The vast financial network helmed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch plans to spend heavily to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination — and it has obtained data from reports it had commissioned detailing the front-runner's vulnerabilities.
"They are always very hesitant to get involved in a primary, but I think if they were going to do it this would be the time because they just hate the guy," a donor at the Koch network's winter retreat over the weekend in Palm Springs, Calif., told
The Hill.
The network has $889 million budgeted for the 2016 election cycle, though the brothers have made no endorsement.
The anti-Trump strategy will most likely be put into place should the developer wins the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.
About 500 donors attended the retreat, the Hill reports. The network has as many as 700 donors who give more than $100,000 a year to maintain their membership.
During a private session on Sunday, a top Koch official said that Trump has opposed the Koch network on nearly every issue it supports — trade, taxes and corporate welfare.
"There's also a Constitutional piece," the donor said told the Hill. "The president's job isn't to go up there and be a Caesar-like figure."
The data obtained by the Koch network found that voters are most negatively affected by stories showing how working people have fared because of Trump's bankruptcies and business dealings in Atlantic City, the Hill reports.
The stories of ordinary people being harmed as Trump worked to enrich himself work well in "moving the needle" against the developer, according to the report.
Older donors also opposed Trump in the session, while only one tried to defend them.
"You have to judge Trump on his past statements, and while it's clear he's been on two sides of nearly every issue, the one side he's never been on is our side," the donor told the Hill.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.