2021, Donald Trump hosted a fundraiser for the AFPI at Mar-a-Lago, and his PAC, Save America, had donated $1 million to the AFPI by August 2022.

The AFPI has also received donations from DonorsTrust. This right-wing organization anonymizes contributions and has given grants to groups and projects that are among the most active in questioning the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change and in attempting to block green legislation.

See the table below for full details of donors or see the attached spreadsheet for additional information on America First Policy Institute funding by year (.xlsx).

TABL 1

Donor

Year

America First Action

America First Policy Institute

America First Works

America First Works (81-5137380)

America First Works (87-3510461)

America First, Inc.

Grand Total

America First Works (81-5137380)

2020

$20,305,000

America First Works (81-5137380)

2021

$1,750,000

$3,000,000

$140,100

$5,030,200

America First Works (81-5137380)

2022

$2,110,000

Pentecost Foundation

2022

$1,000,000

Pentecost Foundation

2023

$3,500,000

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

2021

$876,901

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

2022

$2,728,013

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

2017

$2,500,000

American Action Network

2020

$1,000,000

CLA

2018

$1,000,000

Jackson Howard Foundation

2021

$175,000

$185,000

Jackson Howard Foundation

2022

$304,167

$314,167

Jackson Howard Foundation

2023

$325,000

$335,000

National Philanthropic Trust

2022

$250,000

National Philanthropic Trust

2023

$375,000

Searle Freedom Trust

2021

$300,000

Searle Freedom Trust

2022

$300,000

Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund

2022

$502,500

Covenant Foundation

2023

$500,000

Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust

2021

$150,000

Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust

2022

$285,000

Greater Houston Community Foundation

2021

$15,000

Greater Houston Community Foundation

2022

$400,000

Dahlgren Family Foundation

2021

$30,000

Dahlgren Family Foundation

2022

$170,000

Dahlgren Family Foundation

2023

$215,000

Dunn Foundation

2021

$150,000

Dunn Foundation

2022

$250,000

Leandro P Rizzuto Foundation

2022

$260,000

Leandro P Rizzuto Foundation

2023

$50,000

$50,00

===

3RD PARTY VENDOR

America First Policy Institute & Related Entities - 3rd Party Contractors

desmog.com/america-first-policy-institute-afpi

Search...

Organization

Contractor

2020

2021

2022

Grand Total

America First Works (81-5137380)

Del Cielo Media LLC

$9,906,291

America First Works (81-5137380)

Targeted Victory LLC

$5,763,925

America First Works (81-5137380)

Insperity

$2,471,460

America First Works (81-5137380)

DT Client Services LLC

$1,872,130

America First Works (81-5137380)

OnMessage Inc

$950,950

America First Works (81-5137380)

America Rising

$250,000

America First Policy Institute

Convert Digital LLC

$984,506

America First Policy Institute

Event Strategies Inc

$489,226

America First Policy Institute

RMG Research Inc

$480,000

America First Policy Institute

Pam Bondi

$251,338

America First Policy Institute

Kael Direct

$228,711

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11 24 mma

On November 11, President-elect Donald Trump announced former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin as his pick for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin, who has previously voiced doubts about the climate crisis, is a Trump loyalist who voted to overturn the 2020 election. According to CNN, he “most recently chaired the China policy initiative at the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank founded to promote Trump’s agenda.”

On the November 14 edition of CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, the network’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir discussed Zeldin’s environmental record and what his selection could mean for environmental protections and climate action under a second Trump administration.

Video

From the November 14, 2024, edition of CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta

BILL WEIR (CORRESPONDENT): But Lee Zeldin, like all of these picks, a true loyalist. Of course, voted against the 2020 election certification. Sat with the Trumps in the box many times. Former New York from Long Island, put himself, actually, on climate solutions caucuses and estuary committees because the environment matters very much to folks on Long Island there. But if you look at his voting record, 50 times he voted against climate change legislation; against clean water legislation, 11 times; clean air, eight times. The League of Conservation Voters tracks the voting records of every member of Congress, and on a scale of 100, he gets a 14, which is actually better than most Republicans, who are in the single digits. He did vote for regulating PFAS forever- chemicals at one point and to give Native American tribes some money to actually release wild buffalo. So that boosted his League of Conservation score a little bit. But it just seems like if these other picks, Jim, that you're talking about, are any indication, these are pressure tests, you know, for the American and for the Senate. And when it comes to environmental rollbacks and what, you know, what he would hope to do and gut from day one on, you've got to imagine the sky is the limit for Lee Zeldin and that agency. And there's a lot of folks who were there who survived the first term who are terrified today, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA (HOST): And Bill, this is happening as we're still getting new indicators, warning lights, about our climate.

WEIR: Exactly. Yeah I mean, the temperatures are off the charts, the ocean temperatures, we're at the verge of these tipping points that once we go past them when it comes to ocean currents or, you know, permafrost melting, we can't get back, right? So these are such vital years right now that we're dealing with. And then this new administration, not only ambivalent about science, but almost antagonistic. So, we'll see. We'll see who is able to hold the line.

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10/24/2024 rww

Kyle Mantyla

David Gilbert @ Wired: ‘Take Back the States’: The Far-Right Sheriffs Ready to Disrupt the Election

Constitutional Sheriffs are duly elected lawmen who believe they answer only to God. They’ve spent the last six months preparing to stop a “stolen” election—by any means necessary.

Ken Bensinger and David A. Fahrenthold @ The New York Times: The Group at the Center of Trump’s Planning for a Second Term Is One You Haven’t Heard of

America First Policy Institute didn’t even exist four years ago. But it is poised to be more influential than Project 2025.

Nicholas Liu @ Salon: Tucker Carlson shares Trump fantasy, likening Republican to a "dad" who spanks his "bad little girl"

The former Fox News anchor likened the Republican nominee to an angry dad coming home to beat his children.

Janna Brancolini @ The Daily Beast: Charlie Kirk Raves That Dems Believe ‘Everything God Hates’ at Trump Rally

Conservative activist and Donald Trump surrogate Charlie Kirk added a new notch to his white Christian nationalist belt on Wednesday when he called on pastors to take to the pulpit and preach against Democrats as “everything God hates.”

Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Heritage-Funded Group Publishes ‘Target’ List of ‘Subversive’ Bureaucrats

A group funded by the far-right Heritage Foundation think tank published a list of federal officials it referred to as “targets.” Targets for what? The site, titled “DHS Watchlist,” does not specify.

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Dominionist ‘Courage Tour’ Heads to Pennsylvania in Bid to Put Unleashed Trump in Power | Right Wing Watch

The Courage Tour, organized by Trump-promoting dominionists Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo, and co-sponsored by the MAGA movement organization America First Policy Institute, rolls into Pennsylvania this week on its tour of 19 swing counties that could decide the outcome of the presidential election. The event will be held Friday night and all day Saturday in Monroeville, which is located east of Pittsburgh.

Scholar Matthew Taylor, who attended a Wisconsin stop, called the tour “the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever,” adding that “they’re doing it hand in glove in many ways with the Trump campaign and with the apparatus of the Trump campaign through an organization like AFPI.”

Indeed, the Courage Tour exemplifies the de facto merger between the MAGA movement and dominionist Christian nationalists. AFPI, a “think tank” organized by and filled with former Trump administration officials, is an active participant in Project 2025, another example of the shared authoritarian goals of Trumpworld and the Christian nationalists who helped put Trump in power in 2016 as part of their long-term plan to take “dominion” over every sphere of influence in society. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk has also supported the tour.

In 2023, AFPI President Brooke Rollins, a former Trump adviser who had been preparing his second-term agenda before he lost the 2020 election, held an America First Summit where she discussed AFPI’s Vision 2025, a preview of Project 2025’s plans for the aggressive use of government power to promote the far-right agenda. Rollins happily admitted that their “ideologically revolutionary” goal is to “seize control of the administrative state” as part of “an America First confrontation against anti-conservative institutions.” That echoed language used by the Heritage Foundation when it launched Project 2025 as a plan for the MAGA movement to “take the reins of government.”

The Courage Tour’s combination of tent revival-style religious rallies with political mobilization reflects the beliefs of New Apostolic Reformation figures like Wallnau and Murillo that spiritual revival will lead to political transformation of the country to bring it into alignment with their particular biblical worldview. Wallnau has said the tour’s purpose is to break “demonic strongholds” that have supposedly kept Republicans from winning elections, and to prepare Christians to rule and reign after Christ’s return by training them to “occupy territory now.” In other words, the Courage Tour is an example of NAR “spiritual warfare” in pursuit of earthly power—for Trump and for themselves.

Right Wing Watch reported that when the tour stopped in Wisconsin in July, the leader of a group called The Lion of Judah urged people to sign up to serve as election workers so that they could be in effect a “Trojan Horse” for the Christian nationalist political movement. At an earlier stop in Michigan, Christian nationalist political operative David Barton spread false Christian nationalist history.

Researcher Jenny Cohn has pointed out that Rob Pacienza, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida—a longtime center of Christian-right political organizing—is a senior fellow in the Center for the American Dream at AFPI. This Wednesday, Sept. 25, Pacienza will kick off 40 days of prayer leading up to the election with an online event with Courage Tour speaker Alveda King.}:

Pacienza’s project comes with a daily prayer guide that includes prayers for policies protecting life “from conception until natural death” and “restoration” of marriage being limited to one man and one woman. It includes a prayer that “Christians would use the power we have as citizens to rein in big government so that the State never becomes our Master.” It also urges people to pray that God would “remove those from office who oppose Him” and “cause chaos and confusion among groups who oppose Him and His people so that their plans are thwarted.”}:

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no lnx $

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html

Donald J. Trump intends to bring independent regulatory agencies under direct presidential control.

Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025

The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.

Jonathan SwanCharlie Savage Maggie Haberman

By Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

Published July 17, 2023

Updated July 18, 2023

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”

“The president’s plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done since F.D.R.’s New Deal,” said John McEntee, a former White House personnel chief who began Mr. Trump’s systematic attempt to sweep out officials deemed to be disloyal in 2020 and who is now involved in mapping out the new approach.

“Our current executive branch,” Mr. McEntee added, “was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”

Mr. Trump and his advisers are making no secret of their intentions — proclaiming them in rallies and on his campaign website, describing them in white papers and openly discussing them.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, who ran the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House and now runs a policy organization, the Center for Renewing America.

The strategy in talking openly about such “paradigm-shifting ideas” before the election, Mr. Vought said, is to “plant a flag” — both to shift the debate and to later be able to claim a mandate. He said he was delighted to see few of Mr. Trump’s Republican primary rivals defend the norm of Justice Department independence after the former president openly attacked it.

A Divided Congress

[Under Scrutiny: A licensing agreement between Ford Motor and a major Chinese battery maker is facing questions by Republican lawmakers, who say the deal could make Ford reliant on a company with links to forced labor.

