GOP Megadonors Junk Trump, Who Vows Revenge

Last month, in an extraordinary snub to Donald Trump, the Club for Growth, one of the biggest contributors to conservative political causes, left the ex-president off the list of invitees to its annual donor retreat, held this week in Palm Beach, Florida, Sasha Abramsky reported for Truthout.

Photo Insert: The Club for Growth, which focuses mainly on pushing a deeply regressive anti-tax agenda, has donated upwards of $150 million to candidates in the last two election cycles.

Meanwhile, it made sure to invite a “who’s who” of Trump’s potential rivals in the upcoming GOP primary season: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Kristi Noem, Tim Scott and Glenn Youngkin, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Chris Sununu, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

All but Youngkin and Pompeo replied that they planned to be in attendance, said Abramsky, an Oxford alumnus, and lecturer at the University of California at Davis.

The Club for Growth, which focuses mainly on pushing a deeply regressive anti-tax agenda, has donated upwards of $150 million to candidates in the last two election cycles.

Its retreat, held this year in Trump’s home state, is the Davos of the business-conservative world; Its attendees the glitterati of greed and of Republican political ambition.

In excluding Trump, the megadonors, led by Club for Growth President David McIntosh, have essentially advertised on a huge roadside banner their intent to recapture the GOP from Trump and his evermore extreme, nationalist, MAGA followers.

Trump was not amused by the snub. He and his team have spent the past month, since the invite wasn’t issued to him, deriding the Club for Growth as “globalists,” which, in his parlance, is somewhat akin to dubbing them mass-murdering traitorous pedophiles.

They are also, he has posted on Truth Social, “losers” and “political misfits.” And, poor souls, they are the “Club For NO Growth.”

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic