2 weeks Ago
Topline While Democrats have slammed right-wing policy agenda Project 2025 for crafting extreme policies for a second Trump presidency, reports indicate it’s America First Policy Institute that could actually influence former President Donald Trump’s second term, as the right-wing policy group appears to be providing Trump with both policy suggestions and financial help. Key Facts Is America First Raising Money For Trump? Possibly. Filings with the Federal Election Commission show a political action committee with the name “America First Action Fund” was registered on Oct.
22. The PAC appears to be linked to the policy institute, listing the nonprofit’s chief engagement officer Ashley Hayek as its custodian of records, but America First Policy Institute has not yet responded to a request for comment on its affiliation. While the policy arm of America First is a nonprofit that cannot support political candidates and their campaigns, its super PAC could spend money directly helping Trump, though it still wouldn’t be able to coordinate directly with his campaign in most cases .
The PAC’s formation so late in the election cycle also means that it won’t have to publicly disclose any of its donors until after Election Day. What’s In America First’s Policy Agenda? America First’s policy blueprint lays out a number of priorities in line with policy views that Trump and his allies have pushed, including imposing tariffs on imported goods, lowering corporate tax rates, protecting “religious freedom,” increasing domestic oil and gas production, getting rid of climate change efforts, opposing policies supporting transgender rights, opposing any gun control measures, imposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients, curbing immigration and reducing America’s role in assisting with international conflicts. The agenda does not call for banning abortion entirely at the federal level, but does argue for defunding Planned Parenthood.
It also does not adopt Trump’s proposal for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, but does call for finishing the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, increasing funding for border agents and ending legal immigration programs like family-based immigration paths and the visa lottery.
How Is America First Different From Project 2025? America First’s agenda is overall less extreme than Project 2025 , which proposes a drastic overhaul of the executive branch that would include abolishing several federal agencies entirely, such as the Departments of Education and Homeland Security. That being said, both agendas are largely aligned in their values, pushing conservative principles and a focus on the federal government prioritizing “nuclear families” and policies that will encourage two-parent households. They also both suggest Trump should broadly overhaul the federal workforce if elected and replace career civil servants with political appointees, with America First advocating that all government employees should be able to be fired “at-will”—making it easier for Trump to get rid of anyone who takes steps he doesn’t like—and only political appointees should be able to craft regulations.
What We Don’t Know Who’s bankrolling America First’s work. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, America First isn’t required to publicly disclose its donors, and federal tax filings suggest a lot of the group’s money is being routed through “dark money” groups that further obscure where a donation is coming from. Among the groups that tax filings do show giving money to America First is a foundation linked to billionaire Timothy Dunn , with The Times reporting Dunn helped form the policy group in the aftermath of the 2020 election and still serves on the organization’s board.
Tangent America First Action Fund is one of several “popup PACs” being formed at the last minute ahead of Election Day. No political donations made after Oct. 16 are publicly reported to the FEC before Election Day, meaning super PACs can register after Oct.
16 and raise money knowing that none of their information will come out until after the election. In addition to the America First PAC, another group called “RBG PAC” registered with the FEC in recent days and is now spending $20 million trying to defend Trump’s record on abortion, the Times reports . The PAC is invoking late Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as part of its advertisements, which her family has denounced, with granddaughter Clara Spera calling the PAC’s use of the justice’s name “appalling” and an “affront to my late grandmother’s legacy.
” Key Background News of America First’s involvement with the Trump transition effort comes as Democrats have made Project 2025 one of the party’s primary arguments against a second Trump presidency, highlighting its extreme proposals in recent months as the election has neared. Trump has vocally opposed Project 2025—despite his reported ties to the Heritage Foundation—and tried to distance himself from the operation as it’s come under widespread scrutiny, with his campaign reportedly planning to blacklist people who worked on it from joining a second Trump administration. The Times reports America First has intentionally kept its activities quiet amid Trump’s rancor over Project 2025, operating largely under wraps as Project 2025 has grabbed national headlines.
The policy group’s work preparing for a second Trump presidency comes amid reports suggesting Trump’s formal transition team is running behind in terms of its own preparations, and has not yet signed agreements with the federal government that allow the government to share information and increase the transition’s access to government resources. Those agreements also require transition teams to follow ethics rules and disclose their donors, which has led to Democrats speculating Trump isn’t signing the agreements yet so as to avoid those requirements. Further Reading Project 2025 Explained: What To Know About The Right-Wing Policy Map Ahead Of Tonight’s VP Debate (Forbes) Meet the think tank planning a second Trump administration.
(It’s not Project 2025.) (Politico) The Group at the Center of Trump’s Planning for a Second Term Is One You Haven’t Heard of (The New York Times) Inside Trump World’s Prep for a Second Term (Wall Street Journal).
