David Koch Won't Fund Trump Coronation in Cleveland

[brooklynite]

Source: Bloomberg

David Koch, one of the biggest backers of the 2012 Republican National Convention, won't support the party's next gathering in July where Donald Trump is expected to be named the party's presidential nominee.

Neither David nor his brother Charles will contribute to the RNC Host Committee this year, said Kenneth Spain, a spokesman for their company, Koch Industries. The billionaires are among the country's biggest and most influential conservative donors.

The Kochs' political organization, which plans to spend some $450 million on conservative causes this year, has made no secret of its distaste for Trump. Charles Koch said in an interview with USA Today this week that Trump would have to shift his stance on a number of policies in order to win his support, and that he found the candidate's recent comments about a judge's Mexican heritage "unacceptable."

The Kochs' refusal to support the convention suggests that Trump's alienation of some of the party's biggest donors has ramifications beyond the presidential race. While the focus of the gathering, scheduled to begin on July 18 in Cleveland, is on the selection of a presidential nominee, it's also an important opportunity for thousands of the party's activists, candidates, and donors to rub elbows.

David Koch, 76, gave $1 million to support the convention in Tampa, Florida, four years ago, making him one of the top individual supporters, and he also attended as a delegate from New York. He isn't a delegate this year and doesn't plan on attending the convention at all, Spain confirmed.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-10/david-koch-won-t-fund-trump-coronation-in-cleveland

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The good news is that Trump will be able to cater everything himself...

[tonyt53]

1. t's not that they aren't supporting Trump, but they want to beat Hillary. Priorities for their cash

[brooklynite]

2. Actually, I've heard they assume they CAN'T beat her, so they're retargeting to Senate races.

[tonyt53]

3. That too, and they can beat her by keeping a GOP majority in at least the Senate.

[PJMcK]

4. As long as Donald Trump doesn't get the Koch's support

Every crack in the Republican facade works for Democratic candidates this November. Mr. Trump has accelerated the fracturing of the broad coalition that Ronald Reagan assembled. The voters toward the base, especially the Tea Partiers, have been scammed for too long and no longer trust the GOP Establishment. Not original thoughts, I know, but anything that helps our side is welcome.

[Roy Rolling]

5. A New Low

When you're not a big enough weasel to get a Koch endorsement that says something.

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. Jealousy?

[Hekate]

7. The good news is that Trump is going to become a pariah. The bad news is the Koch's will try....

...to preserve the down-ballot GOP candidates. They are going to sink obscene amounts of money into keeping the Senate.

This is one of the hazards of (a) embarking on a cult of personality for the top of the ticket, and (b) having no party loyalty because, reasons.

It could work both ways for us -- if Republicans who can't stand Trump decide to stay home, it could weaken the down-ballot GOP races. If progressives/leftists/socialists/greens/whatever they want to call themselves decide they can't vote for Hillary because they didn't get Bernie and they're not Democrats (because, reasons) it could do the same to down-ballot Democrats and we could end up with the same stalemate in Congress that we have now.

>sigh<

People on the left are already wringing their hands because they think Hillary will "pivot to the center," which is what every winning candidate in history has had to do, by the way. She has come out of the primaries swinging, considering that speech she just gave at Planned Parenthood. But in order to attract enough nonaffiliated voters, all those people in the middle, she is going to have to show that she cares about them too. They are not batshit crazy, or they would be Republicans. They are just -- middle -- and there are a lot of them.

[Beacool]

8. Didn't his brother Charles say the same thing more or less?

Good!!! Less money going into Trump's campaign coffers.

[StarTrombone]

9. Trump to the Krotch bros

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. The Koch's will just spend their millions

on congressional and state races this year.