It’s hard to be a Koch brother — at least, according to Charles Koch.

Recently, Charles has been publicly unsatisfied with the billionaires’ political influence, despite their enormous political empire. In the last six months of 2015, Freedom Partners, the Koch brothers’ super PAC, raised over $11 million, of which $3 million came directly from Charles Koch.

For years, the Kochs have manipulated rules and laws to favor their bottomline. They’ve virtually taken over the Republican Party.  But then there’s Donald Trump — the man who can’t be bought.

The Kochs are used to getting what they want, and they’ve hit a snag in the 2016 Republican nomination process. But even as Charles whines, his political machine is gearing up to take down Trump.

According to NBC News,

The Koch network is unlikely to endorse a Republican presidential candidate in the primary, but what is less clear is if the […]

In 2014, the Kochs’ political machine helped propel a then-unknown state senator to victory in the Iowa Senate race — Joni Ernst. The billionaires saw something in Ernst that convinced them she should be their newest puppet in the U.S. Senate. Now, it looks like the Kochs have turned their attention to another competitive senate race, this time in Florida.

With Marco Rubio’s presidential fate still undecided, the Kochs are faced with losing one of their best shills in the Senate. So it’s no surprise that over the weekend Ron DeSantis won an invite to the Koch donor conference:

With such a crowded Republican field in the race to replace Rubio, it’s too soon to know how things will shake out. The Kochs have placed their bets and are clearly planning to run their 2014 Iowa playbook. But voters would do well to remember — no […]

Charles and David’s latest front-group, Stand Together,” was initially advertised as (essentially) aiming to trick “generally disengaged from politics,” moderate voters into supporting the Kochs’ selfish agenda. Neat idea.

Born from the ashes of Generation Opportunity, the Kochs’ failing “millennial-outreach” front-group, Stand Together — like every Koch group — was from the start clearly developed with political purposing in mind. As referenced above, back in September, CNN described it as an opportunity to activate (and indoctrinate) disengaged, moderate voters.

But now that the Koch PR machine’s behind it, Stand Together claims to be nothing of the sort. On the contrary: Stand Together, the group claims, is about oh so much more than that: “The sole purpose of Stand Together is to make a real difference in real people’s lives by actually solving the problems they have,” Evan Feinberg, executive director of the group,earnestly explained to USA today.

But here’s the thing: it isn’t. That’s just the Koch […]

To: Interested Parties
From: Eddie Vale, VP, American Bridge 21st Century 
Date: January 30, 2016 
Re: Kochs Retreat For 2016 With Trump In The Spotlight & Their Dirty Laundry In The Press

On Monday, Republican caucus-goers across Iowa will gather to take the first official steps in selecting the eventual GOP nominee for President. But first, far from Des Moines, a group of our country’s richest 0.1% will gather at a ritzy luxury resort to plot how they’ll buy the White House and further advance their self-enriching agenda in the Senate, House, and state legislatures across the country.

The Kochs are hungrier than ever to further their control over not just the GOP, but our entire government. This weekend is a rally for drumming up support — and serious cash — for electing the Kochs’ puppet candidates and advancing the Kochs’ agenda that’s good for billionaire families like theirs, but bad for almost every other family in the country. 

Here’s what we’re watching […]

For years, Senator Kelly Ayotte has done the bidding of the Koch brothers in hopes they’ll provide millions in cover on the airwaves for her tough reelection battle this year. And just a few months ago, it looked like she was going to cash in all of her hard work on behalf of the Kochs: the Koch network boasted that reelecting Ayotte was one of their top priorities in 2016, AFP went up with $1.2 million in ads for her, and David Koch even headlined a fundraiser for her in October — all because the Kochs can’t afford to lose someone who does their bidding in Washington.

Time and time again, Senator Ayotte has eagerly done what’s best for the billionaire brothers ahead of what’s best for New Hampshire — picking up an 82% lifetime score of voting with the Kochs — opposing raising the minimum wage, protecting tens […]

In a new interview with NPR, Charles Koch comes clean on his motivations to “change the rules” in ways that will benefit his own financial interests; his concerns that he still can’t spend enough to buy elections; and his view that the government creates “a system of control and dependency.”

Spending Money To “Change The Rules”

Here’s one illuminating exchange from the interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep:

INSKEEP: You’ve had a number of battles over the years — your companies have — with the Environmental Protection Agency. You do believe in following the rules, but did this cause you to want to change the rules, alter the rules?

KOCH: No, I wouldn’t say that. Or, you could say that, to some extent. 

There you have it: Koch slipped up and admitted on the record that for him and his brother, everything comes down to pure self-interest. As for Inskeep’s generous assertion that the Kochs “believe in following […]