Dear John, The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has just exposed Koch’s playbook for locking in massive tax cuts for corporations and billionaires and gutting consumer and environmental protections. A private donor prospectus sent by Americans for Prosperity — Koch’s massive influence operation — to its secret list of donors, outlines AFP’s strategy for cozying up with Trump to pursue its corporate agenda. CMD obtained the document and shared it with The Guardian. You can check out their exclusive coverage here. Mother Jones and Accountable US have also picked up the story. Given that Charles Koch and his business empire reaps more than $1 billion each year from Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, it comes as no surprise that it has launched a $20 million nationwide campaign to get those cuts made permanent and reduce corporate taxes even further. An AFP press release boasts that it is “the largest effort by a conservative organization to support President Trump’s second-term legislative agenda.” The Koch machine will enlist its entire gamut of astroturf organizations and pay-to-play groups to get its way, from AFP and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to Concerned Veterans for America and the Libre Initiative. As CMD board member and Duke University historian Nancy MacLean put it in The Guardian, “Trump and Koch are working hand in glove transactionally to move the parts of the Trump agenda that the Koch network agrees with — and that’s a lot of it.” In the months ahead, CMD will continue to shine a light on Koch and the other oligarchs scripting Trump’s radical, dangerous, and anti-democratic agenda. Arn Pearson
Executive Director | 
