Latest news with #CharlesKoch
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rep. Moran discusses tax cuts at Americans for Prosperity town hall
TYLER, Texas (KETK) – East Texas Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) attended a town hall in Tyler on Friday to discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Trump administration unveils more detailed proposal for steep 2026 spending cuts The town hall event was hosted at Tyler Junior College by the Texas chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative political advocacy group backed by the billionaire Charles Koch. In Jan. 2025, The Hill reported on AFP's newly announced a $20 million nationwide campaign to push Congress to renew the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed under President Donald Trumps first term in office. Moran supported renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Friday by warning about how much taxes could go up next year. 'The average family would see about a 24% tax increase next year, and I don't think anybody in this room wants to see that tax increase,' Moran said. When asked about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or H.R. 1, an event attendee from Friday's town hall was curious about what the bill actually contains. 'The main thing is just to kind of hear from him what all is in that big beautiful bill because you know we haven't been shared a lot,' said attendee Sharron Fowler. Moran said he hopes to take the input he received on Friday back to Washington D.C. where Republicans are waiting on HR 1 to pass through the Senate. 'I'm hoping to take back more information and more input that we can talk about while we get this thing through the Senate,' Moran said. The AFP also ranks members of Congress according to how often their votes align with the group's stance on given pieces of legislation. Moran has a 94 lifetime score with the group, a 100 score for the current 119th session of Congress and a 88 score for the 118th session. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In DC Speech, Charles Koch Decries 'the Mess' Country Is In
Charles Koch speak during an interview with the Washington Post in Dana Point, CA, in 2015. Credit - Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post via Getty Images This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Charles Koch never uttered his name, but it was mighty clear that President Donald Trump was on his, and everyone else's, mind Thursday night at a glitzy gala that might have as well have been Koch Con. 'With so much change, and chaos, and conflict, too many people and organizations are abandoning these principles and turning to power to solve problems,' said the 89-year-old billionaire industrialist behind some of the most formidable organizations on the political Right. 'But we know from history, this just makes them worse. 'People have forgotten that when principles are lost, so are freedom and progress,' he added at the gala convened in his honor by the Cato Institute, the libertarian think tank he founded. Charles Koch has long been a foe of protectionism and an evangelist for free markets, competitive advantage, and mutual benefit. In fact, the remarks he delivered Thursday evening—just a few minutes of efficiently coded winks and nods sprinkled with quotes from philosophical favorites Friedrich Hayek and Frederick Douglass—could just as easily have come a decade ago or a decade later. But they came in May 2025, at a moment when Trump and his economic team are engaging in some of the riskiest and costliest brinksmanship over global trade in a generation. And when the head of the second-largest private company in the United States speaks, there's an oracle-like aura that demands parsing. 'You can see why we're in the mess we are today,' Koch said. The 'mess' was as explicit as he was willing to get in regard to a pursuit of power at all costs that led to the long-building Trump's movement and what has unfolded in the first months of his second term. The President marked his 100th day in office this week with a report from his Commerce Department that showed the economy shrunk in his first quarter. His trade war has shifted buying patterns, shaken U.S. consumer confidence, and rattled the stock market. Consumers are already starting to notice costs rising from Trump's tariff strategy, which has been all over the map: adding some here, delaying them there, canceling them here, upping them there. It is, to those who share Koch's worldview, government intervention run amok. Koch and free-market ideals have long been wed. Charles, along with his late brother David Koch, has been a force in conservative circles for a half century, funding and fueling dozens of efforts to help small-government causes. Americans for Prosperity—a conservative powerhouse of volunteers, ads, and door-knockers—is one of the backbones of the grassroots efforts that have bolstered Republicans for decades—and AFP's partner groups targeting veterans, young voters, voters of color, and women have all proven efficient investments for the Kochs and their circle of high-dollar pals. But it has always been a mistake for Republicans to