By Suzanne Cook Catlin

Written by Suzanne Cook Catlin

Have you ever wondered who the feckless self-proclaimed “Republicans” are in advertisements and on social media condemning Trump? Why are supposed conservatives, once respected within the Republican Party, now Never-Trumpers? Why is there a network of “Republican” organizations, under the umbrella of Defend Democracy Together, working against Trump’s re-election and now his administration? The answer may surprise you.

Republicans would never support the policies of the Democratic Party because Republicans believe in our country’s founding principles. Democratic policies and tactics are too close to communism to be acceptable. It’s akin to selling one’s soul to the devil. These Republicans have set their principles aside to partner with Democrats to secure millions of dollars in funding to defeat Trump and, for that matter, MAGA. Now that Trump’s been elected, they’re running negative articles and social media posts to cast doubt on Trump’s agenda. The question is why? Let’s answer that question by starting with who they are. (The author wishes to thank Influence Watch for their reporting on each of these organizations.)

Most of these groups were started by Sarah Longwell and William (Bill) Kristol. Sarah Longwell is President and CEO of Longwell Partners, a communications and political strategy firm. Longwell serves as the Executive Director of many of the organizations. She is also the publisher of The Bulwark, a website co-founded by Bill Kristol, who serves as editor. Kristol was the former publisher of The Weekly Standard, an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis, and commentary. Both Longwell and Kristol claim to be Republicans.

Defend Democracy Together (DDT). – This is the first group founded in 2018 by Kristol and Longwell, along with Mona Charen of the Public Policy Center. Their FEC registration filing states that the group is Democratic/Liberal. They worked with the far-left Democracy Fund Voice to create an advertising campaign against Trump during the impeachment inquiry through Republicans for the Rule of Law. They accepted over half a million dollars in grants from Democracy Fund Voice, funded by left-wing mega-donor and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Defend Democracy Together states they are currently inactive, but their website is being maintained and it’s identical to the Republican Accountability Project’s website.

OpenSecrets called it the “top ‘dark money’ spender” of the 2020 election. DDT also received $75,000 from the Hopewell Fund, one of the many activist and grantmaking organizations managed by the left-of-center philanthropic giant Arabella Advisors.

Republic Affairs – Republic Affairs supports birthright citizenship for illegals and strongly supports the Justice Department’s fraudulent investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. They were against the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Russian collusion investigation found no wrongdoing. Republic Affairs was awarded $150,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in September 2018 through a donor-advised fund provider. This Foundation is left-of-center and funds environmentalist causes, abortion access, and some right-leaning institutions that support left-of-center policy. They’ve taken dark money from other leftist organizations.

Republicans for the Rule of Law (R4RL) – This organization, created by Longwell and Kristol, was used to pressure Republican lawmakers during the Trump impeachment trial by running an advertising campaign telling Republican members of Congress to “demand the facts” about the Trump-Ukraine scandal, even though Congress ultimately acquitted Trump of those allegations. The group also supports birthright citizenship. They’re primary method of operation is to run ads costing million,s encouraging people to pressure their representatives to support Trump’s impeachment. Different ads targeting Trump covered their other agenda items. For example, they recruited former federal prosecutors who stated in ads that Trump would have been indicted if he had not been President. These ads ran on the top mainstream media news programs.

Republican Accountability Project (RAP). – Also founded by Longwell and Kristol, this organization and its related PAC have been spending millions to defeat Trump. They’ve run Never-Trump ads attacking him using former Trump administration officials talking about their unhappiness with Trump. However, they fail to provide any solid evidence of their claims. James Comey is the only high level senior official to participate openly. As you’ll read below, he was a Never-Trumper in 2015. His negativity is based on his dislike of someone from outside D.C. scrutinizing the work performance of those who run the government.

Republicans for Voting Rights (RVR). – This group advocates loosened voting requirements and opposes election integrity legislation. They target Republican lawmakers and policy advocates who work to prevent voter fraud and election manipulation. This is another Kristol-Longwell organization managed by the Republican Accountability Project. They have also partnered with the Lincoln Project. Lincoln Project’s website states “….our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times — our democracy depends on it.” These Never-Trump Republicans endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and endorsed Kamala Harris for 2024.

