In a Financial Times interview out today, Charles Koch goes on the attack against the only GOP Presidential candidate that the Kochs don’t control, Donald Trump.
I ask about the rhetorical turn the race has taken when it comes to dealing with Islamist terror, and about Trump’s assertion that the US could require all Muslims in the country to register with the government.
“Well, then you destroy our free society,” Koch says of the idea. “Who is it that said, ‘If you want to defend your liberty, the first thing you’ve got to do is defend the liberty of people you like the least’?”
He then expounds on the war on terror. “We have been doing this for a dozen years. We invaded Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq. Has that made us safer? Has that made the world safer? It seems like we’re more worried about it now than we were then, so we need to examine these strategies.”
It’s easy to see why Charles Koch can’t hold his tongue on Trump — he’s put a thorn in the Koch network’s plan to buy a White House that puts their self-enriching agenda first, no matter who it hurts.
The Kochs have put millions behind their puppet candidates — and plan to spend even more in 2016 — to ensure that those who do their bidding for them remain in the U.S. Senate. And the Kochs have made it crystal clear — they “expect something in return.”
But unlike every other GOP Presidential candidate, Trump has made it clear he’s not beholden to the Kochs. Trump himself has mocked candidates who seek Koch backing (hint, it’s all of them) as “puppets” and research shows when voters learn candidates are backed by the Kochs, it’s an immediate turnoff.
Trump is holding another big rally tonight in South Carolina and events this weekend in Iowa and Nevada — will he address the latest Koch criticism?