While ex-President Donald Trump spent his first weeks in private life building a sprawling MAGA money machine, below the surface his loyalists were quietly overhauling a key component of that fundraising behemoth: its dark-money arm.
That political operation had been bolstered for years by a super PAC, America First Action. Between 2017 and 2020 the Trump-endorsed group hauled in nearly $200 million for the MAGA cause, largely from Republican megadonors. But tucked away in a federal court filing this March was a piece of unreported news: âAmerica First is currently in the process of winding down its affairs.â
Around that time, a rift between Trump and top adviser Jared Kushner had reportedly pushed the former president toward his old allies. News reports began to tease a new pro-Trump super PAC headed up by former 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Soon a federal filing revealed a new super PAC with a familiar nameâMake America Great Again Action. Trumpâs inner circle initially kept it under wraps but eventually pulled back the curtain in May, announcing a fundraising dinner at Trumpâs Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. The reported price tag: $250,000 a head.
Last week, MAGA Action filed its first Federal Election Commission report, showing about $5 million in contributions. The first donation was an April 4 $750,000 gift from America First Action.
America First Action president Brian O. Walsh provided a statement confirming the organization had undergone a wholesale shift, and that his group was giving its âfull supportâ to the Lewandowski operation.
âAmerica First Action began winding down earlier this year and are throwing our full support behind Make America Great Again Action. We are forever grateful for President Trumpâs support and leadership, and urge all our supporters to join MAGA Action as they carry the America First banner into the future,â the statement said.
Walsh did not answer questions about whether the transfer included personnel and other resources. However, disclosures show the rise of Trumpâs new super PAC has been fueled in large part by the old super PAC. Of the $5 million MAGA Action raised this year, more than a third of itâabout $1.79 millionâcame from America First Action. Both groups can raise and spend money in unlimited amounts, but canât give directly to candidates. Other notable donors include former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who gave $250,000 at the end of June, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who contributed $100,000 in May.
According to a person with knowledge of Trumpâs thinking, the pivot was connected to the Kushner rift. The shift, the person said, âis evidence of the distance Jared created between himself and Trump,â adding that Trump was âfilling that gapâ by âgoing back to the team heâs more familiar with.â
That move is marked by the ascendance of Lewandowski, a divisive presence who for a time had fallen out of favor with a number of people in Trump world, including the former president. After his dismissal from the 2016 campaign, Lewandowskiâwho was charged with battery for an altercation with a Breitbart reporter on the trailâsnubbed Trumpâs offer of an administration post, reportedly characterizing such a position as âbeneath him.â And when he later floated a Senate run, the MAGA Action chief administrator had some trouble navigating the ins and outs of super PAC rules.
But while Kushner represents a part of the MAGA world at odds with Lewandowskiâand was central to the campaignâs fundraising effortsâhe did not play a public role in America First Action. The group was a brainchild of other Trump advisers, including former campaign manager Brad Parscale, and Paul Manafort associate and former campaign official Rick Gates.
A Kushner representative did not reply to The Daily Beastâs request for comment.
To date, MAGA Actionâwhich as a super PAC can accept checks from companies and âdark moneyâ nonprofitsâhas spent more than $500,000 in support of two Trump-backed candidates in closely contested GOP primaries.
The first of those primaries, in a House special election in Texas, delivered the Republican kingmaker an embarrassing defeat, despite a last-minute $100,000 ad buy from MAGA Action. But the second race redeemed the former president, with his candidate Mike Carey fending off a pack of GOP competitors in Ohioâs 15th District. It also redeemed the new super PAC, which put nearly $420,000 behind Carey. Trump himself never visited the district, and only gave Carey his blessing after Lewandowski appeared at a Carey event in June.
But America First Action is only one lever in the Trump dark-money machine. Its affiliated nonprofit, America First Policies, can raise and transfer funds without limits, and, unlike the super PAC, it isnât required to disclose its donors. While the two groups couldnât directly coordinate, they shared office space and even personnel, including leadership. All told, federal filings show the nonprofit contributed more than $22.4 million to America First Action through the end of 2020.
The same day America First Action made its $750,000 kickoff donation to MAGA Action, it reported a $750,000 transfer from America First Policies, filings show.
Those names are confusing, but thatâs a common feature across the Trump operation. And this year a new one appearedâAmerica First Policy Institute, a nonprofit whose leadership includes a slew of former administration officials. The group reportedly counts Kushner and Ivanka Trump as advisers, and launched in April with a first-year budget of $20 million.
Weeks later, AFPI officials joined Trump at the lectern to announce they would be backing his lawsuit against social media companies. They also made the same misleading fundraising pitch, directing supporters to a donation page which they falsely claimed would allow others to join the class-action suit.
Walsh did not reply when asked whether America First Policies had undergone a similar transition, to the new AFPI nonprofit. The group disabled its website when Trump left office.
