Anyone who makes a MAGA buck has to kick back to Trump.
“It’s my fucking money!” the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner privately vented in October, referring to an alleged sum in the tens of millions of dollars, a source with direct knowledge of the matter tells Rolling Stone.
Trump wasn’t talking about a business deal. Rather, he’s been grumbling about money donated to a think tank his former staffers and allies founded in 2021 to “advance the America First agenda.”
For several months now, according to three people with knowledge of the situation, the former president has complained to an array of confidants and Republicans about the millions raised by the America First Policy Institute, a MAGAfied think tank launched near the start of his post-presidency. The nonprofit is populated by several former high-ranking Trump administration officials, including Larry Kudlow, Rick Perry, and Linda McMahon, and it’s led by Brooke Rollins, who served as a top White House domestic policy aide to Trump. AFPI is one of several Trump-aligned organizations and think tanks working to craft an intellectual framework for hardline policies, ranging from voter crackdowns to potentially invading Mexico.
In the ex-president’s mind, Rollins was making a “killing” off of his name, sources recount, and was stiffing Trump. “It’s not right,” the former president has groused in recent months.
Letting Trump wet his beak with this money would likely be illegal but needless to say, he doesn’t care about that:
AFPI is a tax-exempt, educational nonprofit and is expressly barred under IRS rules from spending money on elections or donating to a political candidate like Trump. Given that Trump is a candidate for office, paying him personally could be seen as attempting to aid a political campaign. One of the experts pointed out that tax-exempt nonprofits must also operate for public benefit, and they cannot disproportionately benefit private individuals or pay them more than fair market value for their services.
The way campaign finance laws work these days for Republicans, I doubt it would be a problem. They could just write a check for the whole thing and the FEC would shrug.
He wants a check:
Trump has stated his belief that this money is held in an account by “Brooke,” and that she can easily transfer it to him, personally, if she wanted to do so. In some of his discussions on the topic, Trump has said that he’s willing to settle for “just half” of the haul, two of the people with knowledge of the matter say. He’s suggested he’ll let Rollins off easy, and “she can keep” the rest of the cash.
The reason they will probably succumb to his demand is that all these people are angling for a job in a prospective Trump administration. So they’ll pay him whatever he wants.
Apparently, he won’t shut up about it. He just keeps demanding it, asking lawyers to get involved and refusing to hear their explanations as to why he shouldn’t do it.
No matter how many times this has been explained to the former (and possibly future) leader of the free world, he apparently refuses to accept the logic. He fires back that the only reason the think tank and other MAGA-friendly groups get so many donations is because of Trump’s name and “my brand,” and therefore, he’s entitled to a substantial cut.
I long since stopped believing this is all just a grift. His severe personality disorders (malignant narcissism, pathological lying etc.,) drive him as much as anything, But greed is certainly a motivator and he will take whatever he can get. It’s in his nature.
What’s even weirder, in my opinion, is the apparent eagerness among regular people to give this self-professed billionaire their hard earned money. But that’s one of the most important pieces of evidence supporting the idea that this is a cult not a political movement. One of any cult leader’s greatest skills is parting his followers from their money. Trump requires it as a personal offering to him as a living god. When they don’t do it, it makes him very angry.