Anti-Donald Trump Mailers Sent Out by Top Republican Donor

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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A damning anti-Donald Trump leaflet has been distributed by Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action), one of the most influential conservative organizations in the U.S., which is urging Republican voters to choose an "electable" alternative to the embattled former president.

Americans for Prosperity, also known as AFP, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch, who died in 2019. The family is among the richest in the U.S., and the two brothers together built an important network of conservative and libertarian donors.

While Charles Koch and AFP have never been supportive of Trump, the group had previously never gone as far as to actively campaign against him, as it is doing now.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump attends the game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Clemson Tigers on November 25, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. An anti-Trump mailer shared by Americans for Prosperity went viral on social media. Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images

"You have the power to stop Biden... by letting go of Trump," the anti-Trump mailer sent out by the group reads, as can be seen on images of the leaflet shared on social media.

"Choose a new leader, an electable leader, who can defeat Joe Biden and return this nation to prosperity," the mailer continues.

The leaflet gives us an idea of the battle Trump faces in 2024, not just from Democrats, but from within his own party, as the group has pledged to fight his bid for re-election.

In February, AFP and AFP Action released a strategy memo, covered by The Wall Street Journal, in which it urged the Republican Party to pick a candidate "who can win" in 2024.

While the document never mentioned Trump directly, a clear reference to the former president can be found in the group's call for conservative to "turn the page on the past several years," which have created division and given the Democrats a political opportunity to increase support.

"To write a new chapter for our country, we need to turn the page on the past," the memo reads. "So the best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter," it continues. "The American people have shown that they're ready to move on, and so AFP will help them do that."

In February, Trump was the only declared candidate for the Republican primary. Newsweek contacted Trump's 2024 campaign and AFP for comment by email on Monday.

AFP Action sat out the last two presidential cycles, but has now declared to be "prepared to support a candidate in the Republican presidential primary who can lead our country forward, and who can win."

In June, an official from the group said that it had raised more than $70 million for political races and other down-ballot races in the House and Senate to sink Trump's bid for 2024. Part of AFP Action's campaign against Trump involves two digital spots portraying the former president as a "serial loser" who is "unelectable."

As of November 22, Trump was ahead of any of his rivals in the Republican primary polls, with 60.3 percent of the vote, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Update 11/28/23, 2:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include AFP Action, a PAC established by the Koch Brothers network, AFP.

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more