The Koch Brothers Won’t Fund Trump’s GOP Convention

Chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity David Koch speaks at the Defending the American Dream summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, A... Chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity David Koch speaks at the Defending the American Dream summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Neither David nor Charles Koch will contribute to the July Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump is expected to be crowned as the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Koch Industries spokesman Kenneth Spain told Bloomberg on Friday that the billionaire conservative donors won’t donate any money to the Cleveland convention’s host committee, though David Koch was one of the leading backers of the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida.

There is little love shared between the Koch brothers and Trump, who frequently criticizes the oil barons for exemplifying the overwhelming influence money plays in American politics. In December, the Koch brothers even mulled launching a campaign to take down the real estate mogul.

Charles Koch has criticized Trump as a “terrible role model” and even said that it was “possible” that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could make a better president than the Republicans running in 2016.

Rather than donating to the presidential election, the billionaire brothers plan to bankroll TV ads calling for voters to come together to fix the “rigged” economy.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for sjk sjk says:

    I am the only candidate that is self funding!

  2. The Quicken Loans Arena where the R meetup is going to be held is the venue where the Golden State Warriors (go team!) are playing the Cleveland Cadavers and that schedule of games is going to disrupt the usual 6-week lead time for setting up the show to only 4 weeks. RNC knew this was a possibility but agreed on the arena anyway. Tee hee.

  3. If Trump is as rich as he claims it shouldn’t be a problem for him to make up the difference. Unless of course he is lying about how much he truly has.

  4. Is there a bit of irony in the name of the place where Repubulicans chose to hold this convention… Quicken Loans Arena? Can’t they just get a loan ? A few tens of millions should do the trick.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

78 more replies

Participants

Avatar for codegen86 Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for caterpillar Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for leftflank Avatar for bluestatedon Avatar for commenterperson Avatar for trnc Avatar for krusher Avatar for turdburgler Avatar for sandyh Avatar for inversion Avatar for borisjimbo Avatar for lastroth Avatar for musgrove Avatar for twowolves Avatar for darrtown Avatar for thermos_hildebrand Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for beattycat Avatar for sjk Avatar for misterneutron Avatar for edhedh Avatar for jacksonhts

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: