According to a new report from the New York Times one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is set to headline a cash-grabbing fundraising event at his Florida resort and makeshift home of Mar-a-Lago next month to help peddle and fund various Republican candidates who have earned his endorsement, as well as numerous political action committees (PACs) — a group the Times blisteringly refers to as a “shadow political party.”
And, of course, it seems as though the entire ordeal is yet another desperate effort on Trump’s part to cling to power within the GOP.
The report claims that Trump and his allies are currently scheduling an influx of events not only with the intent to raise some cash but to secure the disgraced former guy as the “kingmaker” of the Republican party, through the candidates he’s endorsed, as he gears up for a possible third stab at the White House in 2024.
“Taken together, the pro-Trump groups form a sort of shadow political party that could help start another presidential campaign and, if that were successful, shape his administration. They include Mr. Trump’s own PACs, which amassed more than $100 million by last summer, employ an overlapping roster of former top officials from his administration, and have signaled that they intend to embrace policies and candidates supported by Mr. Trump,” the NYT report reads.
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The report goes on to note that those groups “have also helped reinforce his properties as a center of Republican power, holding events at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.”
They go on to note that a “nonprofit group called America First Policy Institute, which was started last year to serve as a think tank for Trump world,” and “has the look of a Trump administration in waiting.”
“It raised more than $20 million last year and has 110 employees,” the New York Times reports. Among those employed was former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker, “and a number of former Trump cabinet members, such as David Bernhardt (who ran the Interior Department), Rick Perry (Energy Department), and Andrew Wheeler (Environmental Protection Agency).”
All in all, Donald Trump has graced around 100 different GOP candidates with his endorsement that he believes is so coveted, many of which are directly opposed by other leaders within the Republican party.
S.V. Dáte, a HuffPost White House correspondent who gained notoriety when he famously asked then-President Trump back in February of 2020 if he regretted “all the lying” he’s done to the American people during a press briefing, has described the upcoming events as “Trump taking yet more $$$$$ by having GOP candidates stage an event at his for-profit tennis and croquet social club.”
Trump taking yet more $$$$$ by having GOP candidates stage an event at his for-profit tennis and croquet social club. https://t.co/0OzHVS7YCb
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) January 4, 2022
You can read the full report from the New York Times here.
Featured image via U.S. Air National Guard photo by Dale Greer