Log Cabin Republicans. – Longwell started the Log Cabin Republicans as an organization that supports and promotes gay rights. She is gay and married to a woman. She parted company with the Log Cabin Republicans when disagreement over policy arose. Longwell was too far left for a group that was already on the left side of the Republican spectrum. They prefer a carve-out of unique rights for their special interest group. True conservatives support the Reagan position of “equal rights for all” without special carveouts.

Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT). – Founded by Kristol-Longwell, promotes voting without proof of citizenship. RVAT has committed to spending $50 million on Never-Trump advertisements. These ads feature voters who used to support Republican candidates but now oppose Trump. They also work with DDT and RRL.

Collusion With the Left in the 2024 Election

Joint press releases issued the week of October 20 from Republican Voters Against Trump and leftist Future Forward announced an ad blitz targeting Trump’s economic agenda. It was picked up the next day by The Hill (also known as The Hill), which caters to the D.C. left-wing elite. Also picking up the story at warp speed was CBS News. No doubt other news outlets followed suit because Trump’s economic agenda quickly became a point of discussion by the leftist news media. Future Forward’s website states: “Our mission is to help rebuild America’s middle class — and American democracy — by advancing new ideas and fresh perspectives.” Their ideas are old and stale. For example, they support Obamacare. It’s neither new nor fresh. It’s responsible for the many failures in our bureaucratic, heavily-regulated, and expensive healthcare system, which has added illegal migrants to it. Future Forward encourages constituents to call their representatives and pressure them. This is the announcement of this joint project.

The millions of dollars committed by these organizations and others like them to defeat Trump were and are astounding. It’s easy to identify their overall influence on voters, representatives, the mainstream media when viewing their ads. The news media, social media, Google search engine manipulation, and even the Harris campaign used their propaganda. As noted above, these groups are, in essence, conspiring against the American people, and they do it through the distribution of their fraudulent messaging. Since Trump took office, they have doubled down on undermining key provisions of Trump’s American recovery plan.

Digging Deeper into the Reasons for the Never-Trump Conflicts

The easy answer is that Trump isn’t one of them. They’re all DC insiders and part of the Deep State. They don’t appreciate Trump turning the tables upside down and upending decades of globalist work to bring the US in line with the New World Order.

James Comey, former FBI director, is the only Never-Trumper who actively participated in the ads of the Never-Trump campaign. Comey endorsed Kamala Harris for President. However, many senior officials formerly in the Trump administration didn’t support Trump’s 2024 run for the White House, but they stopped short of disparaging him in ads. Wikipedia lists many of the “Anti-Trumpers”. Among them are James Comey, Mike Pence, James Mattis, John Bolton, Dan Coats, and John Kelly. These six are among the approximate 26 executive department heads and cabinet posts, plus the Vice President, who make up the President’s Cabinet. They’re clearly in the minority.

Trump Overruled Staff Advice

Trump disregarded or overruled the advice of senior officials several times. As mentioned, only one, James Comey, became a Never-Trumper. It wasn’t Comey’s experience with his new boss that turned him against Trump. According to a Whistleblower, he’d already targeted Trump in 2015 for a “secret investigation: confirming there was ‘institutional (FBI) bias’ from the beginning. The Washington Times broke the story about these allegations last year.

“. . .Mr. Comey personally directed the investigation without creating an official case file in Sentinel or any other FBI system. Comey did not follow procedure, and he did not have a “legitimate reason” to avoid creating a case file in the FBI’s system.

Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 until May 2017, when President Trump fired him.”

Comey’s Never-Trumper negative ads are one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Never-Trumpers. The difference is that Never-Trumpers focus on Trump’s behavior and perceived deviations from conservative principles, often criticizing his style and character. In contrast, anti-Trumpers target the substance of his policies and ideology, as well as the perceived impact of those policies on society. But the question has to be asked: Is Never-Trumpers support for birthright citizenship, voting without proof of citizenship, Obamacare, impeachment of a sitting President based on false charges, partnering with leftist organizations who support abortion access, special interest group “rights”, accepting ‘dark money’ and supporting extreme environmental causes conservative? What benefits do they have for our Constitutional Republic and the grassroots? Or are they running their own unethical agenda under the guise of supporting conservatism? Who’s the wizard or wizards behind the curtain pulling the strings?

