Liberals spent years building a massive dark-money machine. Now conservatives are trying to match them.
Oh FFS. Republicans dominated dark money for years. The Dems caught up in the last few years. And they are still trying to end it, unlike the Republicans.
Anyway, aside from that inane framing, this article shows that Trump and his cronies are creating some new grift vehicles for themselves and the man himself. He needs a way to get his hands on political donations and dark money is the way to do it. They’re going to have to be careful, though, because Trump does NOT like anyone grifting except him:
Major donors are convening at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort next month for a two-day gathering to talk about what went wrong in 2020 — and to build a big-dollar network to take back power
The summit is being sponsored by the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization led by Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Trump is slated to headline the opening-night dinner, and the agenda includes an array of conservative luminaries and former Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller, Russ Vought and Ric Grenell.
With the dust settling from the party’s 2020 defeat, senior Republicans say they’ve come to acknowledge a massive deficit: the lack of a dark-money infrastructure that can be pivotal to influencing elections and policy fights. Organizers say the gathering is aimed at creating a long-term blueprint for funding policy-focused nonprofits in order to compete with liberals who, through mega-donors like George Soros and Tom Steyer, have developed a well-oiled system for routing cash to a web of big-spending advocacy groups.
“After the most cataclysmic election of modern history, investors and organizers must come together and talk about how and what happened in order to map out an ambitious plan to rebuild conservative power in the states and defend our values against the assault on our election systems,” the agenda for the CPI meeting says.
“We must bring new funds to incubate and anchor conservative organizations that can compete with the Left’s barrage of public-private spending,” the agenda says.
The Meadows-backed CPI, which was founded in 2017 with the mission of providing support to conservative nonprofits, is expected to help spearhead the new push. The organization is partnering with several newly launched groups helmed by former Trump administration officials, including the Center for American Restoration , which is overseen by Vought, and the American Cornerstone Institute, which is led by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson…
Save America Alliance has begun distributing a prospectus to Republican donors, describing itself as an “invitation-only,” “membership-based organization” whose “goal is to build a vibrant donor community that comes together to strategically invest in America First organizations, issue advocacy groups and candidates.”
The Trump-aligned outfit isn’t being designed to spend money itself on political activities, but rather to help major givers coordinate their donations to an array of vehicles — including nonprofits, candidates and super PACs.
“By joining our network of America First donors across the country, your investments and impact will go much further than ever before,” the prospectus says.
It says members are asked to spend a minimum of $100,000 annually on recommended entities and states that the network’s goal is to inject more than $100 million into conservative causes over the next four years. Save America Alliance staffers “will meet with organizations and candidates to assess their viability,” and also “closely monitor and make contribution recommendations for primary challenges of candidates that actively fought to impair President Trump and his America First agenda.”
According to the document, Save America Alliance is planning several meetings this year, including an October conference in Washington, D.C., where members will be able to hear from the network’s endorsees.
Trump cares about two things: money and revenge. Since politics is now his business he needs to monetize it much more completely. And he has to make his enemies pay. This offers a path to both of those goals.