assume blind political fealty from Charles Koch and his lieutenants. Koch-linked groups helped muscle through Trump's first-term tax cuts and they were back in the field trying to push their extension even before Trump came back to Washington. Trump also worked with the Koch orbit on a massive rewrite of the criminal justice system and Koch-minded activists cheered on Trump-era efforts to let terminally ill patients access medical treatments that had not yet fully cleared FDA vetting. Yet the Koch groups were patently against Trump's ban on migrants from countries with Muslim majorities, objected to his hardline view of immigration, and fought for legal status for Dreamers. In fact, the Koch orbit did its best to ignore Trump, sitting out the 2016 general election after flirting with other potential nominees who came up short. Shunned by the ultra-rich circle, Trump claimed he had turned down their invitation to join a closed-door summit that summer, but it was clear an offer had never been extended. In 2020, the Koch universe went to ground on the White House race, too, saying their focus was the Senate. And four years later, their collection of groups spent $42 million to unsuccessfully keep Trump from becoming the nominee for a third time. Its flagship political arm, Americans for Prosperity, dumped almost $160 million into political and policy advocacy in the last cycle without lifting a penny to help Trump. Despite his recent setbacks on the political stage, Koch and his fans are not shying from the fight. When a hype video played before his speech, the crowd laughed when criticism from Bernie Sanders, Tucker Carlson, and Lou Dobbs played on the screens—a nod to the fact that Koch is reviled by those who otherwise share zero in common, yet has not backed down. And judging from the applause in the room when Cato president and CEO Peter Goettler said explicitly what Koch merely waved at, the feistiness is not fading. 'We will always oppose when a policy is moving in a direction that contradicts these principles,' Goettler said. 'When the President disappears people without due process, or enacts extra-legal tariffs that threaten business and prosperity around the world, or targets individual law firms for retribution and calls into great danger to the rule of law, we'll stick to our principles, speak out, push back, and oppose it.' The free-market fanboys and libertarian aficionados have spent almost a half century decrying the exact meddling that Trump is now engaging in. A hands-off-the-market approach has been sacrosanct for these wonks. Lost on no one was the fact that Koch was in town—a rare visit, really—to accept the 2025 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, named in honor of the economist who was pretty strident in his opposition to tariffs. Tariffs that have come to define Washington over the last few weeks. Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter. Write to Philip Elliott at
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Protestors Rush Stage During Charles Koch's Award Speech In D.C.
Protestors briefly disrupted billionaire conservative political donor Charles Koch's award speech at a Washington, D.C., hotel Thursday night, rushing the stage to condemn his influence on climate change. Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Inc., is shown at The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs in 2019. (AP ... More Photo/David Zalubowski) Charles Koch, 89, CEO of Koch Inc. and a major Republican donor for decades, was accepting the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for advancing liberty before several hundred attendees at the Washington Hilton's ballroom. Several protestors, dressed in cocktail attire similar to attendees, rushed toward the stage midway through Koch's speech. Protestors shouted 'Charles lied! People died!' and held banners appearing to read 'Billionaires burning the planet' and 'Can't take blood money to hell' before security cleared the stage within a minute. The closest any protestor got to Koch was about 10 feet. Koch appeared unhurt and continued his speech after they were removed, saying, 'Now you know all the fun I've been having.' Spokespeople for Koch and the Cato Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Koch, a billionaire industrialist and longtime funder of libertarian and conservative causes, has spent decades shaping U.S. policy through political donations and think tank support, including the Cato Institute. He's drawn fierce criticism from the left for backing efforts to roll back environmental regulations, oppose campaign finance reform and fight government oversight—positions critics say protect his corporate interests at the public's expense. A video tribute to Koch Thursday night made light of the criticism, with clips of former Treasury Secretary Robert Reich and Sen. Bernie Sanders slamming Koch drawing laughter from the audience. It's not immediately clear who organized the protest or whether any demonstrators will face charges. Guests passed through metal detectors and security appeared to be present throughout the venue, but it's unclear how the demonstrators made it past without detection. 'When you have those kind of enemies, you know you are doing the right thing,' Koch said after resuming his remarks, drawing a standing ovation. The Washington Hilton, where Koch was speaking, is the suite of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Forbes estimates that Koch is worth about $67.5 billion. Billionaire Charles Koch Shares His Secret Plan To Pass On His Fortune And Influence (Forbes) Billionaire Charles Koch On Why Cannabis Should Be Legal (Forbes) Exclusive: Charles Koch Has Given More Than $5 Billion Of His Stock To Two Nonprofits (Forbes)
