The anti-Trump movement takes many forms, from Twitter hashtag campaigns to Super PACs investing millions of dollars in negative ads to conservative talk show host and Ted Cruz endorser, Glenn Beck, spending hours on-air criticizing Donald Trump.
The desire to derail the “Trump-Train” has given rise to strange bedfellows. Conservative/GOP Establishment and Progressive/Liberal billionaires have a shared goal: Stop presidential candidate Donald Trump from amassing the 1,237 delegates needed for the GOP Presidential nomination. To do so, individuals in the “donor class” are investing millions into Super PACs to fund anti-Trump campaigns and provide resources to like-minded groups, media, and social networks.
The Guardian reports that one anti-Trump Super PAC, Our Principles, has spent over $12 million on anti-Trump ads, phone calls and mail focused on voters in Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri as of March 14, 2016. Minnesota broadcasting billionaire Stan Hubbard has joined other conservative mega-donors, including Marlene Ricketts (wife of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts), Paul Singer (hedge fund magnate), and Randy Kendrick, (married to Arizona Diamondbacks co-owner, Ken Kendrick) to provide funding to the Our Principles PAC, which recently released a negative ad in which women portray Donald Trump’s “misogynistic attitude” through quotes attributed to Trump:
The Super PAC also funds a website, TrumpQuestions.com, where voters can find information regarding the PAC supporters’ reasons for opposing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Topic buttons include “Immigration, Healthcare, Protecting Life, and Trump University” which provide linked articles providing evidence for the PAC group’s opposition to the GOP front-runner.
Liberals/Progressives are also crusading against Donald Trump. Billionaire George Soros has been reported giving $15 million to a new Super PAC (Immigrant Voters Win) aimed at mobilizing immigrant (primarily Latino) voters against the GOP and Trump. Soros also funded MoveOn.org (which allegedly took credit for the cancellation of the March 11 Chicago Trump rally, and has been fundraising based on their “victory” in the rally’s cancellation) which is promoting an anti-Trump/GOP campaign on the MoveOn.org “Democracy in Action” site, encouraging people to take a pledge to oppose the “The surging hate-baiting and fearmongering (sic) by GOP presidential candidates…” in the fall. MoveOn.org has also just released details regarding the “Democracy Spring” movement where a massive civil disturbance in Washington DC starting April 11, 2016 is planned. A Breitbart.com report states that the group is funded by George Soros and other progressive groups. The goal is to protest “the most billionaire-dominated, secret money-drenched, voter suppression-marred contest in modern American history.” The movement’s website, DemocracySpring.org, claims “over 2,000 people have already pledged to risk arrest” by joining the sit-in.
Another campaign, StopHateDumpTrump.com touts support from actors, actresses, directors and producers (Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Michael Moore, Lily Tomlin, and Dylan McDermott to name a few) to “union presidents, leaders of worker movements, activists…religious leaders, teachers, professors, civil rights leaders, lawyers, farmers, writers, workers, students, heads of companies, intellectuals, (and) poets…” as well as Noam Chomsky, Van Jones and other celebrity pundits. The website requests that people sign a pledge promising to “speak out in every way possible against the politics of hate and exclusion he (Trump) represents,” and is linked to a Facebook page with over 8,500 followers. Similar to the OurPrinciples PAC website, StopHateDumpTrump.com also provides “hateful” Trump quotes as well as links to news articles about his “hate-filled rhetoric” inciting violence at his rallies.
The fact that Conservative talk show host, Glenn Beck, concurs with George Soros, Van Jones and Michael Moore in their opposition to Donald Trump is one of the biggest surprises in a freakish election season. Beck has endorsed and campaigns for Senator Ted Cruz; and devotes segments of air-time to inform his followers about the damage he believes Trump will cause to the United States if elected. In a recent interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Beck compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in 1929.
Are all the “Stop Trump” efforts working?
Even with millions of dollars being spent against Trump’s campaign, Primary and Caucus results show the negative ads seem to have little effect on Trump supporters. On the evening of the second “Super Tuesday,” (March 15, 2016) elections, Donald Trump celebrated victories in four of five states, including the “winner take all” states of Florida and Illinois. (Which also caused Marco Rubio to suspend his campaign.) Trump defeated Cruz in Missouri by less than 2,000 votes, but gained 25 additional delegates with the .2% margin of victory. John Kasich won Ohio’s winner-take-all 66 delegates and is committed to staying in the race. With Tuesday’s victories, Trump leads the GOP candidates in delegates with 673 accrued as compared to second place candidate Ted Cruz’s 411 delegates.
More evidence that the anti-Trump efforts are not hampering Trump’s campaign comes from Dustin Ulsterman (DC Whispers author): “Something is afoot in America and it involves support for Donald Trump…In particular, it is a surge in support that has the New York billionaire rising well past the 50% approval mark among Republican voters in what is still a four-man primary race.”
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![By Manuel Dohmen (Own work) [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://alphanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Untitled-design-5-1-218x150.jpg "When It Comes to Cash, Democrats Have it In MN Congressional Races")