Air Travel: The House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for the next half-decade, moving at a time of growing dysfunction and disruption in the system to make a number of changes that affect passengers.

Supreme Court Ethics Bill: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would impose strict new ethics rules on the Supreme Court, moving over Republican objections to address revelations about justices receiving financial benefits from wealthy benefactors.

U.C. Berkeley: A House select committee is requesting more information about a partnership between the university and several Chinese entities that it said could help China gain access to cutting-edge research.]

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said in a statement that the former president has “laid out a bold and transparent agenda for his second term, something no other candidate has done.” He added, “Voters will know exactly how President Trump will supercharge the economy, bring down inflation, secure the border, protect communities and eradicate the deep state that works against Americans once and for all.”

The two driving forces of this effort to reshape the executive branch are Mr. Trump’s own campaign policy shop and a well-funded network of conservative groups, many of which are populated by former senior Trump administration officials who would most likely play key roles in any second term.

Mr. Vought and Mr. McEntee are involved in Project 2025, a $22 million presidential transition operation that is preparing policies, personnel lists and transition plans to recommend to any Republican who may win the 2024 election. The transition project, the scale of which is unprecedented in conservative politics, is led by the Heritage Foundation, a think tank that has shaped the personnel and policies of Republican administrations since the Reagan presidency.

That work at Heritage dovetails with plans on the Trump campaign website to expand presidential power that were drafted primarily by two of Mr. Trump’s advisers, Vincent Haley and Ross Worthington, with input from other advisers, including Stephen Miller, the architect of the former president’s hard-line immigration agenda.

Some elements of the plans had been floated when Mr. Trump was in office but were impeded by internal concerns that they would be unworkable and could lead to setbacks. And for some veterans of Mr. Trump’s turbulent White House who came to question his fitness for leadership, the prospect of removing guardrails and centralizing even greater power over government directly in his hands sounded like a recipe for mayhem.

“It would be chaotic,” said John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s second White House chief of staff. “It just simply would be chaotic, because he’d continually be trying to exceed his authority but the sycophants would go along with it. It would be a nonstop gunfight with the Congress and the courts.”

The agenda being pursued has deep roots in the decades-long effort by conservative legal thinkers to undercut what has become known as the administrative state — agencies that enact regulations aimed at keeping the air and water clean and food, drugs and consumer products safe, but that cut into business profits.

Its legal underpinning is a maximalist version of the so-called unitary executive theory.

The legal theory rejects the idea that the government is composed of three separate branches with overlapping powers to check and balance each other. Instead, the theory’s adherents argue that Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president complete control of the executive branch, so Congress cannot empower agency heads to make decisions or restrict the president’s ability to fire them. Reagan administration lawyers developed the theory as they sought to advance a deregulatory agenda.

“The notion of independent federal agencies or federal employees who don’t answer to the president violates the very foundation of our democratic republic,” said Kevin D. Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, adding that the contributors to Project 2025 are committed to “dismantling this rogue administrative state.”

Personal power has always been a driving force for Mr. Trump. He often gestures toward it in a more simplistic manner, such as in 2019, when he declared to a cheering crowd, “I have an Article 2, where I have the right todo whatever I wantas president.”

Mr. Trump made the remark in reference to his claimed ability to directly fire Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia inquiry, which primed his hostility toward law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He also tried to get a subordinate to have Mr. Mueller ousted, but was defied.

Early in Mr. Trump’s presidency, his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, promised a “deconstruction of the administrative state.”But Mr. Trump installed people in other key roles who ended up telling him that more radical ideas were unworkable or illegal. In the final year of his presidency, he told aides he was fed up with being constrained by subordinates.

Now, Mr. Trump is laying out a far more expansive vision of power in any second term. And, in contrast with his disorganized transition after his surprise 2016 victory, he now benefits from a well-funded policymaking infrastructure, led by former officials who did not break with him after his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

One idea the people around Mr. Trump have developed centers on bringing independent agencies under his thumb.

Congress created these specialized technocratic agencies inside the executive branch and delegated to them some of its power to make rules for society. But it did so on the condition that it was not simply handing off that power to presidents to wield like kings — putting commissioners atop them whom presidents appoint but generally cannot fire before their terms end, while using its control of their budgets to keep them partly accountable to lawmakers as well. (Agency actions are also subject to court review.)

Presidents of both parties have chafed at the agencies’ independence. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal created many of them, endorsed a proposal in 1937 to fold them all into cabinet departments under his control, but Congress did not enact it.

Later presidents sought to impose greater control over nonindependent agencies Congress created, like the Environmental Protection Agency, which is run by an administrator whom a president can remove at will. For example, President Ronald Reagan issued executive orders requiring nonindependent agencies to submit proposed regulations to the White House for review. But overall, presidents have largely left the independent agencies alone.

Mr. Trump’s allies are preparing to change that, drafting an executive order requiring independent agencies to submit actions to the White House for review.Mr. Trump endorsed the idea on his campaign website, vowing to bring them “under presidential authority.”

Such an order was drafted in Mr. Trump’s first term — and blessed by the Justice Department — but never issued amid internal concerns. Some of the concerns were over how to carry out reviews for agencies that are headed by multiple commissioners and subject to administrative procedures and open-meetings laws, as well as over how the market would react if the order chipped away at the Federal Reserve’s independence, people familiar with the matter said.

The former president views the civil service as a den of “deep staters” who were trying to thwart him at every turn in the White House.Credit...John Tully for The New York Times

The Federal Reserve was ultimately exempted in the draft executive order, but Mr. Trump did not sign it before his presidency ended. If Mr. Trump and his allies get another shot at power, the independence of the Federal Reserve — an institution Mr. Trump publicly railed at as president — could be up for debate. Notably, the Trump campaign website’s discussion of bringing independent agencies under presidential control is silent on whether that includes the Fed.

Asked whether presidents should be able to order interest rates lowered before elections, even if experts think that would hurt the long-term health of the economy, Mr. Vought said that would have to be worked out with Congress. But “at the bare minimum,” he said, the Federal Reserve’s regulatory functions should be subject to White House review.

“It’s very hard to square the Fed’s independence with the Constitution,” Mr. Vought said.

Other former Trump administration officials involved in the planning said there would also probably be a legal challenge to the limits on a president’s power to fire heads of independent agencies. Mr. Trump could remove an agency head, teeing up the question for the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in 1935 and 1988 upheld the power of Congress to shield some executive branch officials from being fired without cause. But after justices appointed by Republicans since Reagan took control, it has started to erode those precedents.

Peter L. Strauss, professor emeritus of law at Columbia University and a critic of the strong version of the unitary executive theory, argued that it is constitutional and desirable for Congress, in creating and empowering an agency to perform some task, to also include some checks on the president’s control over officials “because we don’t want autocracy” and to prevent abuses.

“The regrettable fact is that the judiciary at the moment seems inclined to recognize that the president does have this kind of authority,” he said. “They are clawing away agency independence in ways that I find quite unfortunate and disrespectful of congressional choice.”

Mr. Trump has also vowed to impound funds, or refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress. After Nixon used the practice to aggressively block agency spending he was opposed to, on water pollution control, housing construction and other issues, Congress banned the tactic.

On his campaign website, Mr. Trump declared that presidents have a constitutional right to impound funds and said he would restore the practice — though he acknowledged it could result in a legal battle.

Mr. Trump and his allies also want to transform the civil service — government employees who are supposed to be nonpartisan professionals and experts with protections against being fired for political reasons.

The former president views the civil service as a den of “deep staters” who were trying to thwart him at every turn, including by raising legal or pragmatic objections to his immigration policies, among many other examples. Toward the end of his term, his aides drafted an executive order, “CreatingSchedule F in the Excepted Service,” that removed employment protections from career officials whose jobs were deemed linked to policymaking.

Mr. Trump signed the order, which became known as Schedule F, near the end of his presidency, but President Biden rescinded it. Mr. Trump has vowed to immediately reinstitute it in a second term.

Critics say he could use it for a partisan purge. But James Sherk, a former Trump administration official who came up with the idea and now works at the America First Policy Institute — a think tank stocked heavily with former Trump officials — argued it would only be used against poor performers and people who actively impeded the elected president’s agenda.

“Schedule F expressly forbids hiring or firing based on political loyalty,” Mr. Sherk said. “Schedule F employees would keep their jobs if they served effectively and impartially.”

Mr. Trump himself has characterized his intentions rather differently — promising on his campaign website to “find and remove the radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education” and listing a litany of targets at a rally last month.

“We will demolish the deep state,” Mr. Trump said at the rally in Michigan. “We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive outthe globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off thesick political class that hates our country.”

[Jonathan Swan is a political reporter who focuses on campaigns and Congress. As a reporter for Axios, he won an Emmy Award for his 2020 interview of then-President Donald J. Trump, and the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Aldo Beckman Award for “overall excellence in White House coverage” in 2022. More about Jonathan Swan

Charlie Savage is a Washington-based national security and legal policy correspondent. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, he previously worked at The Boston Globe and The Miami Herald. His most recent book is “Power Wars: The Relentless Rise of Presidential Authority and Secrecy.” More about Charlie Savage

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent and the author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. More about Maggie Haberman

A version of this article appears in print on July 17, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump and Allies Seeking Vast Increase of His Power. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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Richard V. Burkhauser is from Austin, Texas, and serves as a Member on AFPI’s Board of Academic Advisors. In 2017, Burkhauser became Emeritus Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. Between September 2017 and May 2019, he served as a Member of President Trump's Council of Economic Advisers. His professional career has focused on how public policies affect the employment and well-being of vulnerable populations. He has published widely in journals of demography, economics, gerontology as well as public policy. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, IZA Research Fellow, and NBER Research Associate. Previously, Burkhauser held tenured Professor positions in the Department of Economics at Vanderbilt University and Syracuse University as well as in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. In 2010 he was the President of the Association for Public Policy and Management. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1976. Burkhauser served two years in the Peace Corps in Jamacia before entering the Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of Chicago.

