They’re looking for one of the existing deep-pocketed outside groups to take action sooner to halt Trump’s rise, with several donors specifically citing the political operation helmed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
At its winter gathering of major donors a couple weeks ago in Indian Wells, Calif., operatives floated the possibility of launching an anti-Trump campaign, according to sources who attended. They said donors were mostly receptive. The Koch network, which intends to spend $889 million on policy and political advocacy in the run-up to the 2016 election, hasn’t previously ventured aggressively into GOP primaries, and sources familiar with the network say there is an intensive debate about the timing and details of a possible anti-Trump campaign.
The Minnesota mega-donor Hubbard, who has donated hundreds of thousands to the Koch network over the years (including at least $50,000 last year), but did not attend the winter meeting, said he planned to call Koch operatives to make the case that they should intervene.
“It’s time to start educating,” he said. “It’s obvious that there is no way that we’re going to be able to make Mexico pay for a wall and all this other nonsense. I don’t think anybody’s done an effective job of pointing that out. Hopefully, we’ll have somebody like Americans for Prosperity and the Kochs who will step up to the plate and do it,” he said.
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