First things first: not all NeverTrumpers are grifters, and not all grifters are NeverTrumpers. Some are even AlwaysTrumpers.
Grifting in politics is about as surprising as gambling in Casablanca. We are always “shocked!, shocked!” to see it.
What makes the NeverTrump grift so…icky, I guess…is that the people engaged in it claim to be doing so out of a self-sacrificing commitment to principle and honesty. They are the sleazy TV evangelists of the political world, and there is something really creepy about people who speak with such self-righteous moral clarity being nothing more than the scum of the earth.
I’m shocked, shocked that Mrs. Bulwark is a grifter using her NeverTrump shtick to line her pockets. https://t.co/19sPFGGOGz
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) March 20, 2024
Longwell has the sort of smugness that makes your skin crawl. Claiming to be a Republican, she is actually just a smarmy political operative who is profiting off the passionate hatred for Trump in some circles.
Profiting how? How about founding a nonprofit, collecting money, and funneling it all through her for-profit company for personal gain? It appears to be perfectly legal, just as it is for a TV evangelist to cry on TV for donations and use the money to buy mansions and private jets.
Legal, but scummy as hell.
A Never-Trump advocacy group paid millions of dollars over three years to a communications firm owned by its executive director, public records show.
Defending Democracy Together (DDT), a 501(c)(4) anti-Trump organization founded to fight the purported “nativist and authoritarian impulses” in the Republican party, has paid over $10.6 million to the communications firm Longwell Partners since 2020 for services ranging for management to research, according to tax documents and Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
Sarah Longwell, the executive director of DDT, is the president and CEO of Longwell Partners, according to the websites of both organizations.
Nice gig if you can get it. Collect money for a nonprofit, hire your own company to manage the group, and pay yourself will all that sweet anti-Trump dough.
Payments to Longwell’s firm took up 12.7% of DDT’s revenue in 2020, or about $4.8 million, tax documents show. In 2021, 19.5% of DDT’s revenue, or about $2.6 million, went to Longwell Partners with that figure rising to over $2.9 million in 2022, or 32.1% of DDT’s revenue.
It would be interesting to know how much of the remaining funds were spent with Longwell’s friends. Often when you hire a consultant you are also hiring all his or her cronies who run related companies. They come as a package deal, and kickbacks are often a bonus round for the bucks.
That is how it works. Let’s just say there isn’t competitive bidding in this world.
DDT has been active in the 2024 election cycle, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and opposing Trump in the Republican presidential primary, FEC records show. The group also launched a campaign to get Republicans to support funding for Ukraine.
The organization is well-funded, bringing in $37.7 million in 2020, $13.6 million in 2021 and $9 million in 2022, according to tax forms. Much of the organization’s funding comes from traditionally left-of-center donors.
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Longwell also serves as the president of the Republican Accountability PAC, another anti-Trump political organization that’s spent over $1.2 million opposing the former president’s re-election bid since 2023, according to FEC records. The PAC also paid millions to Longwell Partners.
Republican Accountability PAC paid over $2.9 million to Longwell Partners between July 2022 and December 2023, according to FEC records. Republican Accountability PAC also shares office space with Longwell Partners and DDT, according to its website.
Republican Accountability PAC describes itself as an organization representing “Republicans and conservatives who want the party to move on from Donald Trump.”
Republican Accountability PAC, like DDT, has also attracted interest from traditional liberal donors. Democratic megadonor and Jeffery Epstein associate Reid Hoffman, for instance, has given the group millions since 2022, FEC records show.
There are circles within circles, including some leading into the media world. The Lincoln Project has the same business model, with its founders steering the project’s spending through firms owned by the people who run it.
It is a grift, pure and simple. These people need Donald Trump to stay active because it funnels millions of dollars into their own pockets.
Among all her other efforts, Longwell is the publisher of The Bulwark. She also has three podcasts sharing the mic with fellow NeverTrumpers.
Ironically, if you have heard of her it is probably due to her ties to The Bulwark. That may be her most prominent position, but it is unlikely to give her any benefits other than for branding. I don’t know The Bulwark’s finances, but it is unlikely to be a cash cow. Opinion magazines rarely are.
No, it is her behind-the-scenes work that are the real grift. I can assure you that unless you are Rush Limbaugh, Joe Rogan, or one of the lucky few who are real stars, opinion journalism is not a way to get rich.
That is reserved for the political consultants who run their own nonprofits, as Longwell does.