The Koch Brothers established Americans For Prosperity (AFP) to funnel resources in the form of money and organizational muscle to conservative political candidates around the country. AFP had been extremely effective for more years than I care to remember. When they threw their support behind Nikki Haley, it ensured Trump wasn’t going to get a quick “coronation” as the GOP nominee. I don’t think they believe Haley would win many, if any primaries but they at least hoped to damage Trump enough that by convention time it would be apparent the Republican Party would have to shove him aside to have a chance in November. That’s why their pulling support, at least the financial part last Monday was so surprising.
Koch Industries is a behemoth and has spent literally billions in lobbying and political donations to build and maintain its empire. They established AFP precisely for such purposes. It’s all about the bottom line to them and they want no part of a Trump administration wrecking an economy that’s working so well for them. They might hate the thought of Biden and more regulation but at least there would be predictability. For corporate types that is something that really matters. Trump needed to be weakened as much as possible during the primaries, and though Haley wasn’t winning she was doing just that.
There weren’t enough stories about how for an “incumbent” Trump should have been getting eighty or ninety percent of the GOP vote but instead struggled to get even sixty percent or even fifty if you look at Iowa. But they were increasing and with Haley doing the same to Trump through Super Tuesday, holding him well below even SEVENTY percent of the vote in GOP primaries (and maybe only sixty) it could, especially with at least the Manhattan trial on tap cripple Trump. And remember, on Monday prevailing wisdom was that SCOTUS would deny to hear Trump’s appeal.
However, as Politico was the first to report this past Sunday AFP announced it was cutting financial support for Haley. The question of logistical support is murkier but with the Michigan primary coming up this past Tuesday it was devastating to the Haley campaign. Trump got 68% of the vote while Haley only got 26.6%. Trump still didn’t even crack seventy percent but he got to crow about a much bigger win that even he and his campaign had expected only two or three days prior. I can’t help but wonder what the hell possessed Politico to make that announcement?
Haley insisted and it seems to be the case she had the resources to put on a strong campaign through Super Tuesday, now only a few days away. AFP could have quietly told her that after March 5 she’d be on her own financially and even logistically (their GOTV operation is impressive) and by keeping up public appearances stolen a fair amount of Trump’s thunder as they wanted by so publicly backing Haley in the first place.
It’s important to note two things. First is that Haley is still bringing in a fair amount of money via small donations and other support. She’d already paid for and placed ad buys and because unlike Trump has competence as an executive and heading well run campaigns hadn’t wasted money. She’s also had the advantage of not having to use donations to cover massive legal bills (already incurred and yet to come) defending herself against both civil and criminal cases in multiple jurisdictions. The second thing is that when AFP announced it was pulling financial support they also said they were still endorsing Haley. That they were “re-directing” resources to specific races at the state and Congressional level.
Well, I don’t know what those idiots at AFP were smoking but the media naturally blasted out a AFP/KOCH ABANDONS HALEY narrative. I can’t help but think of all those GOP voters in New Hampshire and South Carolina who said they liked Haley and thought she’d be a good President and definitely better than Biden, but simply thought Trump was the only one could actually win in November. However, the village idiot in MAGA Land could have told them the news would be AFP/KOCH ABANDONS HALEY! so it’s no wonder that Michiganders voted the way they did last week. And come Tuesday it’s likely to be more of the same.
Could it be some at AFP or even Koch himself has decided to back Trump after all? That wouldn’t just suck. It would be genuine cause for concern because as I said (and Politizoom’s Murfster has repeatedly pointed out) AFP has more than gobs of money to through around, they have organization resources. An army of folks in every state to make phone calls, knock on doors and do all that “ground game” get out the vote work.
That’s what’s been troubling me. I can see why at some point AFP would decide the investment in Haley should be re-directed towards key state races and in regaining control of the Senate and holding the House. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised it they’d told Haley that long ago, if not from the beginning. WHY did they choose to kneecap her just before the Michigan primary, especially given the clusterf*ck that state’s Republican Party is in?
I can’t help but think there might well have been a method to their madness, as in greasing the skids for if not a reconciliation with Trump then at least a truce. Keep an eye on this folks.
The ultrarich always delude themselves into thinking if they cut government off at the knees and give the keys to a madman they can tell him where to drive. Of course, once the guy gets the power, they lose control of him, their wealth, and occasionally they fall out of windows. I wonder how many of them were shot in Germany or relieved of their wealth? We already know Putin now basically owns or controls everything in Russia. Given trumps insatiable craving for money no telling what he would do in his dictatorship. The evil possibilities are endless. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.
The ultrarich might do well to look at what happened to Fritz Thyssen, at one time owning most of the German steel industry, who started off supporting and funding the Nazi regime, (with actual, at the time, millions of Reichsmarks, so billions in today’s money). He ended the war barely surviving incarceration in Sachsenhausen and Dachau Concentration Camps after deciding that perhaps Nazism wasn’t such a good idea.
He was very lucky to be included in what happened in Tyrol in May 1945, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_of_concentration_camp_inmates_to_Tyrol
Further reading: https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/04/30/the-german-industrialists-who-aided-and-abetted-the-nazi-regime
Add in she’s a woman…to these asshats she’s just here to pump out more workers to continue to enrich the plantation owners.
They “knee-capped” haley because they weren’t really supporting her candidacy. It was a show; one which would tell voters there was actually a choice in the republican party. They did that bit and now it’s time for them to throw their money to the person who WILL let them keep all of their ill-gotten wealth by not having them pay their fair share.
haley was a show pony. That’s all. She may or may not even realize she was just there to make people look at someone else rather than the senile orange old fool who damned near destroyed the country in four years. Had desantis not been such an unworkable tool, such a putz, he would have been the show pony. The koch’s knew haley was a pretend candidate but also knew they needed the little show to distract from the senility show. Quite frankly I’m surprised they aren’t giving her some more money at least until after super Tuesday-the senile orange fool is getting worse daily so a side show isn’t a bad idea.