These are examples of key decisions where Trump overruled his senior officials. This shows how far apart they are on policy and key decisions.

Firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord.
Firing of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Withdrawal from Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal.
Firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Dismissing a Climate Change Report.
Open borders and deportation of illegal migrants.
Tariff negotiations and other financial policies
Middle East peace deal.
Russia-Ukrainian peace deal.
Exposure of fraud in USAID and other government programs.
Reducing the size and scope of government.

Many of these people, who were involved in shaping decisions in past administrations, are critical of Trump because he didn’t take their advice and is overturning domestic and international policies that were harming our country. Whether these disagreements were valid is up to history to decide. But looking at them on face value, it appears that the decisions Trump has made are good ones.

Consequences of Trump’s Policy Disagreements

Here are some consequences claimed by some of Trump’s former senior officials that resulted from their disagreements. They claim Trump’s decision-making was polarizing and lacked cohesion and consistency. His policy execution was ineffective in handling national security, immigration, and healthcare issues. He disregarded their advice, eroded trust, and this led to increased turnover, resulting in the loss of valuable institutional knowledge and expertise. These same accusations are being rehashed now as part of the Never Trumper effort to undermine the President’s agenda. They are patently untrue.

Some thought that Trump’s disregard for senior officials’ advice may have led to an increased reliance on “fringe or ideologically driven” advisors (aka, MAGA), who often lacked the necessary expertise and experience, further exacerbating policy implementation issues. This charge has been leveled at just about every one of Trump’s appointments, from Pete Hegseth (Defense) to Kash Patel (FBI), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Health & Human Services), to others. Finally, they say that the consequences of Trump’s disregard for his former senior official’s advice may have left a lasting legacy of mistrust among government officials, experts, and the public, potentially affecting the ability of future administrations to implement policies and respond to crises effectively. This can be read as Trump is shaking up the status quo among the rank and file, and they are confused, or in many cases, don’t like the new direction and are actively working to undermine it.

While it may seem like disarray to “insiders”, to people on the outside, it looked like the agenda of the people who voted for him had finally penetrated the D.C. monolith.

When an Outsider Disrupts the Status Quo

Whenever an outsider comes to Washington, D.C., conflict is almost inevitable. President Ronald Reagan was considered a D.C. outsider; however, he had the advantage of bringing his California gubernatorial staff with him to Washington. They were accustomed to working together and were skilled at working out their disagreements. They served as a buffer between Reagan and the D.C. institutional senior officials. Reagan was also used to the frustrations of working within a government entity. The massive size of the federal government, with its broad range of activities, requires a wide range of expertise. But the most essential characteristic of the Reagan administration was their policy cohesiveness.

Trump didn’t have Reagan’s advantage in 2017; however, Trump has a different advantage this time that even Reagan didn’t have. He has a team of highly respected, diverse, intelligent, and successful executives with corporate and/or government experience working together to resolve issues. Many of them have both. He is a rocket scientist. They are cohesive on strategy, and they understand that the very survival of the country is at stake. They’ve put the country above their interests and are making personal sacrifices to make it happen.

Whether differences in management style, communications problems, or disagreements with Trump on policies are the source of the Never-Trumper’s disillusionment, we can’t be certain. What is certain is that the Never-Trumpers who are actively working against Trump now are not traditional Republicans. There’s no doubt that Trump isn’t the type of Republican they hoped would be in the White House. They had hoped for Kamala Harris. However, they have no right to undermine the will of the voters or our founding fathers in a draconian manner.

In the next few years, the Republican Party as a whole has an opportunity to reinvent itself and reclaim the principles that made it great. Those principles haven’t changed, but the way they are applied has. It has to be made clear that working with Democrats, as the Never-Trumpers have, is unacceptable. They’re disloyalty to Trump, the Republican Party and our Country by partnering with the other side borders on treason. The administrative nightmare that’s become the governing force in our country is nothing more than the overlaying of a communist form of government on top of our Constitutional republic. Embracing communism and enslaving Americans with a communist form of government doesn’t solve problems; it only exacerbates them and creates new ones.

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Image Credit: Gage Skidmore

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