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Some conservatives reject Trump and Trumpism for their own good reasons. I can think of many principled reasons why a conservative would reject Trump without compromising their principles. 

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I have my own mixed feelings about Trump, and my support for him is based on a calculation that he is the right man at the right time to fix some fundamental problems the country is facing right now. My support is not based on emotions, special loyalty to the man, and unlike many I don’t hold a grudge against anybody who preferred somebody else to be the nominee. 

But it’s no secret that the vast majority of the NeverTrumpers who have dedicated their lives to opposing Trump as a special threat to democracy are just grifters. There are conservative intellectuals who have sacrificed greatly to explain and promote their view that Trump is wrong or even dangerous, but the NeverTrumpers you know and hate have just switched sides to mine a rich vein of Democrat gold. 

Chief among the scammers making bank opposing Trump are the fine, fine people at The Lincoln Project. As with most con artists, they package their grift in attractive marketing materials–in this case, harkening back to the great Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president–solely in order to lighten the wallets of their mark. 

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Unlike, say, Bill Kristol or David Frum, whose financial prospects were unaffected by their rejection of Trump, or the conservative influencers who actually sacrificed their audiences and their financial prospects to make their objections heard, the Lincoln Project folks saw an opportunity and took it. By now it’s clear that ideological differences with Trump were irrelevant when it came down to business–literally. 

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group that has been mired in controversy since its formation, routed millions of dollars this election cycle to companies owned by its leaders, according to federal records.

Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show that, over the last year, the Lincoln Project paid around $7 million to consulting firms led by senior Lincoln Project operatives. The group, which has been dogged by self-dealing allegations and for its handling of sexual harassment allegations against Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver, spent $4 million on ads opposing President-elect Donald Trump and supporting Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.

“A group of people pretending to be conservatives 10 years ago set up a grift operation mostly funded by lifelong Democrats in order to attack conservatives,” said Wade Miller, executive director of the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank. “If you blindly looked at their public communications, you’d think they were Black Lives Matter.”

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That last line is absolutely true. I follow The Lincoln Project on X and their tweets were indistinguishable from the Democrats’ big influencers, with the exception that they were if anything more vile and disgusting. 

During the election, every slander, every sly implication, and every outright hoax ever cooked up to harm Donald Trump was amplified and expanded upon by The Lincoln Project, and now, after the election, the organization continues to harangue us with slanders against Trump’s appointees. 

I especially like the swipes at Pete Hegseth. For an organization formed by a pedophilic sexual harasser of teenage boys, it is particularly rich. 

Dubbed in Esquire one day after the election as “the most useless people in America,” the Lincoln Project raised $15.5 million and burned through $16.2 million this year. The organization limped out of this cycle with more than $630,000 in unpaid invoices, largely in connection to limited liability corporations tied to Lincoln Project personnel, records show.

Since last January, the Lincoln Project has paid $2.1 million to Lever Communications, the media agency of its senior adviser, Joe Trippi. The funds were earmarked for digital ads and other consulting services.

In that timeframe, the Lincoln Project also dished out $1.5 million to Third Act Media, which counts Lincoln Project creative adviser Ben Howe as a staff member.

There was $934,000 from the Lincoln Project’s war chest set aside for Wilson’s Intrepid Media for “political strategy consulting,” “strategic consulting,” “equipment,” and “travel,” according to records. Summit Strategic, and the firm’s leader, Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen, scooped up $758,500 from the Lincoln Project.

Lincoln Project adviser Stuart Stevens’s Message Mountain firm came away this election with $535,000 for “political strategy consulting,” according to financial disclosures. Lincoln Project senior adviser Trygve Olseon’s Viking Strategies was paid $435,000, largely for “communications consulting,” while another senior PAC adviser, Jeff Timmer, saw $387,000 paid to Two Rivers Public Affairs — in which Timmer is a partner.

The Never Trump PAC also paid almost $392,000 to former Lincoln Project adviser Tara Setmayer’s Veracity Reigns firm, records show. Setmayer is the co-founder of a new anti-Trump PAC called the Seneca Project, which spent just around $500,000 this election.

In turn, the Seneca Project paid tens of thousands of dollars this year to Setmayer’s firm for “general campaign consulting,” “fundraising consulting,” and office expenses. The Seneca Project insists it is not affiliated with the Lincoln Project.

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I’m not quite sure why The Lincoln Project’s Democrat megadonors keep pouring money into this ridiculous organization, but then again these are the same people who thought Liz Cheney might help Kamala Harris win last November. 

As you can see, all this money that was supposed to help defeat Donald Trump was really all about enriching the Lincoln Project bigwigs. I suppose you can count that a win for us, given that they are useless when it comes to persuading people, so the money was as well spent as advertising Kamala Harris on The Sphere. 

But it is still frustrating to see these grifters get rich despite being despicable and that some people still claim they are “conservative.”

They don’t speak for anybody I know, and I’ll be happy enough when they finally get tossed into the dustbin of political history.