The Hill
09-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Morning Report — US, China trade war underway
In today's issue: Trump's sweeping tariffs take effect GOP budget blueprint in limbo Democrats unite around campaign cash US gears up for Iran talks In the week since President Trump surprised the world with an aggressive mix of universal tariffs and a catalog of steep reciprocal tariffs that took effect early this morning, the U.S. and China entered a trade war. Tariffs on Chinese goods are now an astounding 104 percent and Beijing, blasting Trump's moves as 'blackmail,' vows to 'fight to the end.' The president predicts China eventually will want to deal. Dozens of other nations as well as the European Union are now subject to tariffs from 11 percent to 50 percent. 'I know what the hell I'm doing,' Trump told House Republicans Tuesday night during a Washington fundraising dinner. The president defended his trade policies and told lawmakers 'a major tariff' on imported pharmaceuticals will be announced 'very shortly.' India and China lead global drug production. Overnight, investor anxiety contributed to a global stock selloff. U.S. futures were volatile, while Japanese and European stocks opened lower in search of a trade endgame, a reliable timeline or perhaps a U.S. signal that negotiations with tariffed nations will spell some relief — the faster the better. Economists predict higher inflation, perhaps a recession and a painful period of transition for many businesses, farms, auto manufacturers and millions of U.S. families. The Chamber of Commerce and other top industry groups are weighing a risky option to sue Trump to try to halt the tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports. A group financed by billionaire Charles Koch and conservative legal activist Leonard Leo already took that step in court. Another tariff shock is slated to occur on May 3, when the administration will apply tariffs to auto parts. Even cars made in the U.S. will be affected because virtually all vehicles are made with imported components. Repairs will become more expensive. Auto companies are challenged to plan. How long will the tariffs last? What will U.S. consumers be able to afford? 'The traditional playbook is not enough,' Lenny LaRocca, who leads the auto industry team at the consulting firm KPMG, told The New York Times. The president, who complains the U.S. has been 'ripped off' by unfair trade and currency practices, says he's willing to talk to individual countries to cut deals but unwilling to pause U.S. tariffs while discussions take place. The U.S. will begin formal talks with Japan, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. Trump on Tuesday said he had a ' great call ' with South Korea's acting President Han Duck-soo ahead of today's 25 percent U.S. tariff on goods coming from the Asian ally. The Hill: GOP lawmakers fear China looms as an obstacle to Trump's trade vision. A drawn-out trade war with Beijing poses serious economic implications for U.S. companies, including Boeing, Caterpillar, Deere & Co., Nvidia, Intel and Apple. On the sidelines, top business, banking and hedge fund leaders have questioned the administration's strategy. They fault the White House tariff calculations and the absence of a timeline, and they warn that Trump's tariff endeavor may complicate enactment of the permanent tax cuts he seeks by the fall. The Hill: Why Trump's tariffs may do little to pay for tax cuts. Some of Trump's supporters and podcast influencers, including Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan, have used their megaphones to challenge the president's approach to tariffs. Senate Republicans, reacting to Wall Street's slide and worried about industries in their states, say they're frustrated by conflicting messages about tariffs coming from the administration. 'It has a different impact on a New York tech firm than it might have on a Hoosier soybean farmer,' Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a hearing Tuesday. 'And I hope that's something that's being factored into your analysis.' When asked about timing for trade negotiations with other countries, Greer told senators the trade deficit won't be 'solved overnight.' 