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Ge Bai is from Luoyang, China, and serves as a Member on AFPI’s Board of Academic Advisors. Bai is currently a Professor of Accounting at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Professor of Health Policy & Management (joint) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An expert on health care pricing, policy, and management, Dr. Bai has testified before House Ways and Means Committee, written for the Wall Street Journal, and published her studies in leading academic journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Health Affairs. Her work has been widely featured in ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, NBC, New York Times, NPR, PBS, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other media outlets and used in government regulations and congressional testimonies. Dr. Bai has received the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award

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Dr. Kevin Hassett is from Greenfield, Massachusetts, and serves as Chair of AFPI’s Board of Academic Advisors. He previously served as the 29th Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 through 2019. He also served as Senior Advisor to President Trump to support data-driven decisions in response to the Coronavirus. While working in the Trump White House, Hassett was a key force driving internal and external debate on virtually every economic topic, from taxes and trade, to substance abuse and deregulation. While at the White House, Hassett was thetop public spokesperson for the White House on economic policy and the state of economy, appearing regularly on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and more. He even was drawn upon at times to run the televised White House press briefings. He served as John McCain's chief economic adviser in the 2000 presidential primaries and an economic adviser to the campaigns of George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election and McCain in the presidential election of 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. Dr. Hassett is currently Vice President of the Lindsey Group, a visiting distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economic contributor at CNN, and senior advisor to Capital Matters, the economic web site ofNational Review.Dr. Hassett has a wife, two sons, and two dogs. A noted trash talker on the basketball court, his shots purportedly (by him) always go in.

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Dr. Kiron K. Skinner is from Chicago, Illinois, and serves as a Member of the Board of Academic Advisors at AFPI. She is also the Taube Professor for International Relations and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy. Previously, she founded and directed these entities at Carnegie Mellon University: the Center for International Relations and Politics, the Carnegie Mellon University Washington Semester Program, the Institute for Politics and Strategy, and the Institute for Strategic Analysis. Skinner is the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Skinner was the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State from September 2018 to August 2019.

As Director, she reengaged the Department in red-team exercises on regional conflicts and fostered transatlantic partnerships through numerous strategic dialogues, including the first-ever Policy Planners Summit for NATO, held in April 2019. At various points in the past twenty years, Professor Skinner has served on the US Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board and Defense Business Board, the Chief of Naval Operations’ Executive Panel, the National Academies’ Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research to Improve Intelligence Analysis for National Security, and the National Security Education Board. In U.S. presidential politics, Skinner served as a foreign policy surrogate for the Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection campaign, a seniorforeign policy adviser to Speaker Newt Gingrichduring his presidential campaign in 2011–12, a foreign policy adviser to Senator Rand Paul during his presidential bid in 2015-16, and a foreign policy surrogate for the Donald J. Trump presidential campaign in 2016. She was also a senior member of theTrump transition team in 2016. Professor Skinner has published extensively in American politics and international relations. Two of her co-edited books on President Ronald Reagan were New York Times best sellers,and one received the Hoover Institution’s Uncommon Book Award. Professor Skinner holdsMA and PhD degrees in political science from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees from SpelmanCollege and Sacramento City College. She has an honorary doctor of laws degree from Molloy College, Long Island.

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Richard V. Burkhauser is from Austin, Texas, and serves as a Member on AFPI’s Board of Academic Advisors. In 2017, Burkhauser became Emeritus Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. Between September 2017 and May 2019, he served as a Member of President Trump's Council of Economic Advisers. His professional career has focused on how public policies affect the employment and well-being of vulnerable populations. He has published widely in journals of demography, economics, gerontology as well as public policy. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, IZA Research Fellow, and NBER Research Associate. Previously, Burkhauser held tenured Professor positions in the Department of Economics at Vanderbilt University and Syracuse University as well as in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. In 2010 he was the President of the Association for Public Policy and Management. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1976. Burkhauser served two years in the Peace Corps in Jamacia before entering the Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of Chicago.

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Casey B. Mulligan is from Chicago, Illinois, and serves as a Member of the Board of Academic Advisors at AFPI. Casey is a Professor in Economics at the College at the University of Chicago; he received his Ph.D. in economics from theUniversity of Chicago in 1993. Previously, he also served as Chief Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as a visiting professor teaching public economics at Harvard University, Clemson University, and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research Center. Casey has received awards and fellowships from the Manhattan Institute, the National Science Foundation, Wolfram Research, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Smith-Richardson Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation. His research covers capital and labor taxation, the gender wage gap, health economics, Social Security, voting and the economics of aging. Mulligan has written widely on discrepancies between economic analysis and conventional wisdom. He wrote: Before You're Hired!, Chicago Price Theory, Side Effects and Complications, The Redistribution Recession, and Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality. He has also written numerous Op-Eds and blog entries for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, blogsupplyanddemand.com, and other blogs and periodicals.

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===

https://www.mediamatters.org/trinity-broadcasting-network/american-theocracy-trinity-broadcasting-networks-nightly-news-program

Trinity Broadcasting Network’s nightly news program Centerpoint repeatedly promoted Christian nationalism. Anchors and guests argue that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and encourage viewers to :{support Donald Trump}: in order to fulfill God’s wishes.

TBN is an explicitly Christian broadcaster known globally for its televangelism and Christian lifestyle content. The network reaches around 95 million households via satellite, broadcasts 14 languages across 175 countries, and contains an extensive streaming portfolio. In 2022, TBN set its sights on a new type of programming ahead of the 2024 election: news.

On March 23, 2022, TBN launched :{Centerpoint:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, a 30-minute nightly news program produced by former Newsmax CEO Michael Clemente and initially anchored by ex-Fox correspondent Doug McKelway. According to Axios, the network :{claimed}: the “programming isn't meant to be politically biased, but will lean into Christian values.” The anchor lineup has shifted multiple times featuring various Christian voices such as Pastor Allen Jackson and former politician Rob Astorino, but recently TBN successfully poached yet another Newsmax expat, :{Lyndsay Keith}:.

Keith :{joined}:former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the May 20 edition of his TBN program, Huckabee, where she said, “You know, a lot of times news comes to you through a lens, a liberal lens or a conservative lens, and we have opportunities to show through a biblical lens.”

This line between a “biblical lens” and outright Christian nationalism — the belief that America is a fundamentally Christian nation that should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs — is often muddy on Centerpoint. The growing trend of Christian nationalism poses a real threat to a multicultural democracy. From the think tank, the :{Center for American Progress}::

At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities.

Different forms of Christian nationalist rhetoric are regularly spread on TBN's supposedly apolitical evening news show by both guests and network personalities.

Christian nationalism is apparent in TBN’s nightly news show

Anchor Doug McKelway questioned if God would “allow for revolution” to get the United States “back in order.” :{McKelway asked his guest, “If we are unable to get our house back in order according to God's tenets, Jesus’ tenets, … is he willing to allow for revolution?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/10/23}::{]}:
TBN host and former actor Kirk Cameron pushed the Christian nationalist claim that America was built on “biblical principles” and advocated for Christians to assume postions of power.:{ He further claimed that Christianity “is in our DNA as Americans. This is a nation that was built with the idea of biblical principles and a free constitutional republic as our framework.” Cameron concluded, “If we don’t assume positions of leadership in the country, it will be given to those with lesser values.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/30/23}::{]}:
Pastor Jentezen Franklin warned of a godless society and promoted the pro-Trump America First Policy Institutes' new Biblical Foundations project that aims to instill God “back into every aspect” of daily life, calling for the “merging of faith and politics.” :{“America was founded by our founders that had faith,” Franklin said. “What we believe is that Christianity will survive without America. But America will not survive without Christianity and without the foundations of the word of God.” Franklin went on to claim that foundations of Christianity are vital to American life, further tying the country to a single religion. TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/27/23}::{]}:
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) said during an appearance on Centerpoint “God wants us to make America great again” and encouraged viewers to “vote for candidates that represent biblical values.” :{According to Allen, God is personally invested in the U.S and Trump’s success, saying, “God wants us to make America great again, for crying out loud. Who would be against that?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/22/23}::{]}:
Anchor Lyndsay Keith used the Uvalde shooting mourning to call for displaying the Christian Ten Commandments in public schools. :{Over footage of grieving families on the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Keith said, “It was quite clear that they were honoring their loved ones in prayer. So we raise the question, why would anyone think that a dose of faith, religion, or a poster of the Ten Commandments be such a bad thing in our classrooms?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{5/24/23}::{] }:
Centerpoint guest and Former NFL player Jack Brewer advocated for the Ten Commandments to be taught in public schools, and blamed teen violence on the lack of prayer in these institutions.:{According to Brewer, “It goes back to morality and not having that fear of God, you know, being in the school system that doesn't teach God, that removes prayer, that doesn't even teach the basic Ten Commandments to set some type of morality in these children.” He concluded, “We’re not going to be able to play the secular route like we have in the past because there really is a line in the sand, and which side are you going to be on? ” TBN, :(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/14/23}::{]}:
TBN host Shawn Bolz praised Trump and said he also advocated for Jesus and prayer to be taught in public schools. :{Despite constitutional issues, Bolz claimed Trump said, “We need religion like we never needed it before. We need Jesus back in schools and prayer back in schools, and he really stood with the faith community and said part of the reason why this is happening is because we have gone so far from religious core values in America and for morality.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/5/23}::{]}:
Centerpointguest and Former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson argued for more federally sanctioned prayer and claimed that Christianity is a key component of America's identity because of the message “in God we trust” on U.S. currency. :{According to Carson, “When you think about the fact that our pledge of allegiance says we're one nation under God. All of our coins, all of our bills say, “In God we trust,” so it should be an essential part of our identity and who we are and how we act.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{1/30/23}::{]}:

Christian nationalism on TBN goes beyond Centerpoint

TBN has a large range of shows that blend Christian lifestyle and talk show-style programming with politics, news, and religion. Takeaways with Kirk Cameron is one such show that sometimes crosses the threshold of Christian media into Christian nationalist propaganda.

In one episode, Cameron incorrectly :{claimed:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: U.S. culture was rooted in the Bible: “We’ve got an incredible legacy and an incredible culture here, and it's rooted in the Bible. And if we turn back to thinking biblically, I think that we can again see the fruit of liberty and justice and the fruit of the spirit characterizing the country."

In another, Cameron :{gushed}: over the National Monument to the Forefathers, a relatively unknown monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrating the Mayflower Pilgrims. Cameron praised the monument for supposedly representing that “man's laws must always line up under God's laws or they're not good laws.” (Cameron appears to have fixated on this monument, creating a full :{movie}: about it and :{selling replicas}: from his online store.

March 13, 2023, edition of Trinity Broadcasting Network's Takeaways with Kirk Cameron

Cameron has a :{history}: of promoting Christian nationalism both on and :{off}: TBN. He is currently pushing a :{campaign against local libraries}: that involves reading conservative children’s books to “win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values.” The :{books}: are intended to instill “pro-God, Pro-America” values, and Cameron has threatened to :{sue}: “woke libraries” if he is unable to read them.

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/trinity-broadcasting-network/american-theocracy-trinity-broadcasting-networks-nightly-news-program

Trinity Broadcasting Network’s nightly news program Centerpoint repeatedly promoted Christian nationalism. Anchors and guests argue that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and encourage viewers to :{support Donald Trump}: in order to fulfill God’s wishes.

At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities.

Different forms of Christian nationalist rhetoric are regularly spread on TBN's supposedly apolitical evening news show by both guests and network personalities.

