The New York Times reports that the political network founded by right-wing businessmen Charles and David Koch is plotting a $70 million campaign to "sink" former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 Republican Party primary.
While the Kochs have in the past signaled their willingness to spend to defeat the former president, the Times reports that the network is becoming more aggressive as polls show Trump absolutely dominating the Republican primary electorate despite the fact that he was impeached twice during his first term and has since been indicted twice on dozens of felony charges.
However, the Kochs have yet to find a potential candidate who seems capable of bringing Trump down among GOP voters.
"With seven months until the primaries, the Koch coalition of conservatives is still searching for who its influential and wealthy donors believe can take down the former president, a reflection of a broader paralysis among anti-Trump Republican donors who have watched in shock as Mr. Trump’s poll numbers have held despite two indictments," writes the Times. "A memo that circulated inside the Koch network this month made the case that Mr. Trump’s renomination was not inevitable, arguing that the issue of electability could still weaken him."
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The Times report cites a memo recently written by Michael Palmer, president of the Koch-affiliated group i360, that accused "left-leaning media" of pushing for Trump's inevitability, presumably because they think he would be easier to defeat than other Republican nominees.
"The country is in a much different place than it was eight years ago. Voters of all stripes (including G.O.P. primary voters) have a changed base of knowledge regarding the former president, and other candidates will most certainly treat him differently in the primary this time around," Palmer claimed in his memo.
