Trump takes aim at Koch brothers
President criticizes neighbors who didn’t back him in 2016.
The list of Palm Beach billionaires with memberships at Mar-a-Lago who have ticked off President Donald Trump grew by two on Tuesday when Trump bashed Koch industries’ powerful donor network in a two-part, early morning tweet.
Twin brothers Bill and David Koch, whose family founded Koch Industries Inc., both own oceanfront estates in Palm Beach — one just north of the president’s private club.
In the first tweet, Trump lashed out at the “globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade” and noted he has not sought their support or financial backing.
In the second tweet, he added that the Kochs’ “network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn.”
The president’s tweet presumably came in response to last month’s meeting in Colorado Springs of major donors to the Kochs’ political funding and policy network. David Koch and brother Charles Koch founded Americans for Prosperity in 2004 — a conservative libertarian political advocacy group that has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative candidates.
However, the group — arguably one of the most
influential American con- servative organizations — did not back Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Bill Koch, who parted ways with his brothers during a nasty, 16-year-old legal battle, shares some of his broth- ers’ conservative views but is liberal on issues such as gay marriage, abortion rights and the decriminalization of drugs He supported Mitt Romney’s run for president and has also given money to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida.
Bill Koch, who has reconciled with his twin, founded Oxbridge Academy on Military Trial in West Palm Beach and has been a longtime supporter of the Palm Beach Police Foundation, which hosts its annual ball at Mara-Lago.
The political snub back in 2016 prompted Trump to lash out against the Kochs during the campaign, call- ing candidates they backed — such as Florida Republi- can U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — “puppets.” That was a theme Trump returned to in this week’s missives, saying he is “for America First & the American Worker — a pup- on his frequent golf weekpet for no one.” ends at Mar-a-Lago.
After last weekend’s gathAnother ad shows a video ering, the Kochs’ powerful clip of Greene confronting and deep-pockets group fur- Trump in the dining room ther distanced itself from at Trump International Golf Trump and the Republican Club, claiming Greene is “the base, citing Trump’s aggres- only candidate in America sive trade and immigration who was willing to stand up policies and the divisive politto Trump in his own dining ical climate in Washington. room.”
The Kochs are the most As for who is the richest recent Palm Beach billion- among them all, Forbes estiaires to find themselves in mates David Koch’s worth at the ring with Trump. Dem- $60 billion, Greene’s at $3.8 ocrat Jeff Greene, Trump’s billion and Bill’s at $1.7 bilneighbor and Mar-a-Lago lion. Trump is worth $3.1 member, launched his tele- billion. vision ad campaign for governor blasting Trump for the millions of tax-dollars spent