'What I can say is, I'm moving as quickly as possible, and a lot of these countries are moving very quickly, and we're working on the weekends. We're working at night, as folks want to engage on this,' he added. Greer will field more questions today when he testifies before members of the House Ways and Means Committee. Democrats in Congress have been quick to predict that Trump will 'own' a recession if already ebbing U.S. growth comes to a halt. The Hill: Former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 87, has some thoughts about the president's tariffs and Howard Lutnick, the newest head of the Commerce Department. Energy: Oil, gas and coal executives have pushed back against some recent Trump decisions. Coal received the president's executive attention Tuesday with federal orders to bolster the sagging industry, which has clashed with global ambitions to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Trump seeks fewer restrictions on coal mining, leasing and exports in what the White House said is an effort to meet the needs of energy-hungry data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). Immigrants: In a major change, the IRS agreed to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tax data to be used to locate migrants without legal status for deportation. Melanie Krause, acting IRS commissioner, is resigning following the decision. DOGE: Administration funding cuts are forcing scientists to abandon their work and the patients who benefit, The New Yorker reports. SMART TAKE with NewsNation's BLAKE BURMAN: Could Alaska be a key state in the first round of trade negotiations? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled Tuesday that Alaskan liquid natural gas exports could play a role in trade discussions with countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Alaska's Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, visited Asia just a week ago to discuss this possibility, and he tells me he believes the deal is 'moving ahead.' 'I do believe that there are many countries coming to Washington to actually negotiate these deals, and I think it will get worked out, hopefully by June,' Dunleavy told me Tuesday night. 'I think it's [fluctuation] a short-term issue, but I do believe it's going to provide a mid-term and long-term benefits to the United States, and our trading partners.' This is part of the balancing act for Republican lawmakers: selling the potential long-term benefits of trade deals while they and their constituents are living in this moment of market fears and potential price hikes. Burman hosts 'The Hill' weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. 3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY: ▪ Plans are underway for a massive event on the National Mall to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary in June — and perhaps the military parade Trump has been dreaming about for years. ▪ In a plus for insurers, the government said it will pay private Medicare Advantage plans next year about $25 billion more than it calculated in January. ▪ Since 2023, National Weather Service alerts have been translated into multiple languages to save lives. A lapsed contract with an AI company responsible for the translations leaves the service with English-only alerts. LEADING THE DAY The House is facing a budgetary limbo as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tries to corral his fractious conference around a spending bill that seeks to implement Trump's wide-ranging agenda. Congress has struggled for months to pass a budget resolution amid pushback from fiscal hawks. Senators recently passed their own budget blueprint, but the framework is now stuck in suspended animation in the lower chamber as hard-line conservatives dig in on their opposition despite pressure from Trump. 'We had a lot of members whose questions were answered, and I think we're moving, making great progress right now,' Johnson told reporters Tuesday after leaving the White House. 'I think we'll be moving forward this week,' he added — a notable change from leadership's previous target of a Wednesday vote. The Rules Committee will meet this morning to discuss the budget. Trump, however, is putting on the pressure, demanding on Tuesday that House conservatives get on board with his legislative agenda. 'They have to do this. We have to get there. I think we are there. We had a great meeting today,' Trump said in an address to the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in Washington. 'But just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there. You just gotta get there. Close your eyes and get there. It's a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding. Just stop grandstanding.' ▪ The Hill: Trump said Tuesday he's supportive of 'major spending cuts' after the meeting with Johnson. ▪ Politico: Trump faces a House Republican mutiny. The criticism among spending hawks — largely aimed at the level of spending cuts in the measure — persisted even after a handful of Republicans visited the White House on Tuesday afternoon to meet with Trump, who endorsed the budget resolution and has encouraged GOP lawmakers to line up behind it. 'The math still doesn't add up,' Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said after the meeting at the White House. 'The Senate budget still, in my view, produces significant deficits.' Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who was not at the meeting, told The Hill's Emily Brooks and Mychael Schnell he is 'a pretty firm no' and that dozens of others are in the same camp as him. That poses a significant math problem for Johnson, who is pushing for a vote on the resolution this week before the House breaks for two weeks to celebrate Passover and Easter. But he has few votes to spare: He can afford to lose only three GOP votes, assuming united Democratic opposition and full attendance. PARTIAL VICTORY: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the Trump administration by enabling officials to fire thousands of federal workers in their probationary period, saying the government employee unions that sued don't have legal standing. The emergency ruling, for now, lifts one of two lower court orders reversing the mass terminations. Another injunction, which has not yet reached the high court, remains in effect and still protects many employees' jobs. The Hill: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of two Venezuelan migrants who expect to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act and face possible removal to a Salvadoran prison. FIRST AMENDMENT: The White House's decision to punish The Associated Press by eliminating its access to the president is unconstitutional, a federal judge said Tuesday. The preliminary injunction against the White House by Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, is a major blow to the administration's efforts to curtail the AP's access to the president after the news organization refused to adopt the name 'Gulf of America' for the Gulf of Mexico. HIGH COURT: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a staunch conservative by any reasonable standards, is increasingly in the MAGA firing line for taking positions on important cases that diverge from Trump. 'For the folks of MAGA world, they don't really care about the label of 'conservative,' they care about your loyalty to the president,' Doug Heye, a former communications director of the Republican National Committee, told The Hill's Niall Stanage for The Memo. CAMPAIGN CASH: Democratic candidates are raking in large sums of money for Senate, House and down-ballot campaigns — a sign that grassroots enthusiasm remains strong. The Hill's Caroline Vakil reports that in Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) raised a whopping $11 million in his first quarter of fundraising while Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger raked in $6.7 million. Even two Democrats running in two House special elections in Florida raised a combined $15 million despite campaigning in comfortably Republican districts. Strategists and fundraisers point to different reasons why the party is still seeing strong numbers, suggesting Trump and his administration are galvanizing voters and an anxious Democratic donor base wanting to help the party. But some members, too, are looking to engage more directly with candidates and campaigns as opposed to larger Democratic groups. VIRGINIA: After notching a win in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and boasting closer-than-expected finishes in two Florida House races, Democrats are setting their sights on Virginia's November elections, when voters are set to choose a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates. The election will be a bellwether not only for Trump's presidency but Elon Musk's cost-cutting operations, which have hit the commonwealth especially hard. 'It is his work and efforts that are going to be litigated in this election,' Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told The Guardian. 'We see the DOGE efforts take on a local spin, meaning they're not just talking about the machete that he wielded without any care or concern but the very real local impact and how it is affecting individuals.' ▪ The Hill: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rolled out a list of 35 House Republicans it plans to target in the 2026 midterms on Tuesday. ▪ Politico: Democrats begin to confront their age problem in primary campaigns. ▪ The Hill: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced his campaign for the Senate on Tuesday after previously hinting at launching a bid against his incumbent GOP colleague Sen. John Cornyn (Texas). ▪ The Hill: Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), after some mulling, says he will not be a Senate candidate next year. IRAN: Iran and the U.S. will hold indirect talks in Oman this weekend, Iran's foreign ministry confirmed. The clarification comes after Trump on Monday said in the Oval Office that the talks between the two countries would be 'direct.' Leading the U.S. delegation is Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff. It will mark the first dialogue between the two nations since Trump's first term, when he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by former President Obama. When Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, the U.S. imposed tough sanctions and what Trump called 'maximum pressure' on the country. ▪ CNN: An emboldened U.S. and a weakened Iran will hold nuclear talks. Is there space for a deal? ▪ The New York Times: Some Israelis favor attacking Iran, expressing skepticism about talks. ISRAEL: The Israeli Supreme Court gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government