A nonprofit that employs numerous Trump administration officials and is laying the groundwork for the former president’s potential second term raised more than $23 million last year – nearly a third of which came from a single anonymous donor, previously unreported tax documents show.
The documents show that America First Policy Institute – a think tank that’s been described as a “White House-in-waiting” and has released a spate of conservative policy proposals – burned through most of the funds it raised, spending $22 million over the course of the year. That included the rental of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for a fundraising gala that featured a keynote speech by Trump himself.
But AFPI’s windfall has also sparked tensions with Trump’s team, with some advisors concerned the group has been taking in donations that would be better routed to the former president’s campaign or affiliated political action committees, a source familiar with the internal conversations told CNN. The debate comes as Trump and his allies have laid out a vision for a second term in which he would wield presidential power in radical and unprecedented ways.
As a charitable organization under tax rules, AFPI is barred from engaging in campaign activities, and it has said it’s preparing policies for the next Republican president – whether that’s Trump or someone else. But the group’s leadership looks like a Trump administration reunion, with officials such as former Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon, former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, former acting director of the Domestic Policy Council Brooke Rollins, and former acting Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf.
The group raised $23.6 million in 2022, up from more than $14 million the previous year, according to a tax document filed last month with the New Mexico Attorney General’s…
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