Christian nationalism is apparent in TBN’s nightly news show

Anchor Doug McKelway questioned if God would “allow for revolution” to get the United States “back in order.” :{McKelway asked his guest, “If we are unable to get our house back in order according to God's tenets, Jesus’ tenets, … is he willing to allow for revolution?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/10/23}::{]}:
TBN host and former actor Kirk Cameron pushed the Christian nationalist claim that America was built on “biblical principles” and advocated for Christians to assume postions of power.:{ He further claimed that Christianity “is in our DNA as Americans. This is a nation that was built with the idea of biblical principles and a free constitutional republic as our framework.” Cameron concluded, “If we don’t assume positions of leadership in the country, it will be given to those with lesser values.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/30/23}::{]}:
Pastor Jentezen Franklin warned of a godless society and promoted the pro-Trump America First Policy Institutes' new Biblical Foundations project that aims to instill God “back into every aspect” of daily life, calling for the “merging of faith and politics.” :{“America was founded by our founders that had faith,” Franklin said. “What we believe is that Christianity will survive without America. But America will not survive without Christianity and without the foundations of the word of God.” Franklin went on to claim that foundations of Christianity are vital to American life, further tying the country to a single religion. TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/27/23}::{]}:
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) said during an appearance on Centerpoint “God wants us to make America great again” and encouraged viewers to “vote for candidates that represent biblical values.” :{According to Allen, God is personally invested in the U.S and Trump’s success, saying, “God wants us to make America great again, for crying out loud. Who would be against that?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{3/22/23}::{]}:
Anchor Lyndsay Keith used the Uvalde shooting mourning to call for displaying the Christian Ten Commandments in public schools. :{Over footage of grieving families on the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Keith said, “It was quite clear that they were honoring their loved ones in prayer. So we raise the question, why would anyone think that a dose of faith, religion, or a poster of the Ten Commandments be such a bad thing in our classrooms?” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{5/24/23}::{] }:
Centerpoint guest and Former NFL player Jack Brewer advocated for the Ten Commandments to be taught in public schools, and blamed teen violence on the lack of prayer in these institutions.:{According to Brewer, “It goes back to morality and not having that fear of God, you know, being in the school system that doesn't teach God, that removes prayer, that doesn't even teach the basic Ten Commandments to set some type of morality in these children.” He concluded, “We’re not going to be able to play the secular route like we have in the past because there really is a line in the sand, and which side are you going to be on? ” TBN, :(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/14/23}::{]}:
TBN host Shawn Bolz praised Trump and said he also advocated for Jesus and prayer to be taught in public schools. :{Despite constitutional issues, Bolz claimed Trump said, “We need religion like we never needed it before. We need Jesus back in schools and prayer back in schools, and he really stood with the faith community and said part of the reason why this is happening is because we have gone so far from religious core values in America and for morality.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{4/5/23}::{]}:
Centerpointguest and Former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson argued for more federally sanctioned prayer and claimed that Christianity is a key component of America's identity because of the message “in God we trust” on U.S. currency. :{According to Carson, “When you think about the fact that our pledge of allegiance says we're one nation under God. All of our coins, all of our bills say, “In God we trust,” so it should be an essential part of our identity and who we are and how we act.” TBN, }:*Centerpoint*:{, }:[:{1/30/23}::{]}:

Christian nationalism on TBN goes beyond Centerpoint

March 13, 2023, edition of Trinity Broadcasting Network's Takeaways with Kirk Cameron

===

an ah 1 23

Thanks in part to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the phrase “dark money” is heard a great deal these days in connection with U.S. politics. Citizens United, with its majority opinion by libertarian then-Justice Anthony Kennedy, defined campaign and election spending as a form of constitutionally protected “speech.” And it opened the “dark money” floodgates in a major way.

The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger, in an article published by the Daily Beast on January 19, examines the “dark money machine” of former President Donald Trump. According to Sollenberger,that operation is only getting worse — and is purposely designed to be “confusing.”

“Just when it seemed like former President Donald Trump’s dark money maze couldn’t get any darker, it looks like someone shot the lights out,” Sollenbergerreports. “At least, that’s the impression experts in nonprofit law took away from a pair of previously unreported tax filings from the dark money arm of Trump’s political machine, America First Works. Those experts said it appears from the filings and other incorporation records that the advocacy group — which raised almost no money in 2021 — has closed down its original Virginia entity and opened another one in Washington, D.C. under the same name, with the same board of directors. The question is why — and it comes as Trumpworld is laying the groundwork for a second Trump term.”

On December 21, 2022, Axios’ Lachlan Markay reported that if Trump wins the 2024 election, he “will enjoy a key asset absent from his 2017 White House transition: a sprawling infrastructure already preparing to staff a new administration and immediately enact major policies.” Allies of the former president, Sollenberger notes, cite that infrastructure as a key difference between Trump and a MAGA Republican he may be running against in 2024’s GOP presidential primary: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — that is, if DeSantis decides to run. Firebrand author Ann Coulter, pundits at Fox News and Fox Business and writers for the National Review have all been pushing DeSantis for 2024.

“2021 was essentially a rebuilding year for Trump’s dark money machine,” according to Sollenberger. “That work not only came at a cost, it also appears to have happened in a black box, adding another layer of opacity on top of a fundraising and advocacy network that’s already grown so convoluted even legal experts have a hard time untangling it. In this instance, not only is it hard to follow the money, it’s hard to say for sure whether there’s all that much money to follow in the first place. At least, there appears to be a lot less of it flying around in the fractious 12 months after Trump left the White House.”

Sollenberger goes on to explain why America First Works fits the definition of a dark money operation.

“AFW is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, which are often colloquially called ‘dark money’ groups,” Sollenberger explains. “These groups can raise funds in unlimited amounts, and while they don’t have to disclose their donors’ identities, the organizations can use a chunk of that unattributed money for political activity. According to its 2021 tax filing, which was first obtained by The Daily Beast,AFW — which raised about $51 million the previous year — doled out millions of dollars in transfers and grants. That filing shows that the funds all went to a handful of groups that make up a financial and political support network behind the former president.”

The Daily Beast reporter adds, “Those transactions included a $3 million grant to AFW’s 501(c)(3) counterpart, America First Policy Institute, and an additional $250,000 to Make America Great Again Policies — a lesser-known entity which has reported having a cost-sharing agreement with a new pro-Trump super PAC. AFW also paid another $250,000 for ‘research’ to Republican opposition research firm America Rising, according to the document.”

Sollenberger points out that if Trump’s dark money “maze” is “maddeningly difficult to follow,” that is “almost certainly part of the point,” according to government and campaign finance watchdogs.

Interviewed by the Beast, Brendan Fischer (who serves as deputy director of government for the watchdog group Documented), discussed the drop that occurred with America First Works in 2021 and told the Beast, “America First Works served as the dark money arm of Trump’s campaign in 2020, and it is not uncommon for a politically active dark money group to see a decline in revenue during a non-election year. But this drop is precipitous, and can’t be explained by election cycles alone…. The in-kind contributions of staff time and office space indicate that AFW employees were still working and on the payroll in 2021…. It also would be understandable if AFW was just going to spend down its existing funds and close up shop, but that’s not what’s going on either.”

The “name changes” with Trump-associated “dark money” operations, according to Sollenberger, are designedto be confusing.

“Last December,” Sollenberger reports, “an AFW spokesperson told The Daily Beast it wasn’t a name change; America First Policies had been ‘sold’ to America First Works 'in a private deal’…. However, previously unreported tax filings now show that another ‘America First Works’ was created that same year, this one in Washington, D.C. AFW1 reported a $140,100 grant to the new America First Works (AFW2), which AFW1 cites as a related entity.”

Sollenberger continues, “But The Daily Beast also obtained AFW2’s tax filing, which shows that the two groups share a slate of directors and that the grant comprised all of AFW2’s revenue for 2021. Almost all the money — around $132,000 of it — was spent on a ‘security deposit,’ the document shows, though it discloses no other underlying assets. Again, all of these moves and name changes seem designed to do one major thing: confuse.”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/trump-linked-think-tank-scrambling/

tom b raw an 11 22

According to an examination of its most recent tax filings, a think tank stocked with former Donald Trump White House advisors and supporters is falling way short of reaching its financial goals and bills are starting to pile up, reports the Daily Beast.

As Roger Sollenberger of the Beast is reporting, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) was created to establish policies for a 2024 Trump presidency as well as plan to quickly staff a new Trump administration that can hit the ground running.

However, with the former president now struggling to maintain support in light of a disastrous midterm election that was blamed in part on him, AFPI is facing a cash crunch.

"Formed last year by a cadre of Trump administration officials and known informally as a 'White House in waiting,' initially announced a first-year operating budget of $20 million. But according to its 2021 tax statement, the group raised less than three-quarters of that amount, reporting about $14.9 million in total contributions," Sollenberger wrote before adding, "That may sound like a decent haul, but more than $10 million of that amount came from 10 anonymous donors, with the largest single source giving $3 million. (AFPI is not required to make the names of its contributors public.) Trump donors accounted for $1 million, in the form of a transfer last June from his Save America leadership PAC."

"The filing also reveals about $10.8 million in expenses. Around $4.4 million went to costs associated with sustaining its sprawling staff—[Brooke] Rollins raked in about $417,000 in salary, more than double the second-highest paid official. The second-largest single line item was $2 million to a vague “other program expenses.” AFPI also dropped a little more than $600,000 on lobbying, and the group shelled out more than $2 million combined for fundraising and events," the report continued.

The report notes that the staff of AFPI is loaded with Trump hangers-on including former White House adviserKellyanne Conway, "former acting head of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf,former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon, former director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow and former Trump spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain."

Sollenberger adds "the news of AFPI’s shortfall comes as Trump himself struggled to gin up small-dollar donor support in the months ahead of his 2024 announcement. And if the former president can’t consolidate power within MAGA world, this White House in waiting may have to wait a little longer."

You can read more here.

===

igor salon

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/dress-rehearsal-for-2024-senate/

Former President Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the Pennsylvania Senate race, viewing the election as a "dress rehearsal for Trump 2024," according to Rolling Stone.

Trump last month met with Republican allies at Trump Tower to demand they "do something" about the Senate race between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican challenger Mehmet Oz, claiming that there was a "scam" happening in Philadelphia and elsewhere around the state.

"During our briefing, he was concerned that 2020 is going to happen again in 2022," Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official who attended the meeting along with Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko and retired CIA officer Sam Faddis, told Rolling Stone. "Our team encouraged him to be concerned … [Furthermore], I'm advising Republicans to recruit and train election observers and a team of attorneys to oversee historically problematic precincts," Caputo said.

The meeting was one of several in which Trump has discussed plans to challenge the 2022 midterm results, and not just in Pennsylvania, four sources told the outlet, discussing "scorched-earth legal tactics they could deploy."

TrumpWorld is planning "aggressive court campaigns" if there is any hint of doubt about the results, according to the report. Trump himself has been briefed on plans in multiple states, including in Georgia, but he has been particularly fixated on the Pennsylvania race. If Oz does not win or the results are close, sources told Rolling Stone, Trump and other Republicans are already planning to "wage a legal and activist crusade against the 'election integrity' of Democratic strongholds such as Philly," according to the report.

One source told the outlet that Trump is particularly focused on Pennsylvania because he sees the Senate race as a "dress rehearsal for Trump 2024."

Trump during the September meeting urged GOP allies to work to limit mail-in voting in the state, pushing debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Philadelphia and demanding officials focus on the heavily Democratic and diverse area, according to the report. Trump has asked several advisers what Republicans are doing to prevent Democrats from "steal[ing] it in Philadelphia [like] they did last time," sources told the outlet.

Numerous Trump allies are ready to help wage another campaign to stoke doubt in election results before any votes are even cast.

"It's important to prepare for legal fights that will inevitably arise," Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesman who now works at the America First Policy Institute, told Rolling Stone. "The effort that the Center for Election Integrity is focused on started at the beginning of this year…We've been seeding efforts across the country in important states…[because] having people on the ground locally is key to these efforts — because if you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who has spent millions pushing lies that voting machines flipped votes from Trump to President Joe Biden, also vowed to fight over the 2022 results.

"No matter what happens, I'm not giving up on getting rid of those voting machines … I will not stop until the machines are gone," Lindell, who is facing a $1 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, told Rolling Stone.

Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock CEO who has likewise poured his own money into the "Big Lie" crusade, has teamed with former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to form the so-called America Project.

"We have made proper preparations for post-election challenges if necessary, but our overwhelming focus is on having a clean, transparent election, which obviates the need for post-election legal scuffles," Byrne told the outlet.

The Republican National Committee is already involved in the race, pushing the state to stop counting mail-in ballots that are missing handwritten dates.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year ruled that tossing such ballots would result in "disenfranchising otherwise qualified voters" over a "meaningless requirement" that does not affect the voters' eligibility. The Supreme Court last week tossed the court's decision but did not rule on whether the ballots are required to be counted. A state court previously ruled that undated ballots can be counted and the state's Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that such ballots should be counted that year but not in future elections.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman issued guidance urging counties to count the undated ballots but the RNC and a group of Pennsylvania Republicans sued last week, asking the state Supreme Court to rule that the undated ballots should not be counted. The lawsuit is led by attorneys Kathleen Gallagher and john Gore, who previously represented Pennsylvania Republicans in their attempt to overturn the 2020 results over late-arriving mail-in ballots.

It's a trend that could play out across the country as numerous election deniers seek midterm wins, including Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc. And pro-Trump media has boosted the message.

"If it is fair, Kari Lake's going to win," Fox News host Tucker Carlson said recently.

Pro-Trump radio host Mark Levin accused Democrats of "trying to steal the election for Fetterman," citing the dispute over the undated ballots.

The Rolling Stone report noted that Trump's obsession with bolstering the Republican legal infrastructure to challenge the election stands in stark contrast with the "relatively small sums" he has poured into the campaign to boost Oz's chances. His super PAC has spent just $770,000 on TV ads for [OZ?] Trump, compared to $34 million from the Senate Leadership Fund, which is allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Some Republicans have taken notice.

"There's a lot of people that were Trump supporters, who backed him through thick and thin," a Pennsylvania Republican attorney told Rolling Stone. "That's not lost on them."

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/joe-rogan-experience/right-wing-media-falsely-claim-mark-zuckerberg-admitted-conspiring-against-1

right-wing media are using clips from Joe Rogan’s recent interview with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to revive the Hunter Biden laptop conspiracy theory and to falsely claim that the FBI is conspiring against conservatives. [VID]

During an August 25 for Spotify’sThe Joe Rogan Experiencepodcast, Zuckerberg stated that outside fact-checkers were used to validate the efficacy of the Hunter Biden laptop story in its early days, and allowed information relating to Hunter Biden, the laptop, and related content to be shared while that determination was being made. However, he said that Meta did move the laptop story further down its internal news feed to minimize interactions in the meantime:[pix/vid]

zuckerberg acknowledged during the interview that this tactic ran the risk of suppressing potentially factual information. That said, the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop is still full of holes two years later.

When the laptop story first leaked just before the 2020 election, information on it was largely suppressed on Twitter due to suspicion surrounding the source of the information less than three weeks out from a presidential election. While some of the data on the laptop is considered legitimate two years later, much of it is still difficult to authenticate to this day due to it changing hands so many times, leaving room for outside interference and misinformation.

However, those facts have not stopped right-wing media from accusing Facebook of directly colluding with the FBI to suppress the story, even though that is not remotely close to Zuckerberg’s admission that Meta somewhat based its guidance on an FBI warning about potential election misinformation.

Accusations have gotten so bad that both Meta and the FBI released statements.Meta clarified that “nothing about the Hunter Biden laptop story is new. … The FBI shared general warnings about foreign interference - nothing specific about Hunter Biden.” The FBI’s statement read similarly, stating that the bureau only shared general threat indicators with Meta.

Neither those statements, nor the actual holes in the laptop story, have stopped right-wing media outlets from continuing to baselessly accuse the FBI of coordinating with Facebook to suppress information on Hunter Biden’s laptop, thereby winning the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

On Fox & Friends Weekend, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy falsely stated that Zuckerburg admitted that he had taken orders from the FBI to suppress information about Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Campos-Duffy, “If you look at what happened with the Mark Zuckerberg interview recently on Joe Rogan and the admission that he actually had taken orders from the FBI and suppressed information about Hunter Biden's laptop, Donald Trump would have been the president right now.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [8/28/22]
Fox News contributor and former GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz falsely claims that the FBI singled out the Hunter Biden laptop story for censorship by claiming it was Russian disinformation while filling in for prime-time host Sean Hannity. Chaffetz specifically claimed that the FBI “strongly suggested” that the laptop was Russian disinformation and that Zuckerburg was “compliant, and he took measures to suppress the story on his platform.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/26/22]
Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson went a step further and claimed that the FBI was deliberately lying to Facebook about the potential for Russian disinformation in order to justify censoring reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Carlson, “Zuckerberg confirmed the FBI didn’t put any of these warnings about Russian disinformation or propaganda in writing. Of course they didn't. Nothing in writing. That makes sense. If you are the FBI, you wouldn't want to put that in writing because you were, of course, lying.” Carlson then went on to claim that the bureau had suppressed information about the laptop “because it might hurt Joe Biden, and the FBI is the government agency that pushed for it to be censored.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [8/26/22]
On Newsmax’s Wake Up America, host Rob Finnerty baselessly claimed that Facebook cost Republicans 40,000 votes because it suppressed the story, thereby throwing the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. According to Finnerty, “You think about those three states that are really in question, we're talking about fewer than 40,000 votes here, and Facebook says that because the FBI tipped them off, they push those stories way down on news feeds.” (Biden won the 2020 election by nearly 7 million votesalthough he did win Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin, by less than 40,000 votes each.) Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [8/26/22]
In the same segment, former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pushed the narrative that the FBI made a dedicated effort to influence the 2020 election, and that Zuckerberg’s statements on Rogan’s show were an admission of guilt. According to Gates, “Zuckerberg comes out and makes his claim, well that’s great, it’s kind of what we knew. But what the problem is is it’s already impacted the election - we can’t go back in time and put this information out. So were there elements within the FBI , other government agencies, media organizations that impacted the election? Absolutely! Now we're getting the truth, but unfortunately we are stuck with this debacle.” Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [8/26/22]
On Outnumbered, Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat claimed that the FBI conducted “domestic interference” and censored the laptop story to deliberately sway the election. Nesheiwat claimed that the FBI “blocked a major story, which tilted the national scales toward the Democrats, that could have definitely influence the election. ” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [8/26/22]
Speaking on his weekday radio program, Fox host Mark Levin said Zuckerberg confirmed a conspiracy between Facebook and the bureau, declaring, “This is why you’ve come to despise the FBI.”. “He got the message, so they censored the story for a week,” Levin stated. “The FBI came to them and told them. You see, you're not conspiracy nuts. You're not wrong to be skeptical and worse. These things are happening.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [8/25/22 ]
Taking to Twitter, far-right troll Jack Posobiec claimed that “Zuckerberg admitted that the FBI told Facebook they needed to censor posts during the election,” later tweeting that “Zuckerberg didn't just say the FBI made a request. He said the FBI came to Facebook to tell them what to censor.” Twitter, [8/25/22, 8/25/22]
Nick Adams, a conservative author and ambassador for the America First Policy Institute, tweeted that Zuckerberg's comments were hypocritical given how 2020 election interference was covered. Adams tweeted, “The FBI told Facebook that Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. Three weeks before the election. That's according to Mark Zuckerberg. And yet it's a 'crime' to say that the 2020 election was rigged. What a joke.” **Twitter,**[8/25/22]
:{Far-right provocateur Andy Ngo claimed, “Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan Facebook suppressed the NY Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop (which contained information damaging to then-candidate Joe Biden) due to a warning from the FBI.” :{Twitter}:, [8/25/22]}:

===

haas foia

John Eastman (including but not limited to, from the email address

jeastman@claremont.org or jeastman@chapman.edu), or anyone

communicating on behalf of Constitutional Counsel Group (@ccg1776.com)

Anyone communicating on behalf of theAmerica First Policy Institute,

including Brooke Rollins, Chad Wolf, or anyone communicating from an

email address ending in @americafirstpolicy.com

Anyone communicating on behalf of America First Legal, including Stephen

Miller, Gene Hamilton, Russ Vought, or anyone communicating from an

email address ending in @aflegal.org

===

ny post BS

former President Donald Trump is set to return to Washington, DC, later this month for the first time since leaving office, according to a new report.

The 45th president’s visit will be centered around a July 26 event for the America First Policy Institute, where he will be giving a keynote address, Axios reported Thursday.

While the event is invitation-only and will not be open to the public, it will be livestreamed and open to the press. The specific location of the event has not yet been released.

Trump’s remarks are scheduled for 3 p.m. on the second day of theresearch institute’s policy summit, which is reportedly set to highlight lowering energy and gas prices, bringing down inflation, combating crime and the border, as well as the “control” of children’s education, according to the report.

Other attendees and guest speakers are expected to feature former Trump administration officials including but not limited to former senior counsel Kellyanne Conway, former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe,former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf,former National Economic Council DirectorLarry Kudlow, former Domestic Policy Council Director Brooke Rollins,as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga..

current members of Congress including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), James Langford (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) are also expected.