a deadline Tuesday to find a compromise over the prime minister's firing of his top intelligence chiefs. The decision has further polarized an already divided Israel: Supporters of the government view Ronen Bar as disloyal to Netanyahu. Critics, meanwhile, consider his removal a dangerous precedent that undermines independent democratic institutions. The courtroom battle could open the door to a constitutional crisis. ▪ The Washington Post: Amer Rabee, a Palestinian American teen, was fatally shot by Israeli troops in a West Bank village. ▪ NPR: Fewer military reservists in Israel are willing to report for duty. ▪ Reuters: As calls for Hezbollah to disarm gain momentum, a senior official said the group is ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons. UKRAINE: The U.S. 'will have no patience for bad faith negotiation or violation of commitments' as it seeks to end the war in Ukraine, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. 'We will ultimately judge President Vladimir Putin's commitment to a ceasefire by Russia's actions,' Shea told the 15-member council. ▪ The Economist: Ukraine thinks it can hold off Russia as long as it needs to. ▪ CNN: Ukraine says it captured two Chinese nationals fighting in the Russian army. ▪ NBC News: The Trump administration is considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico as part of an ambitious effort to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border. ■ I'm a lawyer named Mark Cohen. That's all Laura Loomer got right about me, by Mark Cohen, opinion contributor, The Washington Post. And finally … 🐺 Wolves cloned with prehistoric fossil DNA have resulted in a hybrid species similar in appearance to an extinct forerunner, according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences. Dire wolves, Aenocyon dirus, roamed North America before dying out 12,500 years ago, only to live on as inspiration for a creature featured in the HBO TV series 'Game of Thrones.' Beginning last year, white, fluffy wolf pups are said to have resulted from an elaborate gene-editing experiment aimed at de-extinction through surrogacy. The offspring are 99.9 percent gray wolf, but their snowy appearance suggests a dire wolf ancestor. See ABC News video HERE. 'It carries dire wolf genes, and these genes make it look more like a dire wolf than anything we've seen in the last 13,000 years. And that is very cool,' Love Dalén, an adviser to Colossal Biosciences told CNN. He's a professor in evolutionary genomics based at the Centre for Palaeogenetics at Stockholm University. Stay Engaged
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Charles Koch's network launches $20m campaign backing Trump tax breaks
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the flagship political arm of the rightwing network formed by the fossil fuels billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign backing Donald Trump's plans to extend tax cuts and roll back federal regulations. A private fundraising letter from AFP to its secretive list of donors, seen by the Guardian, outlines the organization's strategy for the first six months of the new Trump administration. The eight-page document, made public here for the first time, promises a 'herculean undertaking' in which AFP says it will press for renewed and deepened tax cuts and an 'unwinding [of] as many of the growth and innovation killing regulations as possible'. The group, which has played a significant role in shifting the Republican party to the right in recent years, has announced a $20m campaign to extend the tax cuts introduced by Trump during his first presidency that are due to expire at the end of this year. The donor appeal calls for even bolder tax cuts for corporations that would directly benefit Koch Industries, the energy and chemicals giant from which most of AFP's funding derives. AFP's donor pitch, presented as a 2025 'prospectus', outlines a vast 'lobbying and grassroots effort' – replete with digital adverts, phone calls, social media posts, podcasts and on-the-ground door-knocking – to boost core Trump ambitions. As such, it speaks to the oligarchy of 'extreme wealth, power and influence' coalescing around Trump, which Joe Biden warned about in his final address from the Oval Office. Trump's inauguration on Monday gave tech billionaires including Elon Musk, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos front-row seats. Charles Koch, one of the world's richest people, is now joining the list of oligarchs seeking to enhance Trump's second presidency in mutually-beneficial ways. It is estimated that the Kochs, who own the US's second-largest privately held company, have benefited by more than $1bn a year from Trump's tax cuts. That bonanza would continue were the reduced corporate and income tax rates effected by Trump continued. Koch Industries, which includes major oil refining and distribution interests, also stands to profit from any curtailment of federal environmental regulations combatting the climate crisis. As one of his first acts back in office, Trump moved for the second time to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement. 