Bannon’s exit may boost Koch network
Conservative advocacy coalition has allies, sway in White House
WASHINGTON — During the presidential campaign, about the only common ground between Donald Trump and billionaire conservative Charles Koch was a colorful disregard for each other.
Koch called the choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton like opting for cancer or a heart attack. And Trump bashed big-money donors, deriding his Republican rivals as “puppets” who begged at Koch’s door.
Not surprisingly, Koch and his allies largely sat out the presidential election and Trump won without them. Normally such a high-profile snub would carry a steep political price.
But Koch’s network of conservative advocacy groups has exerted surprising sway in the Trump administration, scoring some early victories and pushing its priorities to the top of the White House agenda.
Its influence is likely to grow after the ouster of Trump’s top strategist, Steve Bannon, amid the White House turmoil over violence at a white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Va.
Bannon had clashed with several of Trump’s top aides, including those aligned with the Koch crowd, over his hard-right views.
Bannon’s populist agenda, with its nationalist, nativist and anti-immigration bent, found few fans among the business-oriented, small-government conservatives aligned with Koch and his brother David. With Bannon back at Breitbart News, a far-right website, the question is whether he will still have Trump’s ear from the outside while Koch and his cohorts retain strong allies in the White House.
Trump said nothing about Bannon’s exit on Friday, but on Saturday on Twitter, he thanked his former aide for taking over his campaign last summer. The message did not refer to his work in the White House.
“I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service,” Trump tweeted. “He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton - it was great! Thanks S.”
Hours later, Trump wished Bannon well at Breitbart, “maybe even better than before” in the fight against what Trump called “Fake News.”
Over the last seven months, the Koch group’s work has quietly shaped some of the White House’s policy victories.
It started with the quick rollback of a dozen Obamaera environmental and labor regulations, a to-do list compiled by Koch-backed groups even before Trump took office.
Soon after, the Kochbacked Concerned Veterans for America was instrumental in passage of legislation to make it easier to fire employees at the beleaguered Veterans Affairs Department. The end run around civil service protections offered a blueprint that could be replicated in other federal departments.
In July, the Koch network celebrated the official demise of the proposed border-adjustment tax. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had backed the idea, but it was opposed by many business groups, including Koch and his allies.
After months of intense campaigning by the Koch network — 10,000 phone calls to lawmakers’ offices and $2 million on tax-reform ads and other advocacy — GOP congressional leaders and the White House announced that the upcoming tax-reform package would not include a border-adjustment tax.
The Koch network’s efforts to influence the Trump team were aided when the White House hired several Koch-affiliated alumni as key aides for a president who arrived without any government experience or a deeply staffed bench.
“The vacuum in Trump not having his own network is filled by people who’ve been cultivated for years by the Koch network,” said Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California at Irvine School of Law and an expert in campaign finance.
Also helpful is a Republican-led Congress, where many members depend on the network’s political and financial backing for reelection and fear attacks if they stray from the libertarian, small-government orthodoxy.
Even without being active in the presidential race, the network spent $750 million during the 2016 election cycle, including $250 million on campaign ads, voter engagement and other efforts to push issues and shape public opinion.
Through its think tanks, conservative groups and political operations, the network brings organizations together around Koch’s pursuits. It is funded by donations from more than 700 members who each pay $100,000 annual dues to attend its summits.
At a summit in June, when the 81-year-old Koch welcomed hundreds of wealthy donors to the network’s annual seminar in Colorado Springs, Colo., he marveled at how far they had come in the decadeplus since its founding.
“When I look at where we are, at the size and effectiveness of this network, I’m blown away,” Koch said as guests and lawmakers mingled at the posh Broadmoor resort. “We are more optimistic now about what we can accomplish than we’ve ever been.”
The Koch network plans to spend nearly $400 million for campaign ads and other efforts to shape public opinion before next year’s midterm election.
After having spent millions to help Republicans win the House majority in 2010 and the Senate in 2014, some members of the network say they are so frustrated they say they will withhold campaign cash for the 2018 midterm until GOP lawmakers deliver.
Ironically, passage of tax reform is also now in jeopardy with the continued White House upheaval and staff shake-ups.