===

an 8 22

During 2008’s Republican presidential primary debates, the candidates were mocked for constantly mentioning President Ronald Reagan — who, at 93, had died four years earlier in 2004. The word “overkill” was used by pundits to describe the ways in which those candidates found a way to work Reagan’s name into the conservation whether they were discussing national defense, terrorism, the federal deficit or infrastructure. But times have changed; in the 2022 midterms, the person who countless Republican candidates are wrapping themselves around isn’t Reagan, but former President Donald Trump — whose “dark” outlook and obsession with “fear, grievances and hate,” according to Never Trump conservative Peter Wehner, now motivates most of the Republican Party.

In an article published by The Atlantic on August 2, Wehner argues, “For all the defects Donald Trump has as a politician, he does possess certain skills, among them an almost preternatural ability to tap into the sensibilities — the id — of the American right. More than any other Republican candidate in 2016, Trump was in sync with the base of the party. He still is, as he prepares for what looks like another run for the presidency.”

Wehner continues, “Returning to Washington, D.C. for the first time since he left the White House in the aftermath of the violent assault on the Capitol, Trump gave a speech last Tuesday to the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).It was billed as a policy address on public safety. But everyone knows that policy doesn’t interest Trump in the least. What he cares about is the performative part of politics, inflaming people’s passions, creating chaos and conflict. Politics is a stage on which his disordered personality plays itself out.”

Many polls have been showing Republican primary voters moving away from Trump where the 2024 presidential election is concerned. They are coming to the conclusion that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be better able to take on a Democratic presidential nominee, be it President Joe Biden or someone else. But here’s the caveat: Those voters haven’t abandoned Trump’s ideas or the MAGA movement. The decidedly MAGA DeSantis, a far-right culture warrior, is often described as a younger, more focused and disciplined version of Trump.

Wehner stresses that regardless of whether or not Trump runs for president in 2024, his “undisciplined” AFPI speech in Washington, D.C. vividly illustrates the mindset of today’s GOP.

“Despite the speech’s unruliness,” Wehner explains, “certain themes in it are worth examining, because they signal what a Trump campaign might look like. And even if he doesn’t run, they reveal the mindset of the American right. These are the pillars of the GOP.”

The Republican “pillars” that Wehner is referring to are “fear, grievances and hate.”

“If the hallmarks of Ronald Reagan’s speeches were optimism, hope, and a sense of limitless possibilities, Trump’s speeches are the antithesis,” Wehner warns. “Trump is a genius at tapping into fear. In his AFPI speech, for example, he portrayed America not as a great nation facing significant challenges, but as a dystopia, hellish and desolate — a ‘cesspool of crime’ on the edge of extinction. Trump spoke about streets ‘riddled with needles and soaked with the blood of innocent victims,’ a nation being terrorized by ‘drugged out lunatics’ and ‘sadists who prey on children.’ He invoked violent gangs ‘laughing as they bludgeoned the life from their helpless victims’ and described a woman being repeatedly stabbed and ‘bleeding to death in her own bathtub.’ He claimed that America’s largest cities are ‘literal war zones.’”

The “American carnage” theme that Trump used during his inaugural speech on January 20, 2017, according to Wehner, was present during his AFPI speech — only this speech was “bleaker, its portrait of America more terrifying.”

Trump told the crowd, “We have blood, death, and suffering on a scale once unthinkable, because of the Democrat Party’s effort to destroy and dismantle law enforcement all throughout America. Our country is going to hell.”

“In the world according to Trump,” Wehner writes, “the choice is a stark one: Support him, and you defend civilization — oppose him, and you invite savagery…. Whether Trump wins or not (in 2024), he has left an imprint on the Republican Party. In 2016, Trump was the outlier, a political freak. Today, his inclinations, his enmities, his style of politics define the GOP.”

Wehner continues, “Even the person widely seen right now as the most formidable challenger to Trump, Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis, is ‘diet Trump:{,’ in the words of one }:{. }::{Whoever leads the Republican Party in the years ahead,the fear, grievances and hate Trump poured into the cauldron won’t dissipate anytime soon.”}:

===

WEST VA V EPA AMICUS

Nos. 20-1530, 20-1531, 20-1778, 20-1780

In the

Supreme Court of the United States ___

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, et al.,

Petitioners,

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, et al.,

Respondents.

---

On Writs of Certiorari to the

United States Court of Appeals for the District

of Columbia Circuit

---

BRIEF OF THE AMERICA FIRST POLICY

INSTITUTE AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT

OF PETITIONERS

---

JESSICA HART

STEINMANN

CRAIG TRAINOR

JOSHUA J. CAMPBELL

RACHEL JAG

AMERICA FIRST POLICY

INSTITUTE

1001 Penn. Ave. NW,

#530

Washington, DC 20004

(571) 348-1802

jsteinmann

@americafirstpolicy.com

C. BOYDEN GRAY

JONATHAN BERRY

Counsel of Record

MICHAEL BUSCHBACHER

JARED KELSON

BOYDEN GRAY

& ASSOCIATES PLLC

801 17th St. NW, #350

Washington, DC 20006

(202) 955-0620

berry

@boydengrayassociates.com

---

ABLE OF AUTHORITIES ....................................... ii

INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE ............................... 1

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ................. 2

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT .................................... 6

ARGUMENT .............................................................. 8

I. This Court Should Take This Opportunity to

Develop Its Major Questions Jurisprudence. .... 8

II. Unless Cabined by the Major Questions

Doctrine, Statutory Ambiguity Threatens the

Separation of Powers. ....................................... 17

A. The Major Questions Doctrine Avoids NonDelegation Issues... 17

B. The Constitution Gives the President the

Power to “Recommend” Major Policy

Changes to Congress, Not Make Such

Changes Alone. .......................................... 22

III. The D.C. Circuit’s Expansive Reading of Section

111 is Wrong. .................................................... 25

CONCLUSION ......................................................... 31

jan 6 2nd mon hearing save am pac grift

//NRA expose?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jan-6-committee-zeroes-in-on-trump-e2-80-99s-big-lie-fundraising

zoe takes lead;

no lnx

the Jan. 6 committee spent most of its second hearing Monday picking apart Trump’s relentless lies about the 2020 election outcome — lies he pursued despite findings from both his campaign staff and government investigators that the election results were legitimate.

But Monday’s hearing ended with an interesting change of topic: The panel zeroed in on Trump’s fundraising. Specifically, the committee found, Trump lied to his base in order to raise millions of dollars, and then used that money to pursue his own political and personal ends.

According to the committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick, it went like this: After Trump lost the 2020 election — and even after the “safe harbor date” that usually spells the end of election lawsuits —Trump and his campaign pursued a fundraising strategy based around a so-called “Election Integrity Fund”: A fund that they told donors would help “PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTION” in dozens of emails over several weeks.

But the Election Integrity Fund didn’t exist: Gary Coby, the campaign’s former digital director, agreed during a deposition that it was a “marketing tactic.” And the tactic worked: The committee found that Trump and his allies raised nearly $100 million in the first week after the election.

On Nov. 9, Trump created the “Save America PAC.” Wick said most of the money for the “Election Defense Fund” went to that account. And that PAC, in turn, made millions in donations to Trump-aligned groups: $1 million to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ charitable foundation, $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, which employed several former Trump administration officials, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection, and over $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., the company that ran Trump’s White House Ellipse rally — the event that preceded the Capitol attack.

The campaign sent fundraising emails regularly, including one about 30 minutes before the Capitol was breached, Wick said.

...

===

We ask that the GOP conference meet immediately to vote on stripping Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger from their membership in the GOP conference. We further inform you that conservative leaders are launching a nationwide movement to add citizens’ voices to this effort.

---

The Honorable Edwin Meese III{nl}Attorney General{nl}President Ronald Reagan (1985-1988)|The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell{nl}Chairman, Conservative Action Project (CAP){nl}Chairman, Constitutional Congress, Inc.|}:}:

The Honorable Bob McEwen (R-OH){nl}U.S. House Committee on Rules{nl}Former Member|The Honorable Matt Schlapp{nl}Chairman{nl}American Conservative Union (ACU)|}:

The Honorable Jim DeMint{nl}Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute{nl}Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013)|Ed Corrigan{nl}Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project{nl}President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute|}:

Jenny Beth Martin{nl}Chairman{nl}Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund|The Honorable Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II{nl}Chairman{nl}Election Transparency Initiative|}:

David N. Bossie{nl}President{nl}Citizens United|The Honorable Tony Perkins{nl}President{nl}Family Research Council|}:

The Honorable David McIntosh}nl}President{nl{Club for Growth|Scott T. Parkinson{nl}VP for Government Affairs{nl}Club for Growth|}:

Rachel A. Bovard{nl}Senior Director of Policy{nl}Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)|The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.{nl}Chief Domestic Advisor{nl}President Ronald Reagan (1987-1988)|}:

L. Brent Bozell III{nl}Founder and President{nl}Media Research Center|Alfred S. Regnery{nl}President{nl}Republic Book Publishers|}:

Lisa B. Nelson :{odd no affil?|Cleta Mitchell, Esq.|}:}:

David Bozell{nl}President{nl}ForAmerica|Noah Wall{nl}Executive Vice President{nl}FreedomWorks|}:

Chad Connelly{nl}Founder and President{nl}Faith Wins|Terry Schilling{nl}President{nl}American Principles Project|}:

William L. Walton}nl}The Bill Walton Show{nl}Resolute Protector Foundation|The Honorable Brooke Rollins{nl{President and CEO{nl}America First Policy Institute (AFPI)|}:

The Honorable Russ Vought}nl}Director{nl}Office of Management and Budget (2020-2021)|Wesley Denton{nl}Chief Operating Officer{nl}:{:{Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)}:|

Ginni Thomas{nl}President{nl}Liberty Consulting|Lori Roman{nl}President{nl}ACRU Action Fund|}:

The Honorable Gary L. Bauer{nl}President{nl}American Values|The Honorable Briscoe Cain{nl}State Representative{nl}Texas House of Representatives|}:

Elaine Donnelly}nl}President{nl{Center for Military Readiness|Craig Shirley{nl}Reagan Biographer{nl}Presidential Historian|}:

{Alan M. Gottlieb{nl}Chairman{nl}Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms|Gary A. Hofmeister{nl}Businessman{nl}Business Owner|}:

The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.{nl}Managing Editor{nl}ConservativeHQ.com|Seton Motley{nl}President{nl}Less Government|}:

H. Preston Hawkins{nl}Chairman{nl}The Association for Community Education, Inc.|Richard Manning{nl}President{nl}Americans for Limited Government|}:

Jeremy Cerone{nl}Member{nl}Council for National Policy|Robert K. Fischer{nl}Meeting Coordinator{nl}Conservatives of Faith|}:

William Shaker}nl}CEO{nl}Washington Marketing Group|Paavo Ensio{nl}Chairman{nl{Universal Minerals Group|}:

Richard D Hayes{nl}Partner{nl}Hayes, Berry, White & Vanzant, LLP|Joan Holt Lindsey{nl}President{nl}Lindsey Communications|}:

Allen J. Hebert{nl}Chairman{nl}American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston|The Honorable Mary Vought{nl}Executive Director{nl}Senate Conservatives Fund|}:

Clare Lopez{nl}Founder/President{nl}Lopez Liberty LLC|Sheryl Kaufman{nl}Board of Directors{nl}Americans for Limited Government|}:

Dr. Allen Unruh}nl}Founder{nl{National Abstinence Clearinghouse|Amapola Hansberger{nl}President{nl}Legal Immigrants for America|}:

The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell}: President The Leadership Institute	Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.) Executive Vice President Family Research Council
Brandon Zehm Owner Zehm & Associates	Dr. Richard Rounsavelle Trustee MRC
Jenna L. Ellis, Esq.:{ Chair Election Integrity Alliance}:	Wendy Borcherdt Retired Political Volunteer Board Member, Hoover Institution
Jessie Jane Duff Gunnery Sergeant, US Marine Corps (ret) Ambassador, America First Policy Institute (AFPI)	Ralph A. Rebandt II Gubernatorial Candidate Ralph Rebandt for Governor
The Honorable Peter J. Thomas Chairman Conservative Caucus	Melvin Adams President Noah Webster Educational Foundation
Sandy Rios Director of Governmental Affairs American Family Association	Terrence Scanlon Former Chairman and Commissioner U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comn.
The Honorable Mike Hill Former Member Florida State Representative

The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell}:

President

The Leadership Institute

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.)

Executive Vice President

Family Research Council

Brandon Zehm

Owner

Zehm & Associates

Dr. Richard Rounsavelle

Trustee

MRC

Jenna L. Ellis, Esq.:{

Chair

Election Integrity Alliance}:

Wendy Borcherdt

Retired Political Volunteer

Board Member, Hoover Institution

Jessie Jane Duff

Gunnery Sergeant, US Marine Corps (ret)

Ambassador, America First Policy Institute (AFPI)

Ralph A. Rebandt II

Gubernatorial Candidate

Ralph Rebandt for Governor

The Honorable Peter J. Thomas

Chairman

Conservative Caucus

Melvin Adams

President

Noah Webster Educational Foundation

Sandy Rios

Director of Governmental Affairs

American Family Association

Terrence Scanlon

Former Chairman and Commissioner

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comn.

The Honorable Mike Hill

Former Member

Florida State Representative

:{:{All organizations listed for IDENTIFICATION purposes only.}:

Signatures updated: 12/21/21.}:

===

722

https://americafirstpolicy.com/team/linda-mcmahon/

THE HONORABLE LINDA MCMAHON

CHAIR OF THE BOARD AND CHAIR, CENTER FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER

THE HONORABLE LARRY KUDLOW

VICE CHAIR OF THE BOARD AND CHAIR, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROSPERITY

THE HONORABLE BROOKE L. ROLLINS

PRESIDENT AND CEO

THE HONORABLE CHAD WOLF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER & CHAIR, CENTER FOR HOMELAND SECURITY & IMMIGRATION

THE HONORABLE DOUG HOELSCHER

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

NICK BARBKNECHT

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

CATHARINE CYPHER

CHIEF OF STAFF, CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATION PARTNERSHIP AND ADVISOR, CENTER FOR THE AMERICAN CHILD

MARTIN GILLESPIE

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

ASHLEY HAYEK

CHIEF ENGAGEMENT OFFICER

AARON HEDLUND, PH.D.

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

RENEE HUDSON

CHIEF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS OFFICER

MARC LOTTER

CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

RACHAEL SLOBODIEN

SENIOR ADVISOR & DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER

STEVEN M. SMITH

CHIEF OF STAFF AND DIRECTOR,CENTER FOR NEW FRONTIERS

JESSICA HART STEINMANN

GENERAL COUNSEL

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-dark-money-machine-america-first-policies-gets-a-makeoverand-new-owners

no lnx

Trump’s Dark-Money Machine Gets a Makeover—and New Owners

BILL OF GOODS

The dark-money machine that has funded Donald Trump’s political operation for years has almost completely turned over and was “sold.” Experts say that doesn’t really make sense.

Roger Sollenberger

Political Reporter

Updated Dec. 13, 2021 / Published Dec. 12, 2021

EXCLUSIVE

The Daily Beast/

While ex-President Donald Trump spent the last year licking his election wounds and consolidating power in the Republican Party, his allies were busy reconfiguring a constellation of outside spending groups that have helped bankroll his political movement for years.

Trump’s influential “dark money” machine appears to have almost entirely turned over, capping the overhaul off with the apparent sale of a pro-Trump nonprofit earlier this year, The Daily Beast has learned.

The changing of the guard at the nonprofit, formerly known as America First Policies, illustrates how difficult it is to get a clear picture of the outside money fueling Trump’s movement. It reflects a turbulent year within the circle of Trump’s top advisers and fundraising chiefs, but also casts another layer of opacity over millions of dollars in already obscured donations the group made to controversial far-right causes in 2020, as Trump fought to cling to the White House.

“Whatever your views of so-called ‘dark money’ may be, these groups are further obscuring money flows.”

— Lloyd Mayer, University of Notre Dame

Lloyd Mayer, an expert in nonprofit law at the University of Notre Dame, cast these anti-transparency developments as “troubling,” saying they strike at the heart of federal sunshine laws.

“Whatever your views of so-called ‘dark money’ may be, these groups are further obscuring money flows,” he said.

How the money flows was already in little danger of becoming too clear.

America First Policies, a nonprofit which does not have to disclose its donors, was the core of a pro-Trump dark money network, with an organizational scheme that seems confusing by design.

If you were looking for an illustration of how difficult it is to track how these groups operate, America First Policies offers a prime example.

According to IRS records first obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, America First Policies filed to change its name to America First Works in October. But on Friday, a spokesperson for America First Works told The Daily Beast it wasn’t a name change—America First Policies had been “sold” to America First Works “in a private deal” earlier this year, he said.

“This is a different organization, under completely new ownership,” the spokesperson said. He declined to reveal the selling price.

Asked about the sale, Mayer said he did not understand exactly what the spokesperson was trying to say.

“Nonprofits generally do not have owners as a matter of state law, so I am not sure what they mean by ‘sold,’” Mayer said. “Nonprofits can sell their assets, including their name, as long as they do so for fair market value,” he explained, but pointed out that in this instance, “the nonprofit itself would have received the proceeds.”

“Control of a nonprofit can change, but the persons originally in control generally cannot sell control, as they do not own an equity interest,” he continued, noting that the rules would also depend on where the nonprofit was incorporated and what its governing documents provide.

The sale also shows that the byzantine pro-Trump dark money machine is reconfiguring itself ahead of the 2022 midterms, as well as Trump’s possible candidacy in 2024.

[The GOP Dark Money Group Giving Big to White Supremacists

UNWORTHY CAUSES

Roger Sollenberger]

According to tax records, Ashley Hayek is president of America First Works. Hayek’s LinkedIn page says she is also the “chief engagement officer” for the America First Policy Institute—another Trump-aligned group that sprung up earlier this year, and boasts a number of former administration and campaign officials on its roster.

It appears that the walls between the groups are thin. Last month, CNBC reported that America First Works has joined forces with AFPI, which is backing Trump’s lawsuit against social media companies.

Over the course of the year, these groups appear to have fully replaced the old infrastructure.

America First Policies was co-founded in 2017 by some of Trump’s top administration and campaign officials. It soon gave rise to a sister super PAC called America First Action, and the two entities were so close that they shared office space and even employees.

But in August, The Daily Beast reported thatAmerica First Action was also winding down, throwing its resources to the new Make America Great Again Action super PAC—a move which appears to have reflected the changing allegiances among Trump’s inner circle at the time.

All the confusion has one immediate upshot: It makes it even more difficult to understand who exactly is responsible for millions of dollars in shady grants that America First Policies doled out last year.

Those grants appeared in the tax report covering America First Policies’ activity last year, which was filed by America First Works and first obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Some of the listed recipients have been tied to voter-suppression activity, and one of them is a hotbed for bigoted anti-LGTBQ rhetoric.

But paper trails vanish almost immediately, with some entities appearing to have evaded scrutiny after failing to file tax reports for several years—a pattern which raised concerns among experts in nonprofit law.

Robert Maguire, who tracks outside spending groups at government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the filing illustrates how political machines like the Trump network can shield controversial affiliations from public view.

“The nature of what they’re doing is legal, but they’re also absorbing the expenses and establishing distance from the actions of groups that could be seen as controversial. It gives the party and the campaign plausible deniability,” Maguire told The Daily Beast.

[Dark-Money Group Paid Former Trump AG to Ask for Pardons

BEG YOUR PARDON

Roger Sollenberger]

Take one recipient—Vision America Mobilized, a nonprofit which got half a million dollars from America First Policies last year, according to its tax filing.

Despite that donation, no group called “Vision Mobilized America” appears in the IRS database. That’s because the entity changed its name several years ago, to Million Voices Inc, a faith-based organization headquartered in Texas which does not appear to have filed with the IRS since 2016, according to the agency’s public database.

Mayer explained that groups sometimes change names to slough off negative publicity, allowing them “to distance themselves from bad press.” He noted that white supremacist groups—such as Identity Evropa—have tried this strategy.

And it turns out that Vision America Mobilized does indeed carry a dark past. But by listing the wrong name, America First Works blew the group’s cover—and possibly its own.

Vision America’s founder, Texas-based pastor Rick Scarborough, has a history of bigoted anti-LGBTQ statements. In 2013, he floated the idea of a class-action lawsuit against the gay community for “subjecting people to becoming AIDS sufferers.” Two years later, Scarborough—who once threatened to light himself on fire if the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage (spoiler: he did not)—called AIDS “God’s judgment on a sinful generation,” according to video posted by Right Wing Watch.

Scarborough is listed as a board member on the disclosure that Million Voices filed in 2016. He’s also a director for another nonprofit at the same address, called Vision America Action, whose last available tax return is from 2018.

However, Million Voices hasn’t filed a tax return since 2016. The IRS automatically revokes a group’s tax status if they fail to file returns for three years. Still, the disclaimer on its donations portal claims the group is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

“I don’t know why this organization hasn’t had their status revoked,” Mayer said, upon reviewing the filings. “The IRS has over the years revoked hundreds of thousands of groups based on the three-year statute. The only speculation is that the IRS is so overwhelmed and under-resourced that, together with the demands of getting money out the door for COVID relief last year, it has fallen behind on this task.”

The America First Works spokesperson declined to comment on the grants, and, upon divulging the recent sale, referred questions back to America First Policies.

The Daily Beast reached out to Brian Walsh, former head of America First Policies, who declined comment. Million Voices did not respond to a request for comment.

“The IRS is terrible at keeping track of entities supposed to be filing tax returns,” Maguire said. “You can have these shell groups where, if the IRS did conduct some analysis, they might find they’re in violation. But when they do go after them, the IRS often gets accused of some sort of political witch hunt, so it shies away from that activity.”

The group’s largest gift, about $4.8 million, went to a conservative dark-money clearinghouse called Donors Trust. It appears to have been earmarked for something called the “Honest Elections Project,” a dark-money group which has been tied to voter suppression efforts. (Its website domain was at one point apparently quite open about this goal: hardtovote.honestelections.org.)

Last year, the Honest Elections Project also filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court laying out a scheme in which state legislatures could unilaterally overturn election results.

[How Right-Wing Dark Money Is Trying to Kneecap the Biden DOJ

TIME TO FIGHT

Sheldon Whitehouse]

However, the Donors Trust filing does not show contributions adding up to anything like America First’s $4.8 million—the Honest Elections Project only got $170,000, per the filing.

Asked about this discrepancy, the America First Works spokesperson replied, “Huh.”

But this trail twists again. Donors Trust reported that all its grants to the Honest Election Project had actually gone through another group first, The 85 Fund. But even that relationship is misleading—documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics show that The 85 Fund actually is the Honest Elections Project.

That relationship is a cakewalk compared to another voter-suppression group America First Policies supported last year—a flat $2 million contribution to an “election integrity” group calledBe Counted, with almost no public footprint whatsoever.

Outside of a CREW report from 2016, which details a voter-shaming campaign which individuals and local officials described at the time as “creepy” and “a form of intimidation,” Be Counted appears in hardly any press. The group appears tied to the Republican Governors Association, according to its most recent IRS filing, from 2019, which lists a slate of directors affiliated with the RGA.

But it turns out that, like Million Voices, Be Counted also appears to have changed its name. In 2019, it became Be Registered LLC, but with no 2020 tax filing on the books for either group, it’s unclear whether America First Policies contributed yet again to a group under an incorrect name.

Yet another beneficiary, Ohio-basedMoms for America, has also not filed a return since 2018. Moms for America held Trump rallies ahead of the election, and helped organize the “Save the Republic” rally by the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5. It got $100,000 from America First last year.

Of course, the Trump money machine has never been easy to follow. But the connections appear even blurrier now that Trump is out of office. And thanks to IRS filing deadlines, voters may not know what these groups are currently up to until next November, after the midterms.

“Timing matters,” Mayer said. “The longer it takes for the information to come out, the less it’s on the public’s mind. And by delaying flings and obscuring who these groups are, that information only gets older and colder and staler. Even if it all comes out accurately and on time in 2022, it still may not make the news.”

===

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/16/alec-academy-featured-a-whos-who-of-voter-suppression-leaders/

an “Academy” for state lawmakers on voter suppression strategies run by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in July featured a veritable who’s who of the right-wing leaders behind this year’s disinformation campaign about voter fraud and assaults on voting rights across the country, documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show.

While the July 26-28 session was ostensibly led by the dark money group Honest Elections Project, it was organized, hosted, and bankrolled by ALEC, despite repeated claims by its CEO, Lisa Nelson, that the group does not work on voting issues.

Nelson provided the formal welcome at the conference’s opening session, ALEC staff organized turnout, and ALEC provided two nights of accommodations at the five-star Grand America Hotel, five meals, and a $450 travel reimbursement for attendees. ALEC’s annual meeting was held at the same hotel immediately after the Academy.

An invite published by CMD in July stated that “13 legislators from across the country” would be in attendance, but the materials acquired by CMD do not include an attendance list.

Rather than email materials to ALEC lawmakers that may be subject to open records laws, ALEC distributed hard copies of the agenda at registration along with a “zip drive containing a resources document and a one-pager on your state’s election policies,” according to an email from Sarah Wall, ALEC’s manager of legislative outreach and coalitions, obtained by CMD. Wall’s email also lists Michael Bowman, president of ALEC Action, as a key contact for the event.

Nelson tipped her hand about ALEC’s voter suppression subterfuge in May at a meeting of the far-right Council for National Policy. Video of the event obtained by CMD shows Nelson speaking frankly about ALEC’s work on voting and revealing its plans to outsource model policy on the controversial topic to avert the spotlight. “We don’t have model policy. We will be developing that at the Honest Elections Project [Academy], through them,” Nelson said.

Honest Elections Project, the group ALEC chose to carry the ball on its voting agenda, is a dark money operation formed in February 2020 to push for voting restrictions and spread baseless and dangerous claims about election fraud, laying the groundwork for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is a project of The 85 Fund, the new legal name for the Judicial Education Project, a group linked to Leonard Leo that played a central role in Trump’s effort to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing judges.

Speakers at the Academy featured many of the key strategists and leaders on the Right spreading misinformation around voter fraud, promoting Trump’s lies around the 2020 election, and pushing sweeping new voting restrictions.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita gave the keynote address. A proponent of Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, Rokita recently testified in front of the U.S. Senate against strengthening the federal Voting Rights Act.

Rokita was one of only four state attorneys general to not sign a National Association of Attorneys General letter condemning the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and is a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). RAGA was a member of the “March to Save America” coalition that organized the Jan. 6 rally, and its policy arm, Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent out robocalls urging supporters to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”

Agenda Focused on Election Legislation

Most of the Academy sessions focused on legislation, giving legislators a chance to discuss bills to restrict voting that have already been introduced and passed in their states this year and hear from Republican-aligned leaders about what more they think needs to be done.

By the time ALEC held its voter suppression Academy in July, 18 states had already passed 30 laws this year making it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Honest Elections Project’s Executive Director Jason Snead, who worked with ALEC to organize the event, laid out “priorities for election integrity across the states” and polling results in a breakfast session and appeared on another panel on how to “shore up” legislative control over election processes with Jason Torchinsky and Lee Goodman.

The Honest Elections Project has aggressively promoted a radical legal theory called the “independent state legislatures doctrine,” which holds that state courts don’t have the authority to review state election laws and would empower heavily gerrymandered state legislatures to determine election outcomes.

Republican legislators have already introduced and passed bills in 2021 “interfering with nonpartisan local election administration and consolidating power to administer and determine elections results themselves,” the Voting Rights Lab reported.

Snead is a former senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation where he developed its Election Fraud Database, which the Brennan Center for Justice says “grossly exaggerated” the extent of voter fraud.

Torchinsky is general counsel for the National Republican Redistricting Trust and has been defending ALEC against CMD’s state complaints alleging that ALEC illegally gave sophisticated voter management campaign software linked to the Republican National Committee to its legislative members.

Goodman is an elections attorney and a former Republican chairman and commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) between 2013 and 2018.

Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, and Ken Blackwell, executive director of the MAGA voter suppression center at America First Policy Institute led another legislative session on “securing absentee ballots.”

Anderson bragged to Heritage donors in April that policies, “severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes” and “preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters” were among recommendations Heritage gave Georgia for its massive voter suppression bill.

Blackwell’s Center for Election Integrityrecently published a “Top 25 Common-Sense State Election Integrity Reforms” fact sheet that includes these Heritage recommendations alongside other extreme voter suppression wish-list items, such as eliminating no-excuse absentee ballots and requiring an affidavit for absentee applications.

Blackwell also moderated a panel at the Academy with state legislators “discussing election challenges they’ve faced in their own states.”

Another panel over breakfast covered “things to consider with implementation of laws” related to election day voter registration, “election observer protections,” and organizing seniors to work the polls. Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Donald Palmer, a Trump appointee, and Cleta Mitchell, chair of the Conservative Partnership Institute’s Election Integrity Network, led the session.

Mitchell is a Big Lie fueler and Trump legal advisor who lost her job at Foley & Lardner following news that she participated in a January call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to make him the winner of the state’s electoral votes.

“On Dec. 30, Cleta Mitchell wrote to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and offered to send some 1,800 pages of documents purporting to support claims of election fraud,” The Washington Post Magazine reported. Meadows is now a colleague of Mitchell’s at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

Three Republican secretaries of state, Tennessee’s Tre Hargett, Kentucky’s Michael Adams, and West Virginia’s Mac Warner, spoke on a panel about “what policies the states need to employ to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

“Easier to vote and harder to cheat” has been a favored talking point of Republicans in recent years.

All three are active in the Republican Secretaries of State Committee (RSSC), with Hargett serving as chair and Adams as vice chair. Republican secretaries of state produced a report on “Best Practices for Making It Easier to Vote and Harder to Cheat” for the Republican State Leadership Committee, obtained by CMD.

The RSSC holds monthly calls that Commissioner Palmer often attends. Secretary Warner and Palmer also participated in an “off-the-record” Election University session on June 21 as part of the U.S. House GOP’s “Faith in Elections Project,” as first reported by CMD.

ALEC Lawmakers Consider Litigation

ALEC’s Academy featured two panels on litigation. The first dealt with “anticipating challenges to the Voting Rights Act in Arizona,” legal challenges mounted by Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias, and redistricting fights, and was led by with Republican lawyers Torchinsky, Michael Thielen, and Brian Barnes.

Thielen is the executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association and served on the national board of Lawyers for Trump in 2020. Barnes was involved in legal challenges to changes in voting procedures in North Carolina and Pennsylvania last fall.

Goodman and Utah’s former Solicitor General Tyler Green led the second panel on “operationalizing litigation challenges.” Noted in the description of the panel are “ways to challenge the scope of litigation attacks on new election integrity legislation (defense) as well as advance the ball on election integrity (offense).”

As of Oct. 3, “at least 43 voting cases have been filed in 12 states, and Georgia and Texas lead the way with ten new lawsuits each in 2021,” the Brennan Center reports.

Training Sessions on “the Left”

Two trainings focused on “the Left” filled out the remaining agenda at the ALEC Academy. Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Heritage Foundation’s “Election Reform Initiative,” and Ken Cuccinelli, former Trump staffer and chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, led a session focused on “the Left’s attack on our election system” through “state-level attacks on election integrity legislation” and HR 1, the sweeping voting rights and campaign reform bill pending in Congress....Spakovsky, who was appointed by Trump to his voter fraud myth from the Right for well over a decade.president of the Scott Walter gave the keynote for a “Mapping the Left Lunch.” Walter and CRC received funding from the Bradley Foundation... ;inspired by CMD’s SourceWatch, called “Influence Watch.” The site was “constructed in partnership with Berman and Company,” run by PR spin doctor Richard Berman, and in collaboration with ALEC.

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