'Koch Inc is primarily a fossil fuel company, so they are going to do very well under Trump,' said Arn Pearson, executive director of the progressive non-profit watchdog Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). CMD obtained the donors' letter and shared it with the Guardian. AFP was founded in 2004 by the libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch (David died in 2019). It remains a key political advocacy group within the Koch network, with $130m of its $168m budget in 2023 coming from the Kochs through their main funding channel, Stand Together. Relations between Trump and Charles Koch have at times appeared to be strained. In 2018, Trump wrote on social media: 'I don't need their money or bad ideas,' referring to the 'globalist Koch Brothers' whom he derided as 'a total joke in real Republican circles'. Last year Americans for Prosperity Action, the Koch network's Super Pac, supported Nikki Haley in the Republican primary race over Trump. But AFP went on to aid Trump's bid for a return to the White House by running an intensive digital advertising campaign in swing states relentlessly and falsely attacking 'Bidenomics' as the sole cause of inflation in the US. AFP's prospectus suggests that whatever remaining animus that may exist between the two men has now been smoothed over. 'Trump and Koch are working hand in glove transactionally to move the parts of the Trump agenda that the Koch network agrees with – and that's a lot of it,' said Nancy MacLean, professor of history and public policy at Duke university. MacLean is author of Democracy in Chains that chronicles how the Kochs exerted their grip on US politics. The affinity of the two rightwing behemoths is amply on display in Trump's cabinet nominations. Pete Hegseth, the newly-confirmed defense secretary, is former chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, a non-profit group working for the rights of military veterans that now forms part of AFP. Chris Wright, a fracking company boss who has been nominated as Trump's energy secretary, has openly expressed support for the Kochs. In 2023, he donated $100,000 to AFP Action, research by the Energy and Policy Institute found. Extending the tax cuts is one of the key policy aims of the second Trump administration, at an estimated cost of $5tn. Such a massive expense would require deep cuts to public services, including potentially slashing MediCaid. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Trump got his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through Congress with the help of a $20m ad campaign by AFP. Before he died, David Koch boasted: 'AFP worked very closely with the White House to win passage of the tax reform plan President Trump outlined.' The AFP donors' letter depicts the tax cuts as a 'huge win for the American people', including 'low- and middle-income Americans making less than $50,000'. In fact, the cuts have disproportionately benefited wealthy Americans and corporations like Koch Industries. The prospectus says that AFP will mount a huge lobbying effort with a goal of 1,500 meetings on Capitol Hill to 'turn up the heat' on Congress members who do not support extending the tax cuts and rewarding those who do. 'We will work to counter the class-warfare argument that tax cuts are for the 'rich'.' An analysis by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that making the tax cuts permanent would have an even more inequitable impact than the original 2017 cuts. The top 1% of income earners would benefit most, while the poorest fifth of Americans would get just 1% of the total provisions. The donors' appeal singles out Latino voters as an especial target of AFP's campaigning. The Libre Initiative, an outpost of AFP that spreads anti-tax and anti-government ideology within Latino communities, will launch a 'national grassroots program to rally Latino Americans to support the extension of the tax cuts', the document says. MacLean said the notion that the Koch network was working on behalf of middle- and low-income and Latino families was a 'bald-faced lie. This is corporate interests from the dirtiest industrial sector – fossil fuels – whose unbelievable wealth can hire an army of so-called grassroots supporters to mislead us all with an agenda for irreversible change that will harm most Americans.' The Koch network has also played a central role in the unfolding attack on federal regulations in areas such as environmental and energy controls. A Koch-affiliated group, Cause of Action, was behind Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, the case that last year led the US supreme court to puncture a gaping hole in the regulatory powers of federal agencies. One of the lead lawyers pressing the Loper Bright case before the supreme court was AFP's former head of policy. AFP's appeal to donors said that it will now use the Loper Bright decision to 'unwind the harmful growth of regulation and the unconstitutional overreach of the administrative state'. It also pledges to use the Koch network's extensive lobbying resources on Capitol Hill to make permanent any cuts to regulation and federal spending achieved by Elon Musk's fledgling 'department of government efficiency', Doge.
