Pro-Trump donors in huge cash drive to boost doctors pushing states to reopen

A powerful conservative coalition whose key members have strong Trump administration ties, is seeking to raise $5m to back hundreds of doctors pressing states to open rapidly and to build support for new tax cuts and curbing pandemic spending, say its leaders.

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The Save Our Country (SOC) coalition was launched in April by veteran advocates of small government policies who lead rightwing groups like FreedomWorks Foundation, Tea Party Patriots and the shadowy state policy network the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec).

Nearly all top public health voices, like the White House adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, urge caution in reopening states. There is broad consensus among most public health experts worldwide that too swiftly ending lockdowns risks a potentially devastating second wave of infections in a pandemic that has already cost more than 100,000 American lives.

But the Tea Party Patriots have spearheaded a drive, in radio and TV interviews, to mobilize doctors urging states to move faster. It is now attracting broader financial support from rightwing donors and groups in the shape of the SOC. Doctors in the group have also pushed unscientific theories about the pandemic in ways that have sparked anger and criticism.

The Tea Party leader Jenny Beth Martin said the group has about 800 members and its mission is to “educate the American public about the unintended side-effects” of the shutdown. Martin said 800 doctors signed a letter in May to Donald Trump which called the lockdowns a “mass casualty” event causing depression and other ills and urged Trump to end the “national shutdown”. A copy of the letter is going this week to governors nationwide.

The coalition’s key groups are dark money non-profits that historically have been funded by a mix of wealthy donors, corporations and conservative foundations. One leading figure in the loose-knit coalition is the FreedomWorks economic adviser and free markets advocate Stephen Moore.

Brandon said the SOS coalition has raised just over $800,000 towards a $5m goal for projects including new ad efforts – online, radio and print – to rev up grassroots pressure to reopen states faster, plus curtail more federal spending and promote business-favored tax cuts.

Los Angeles-based Dr Simone Gold, who has been prominent in the doctors’ drive, was featured over Memorial Day weekend at a rally in Los Angeles which drew the conservative radio host Dennis Prager.

According to the Associated Press, the Council for National Policy Action, another SOS member, on 11 May held a call about the doctors’ effort with Trump campaign officials who indicated they plan to launch a similar drive soon. Gold told the AP that there was “no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned about” Covid-19 – something that downplays all medical evidence about the pandemic’s risks.

Gold has also used talk radio to tout the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine – which Trump has taken in hopes of blocking Covid-19 – despite growing scientific evidence it carries big health risks.

The coalition’s economic and health agendas are drawing fire from scientists and economists of all political stripes.

“The fact that these organizations have found doctors who are willing to support a rightwing agenda designed to help Donald Trump against all scientific evidence and appropriate public health practices is shameful,” said Irwin Redlener, a professor of public health at Columbia University.

Critics notwithstanding, Brandon said the coalition recently spent $50,000 for videos on Facebook, Hulu and Twitter targeting independents and Republicans with the message that Covid-19 mostly hits the elderly to minimize risks for others.

FreedomWorks, which boasts an arm whose tax status permits lobbying, has also been prodding the Senate “to pump the brakes on new spending”, Brandon said referring to the $3tn-plus that has already been allocated for corporate relief and the pandemic’s painful fallout for tens of millions.

Besides coalition projects, Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks have tapped their email lists and social media to mobilize activists to join “liberate” demonstrations in more than 10 states including North Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia and Michigan, with the latter attracting some gun-toting activists.

Key groups in the SOC coalition, which has 200 members, have been funded by prominent billionaires, including some who have been active in the sprawling big-money network led by the oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch.

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Tea Party Patriots, for instance, received almost $2m in 2017 and 2018 from Richard Uihlein, whose net worth in early 2020 was almost $25bn according to public records. Charles Koch, whose net worth Forbes last month pegged at $46.5bn, has been an Alec funder. The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, whose net worth in February was $6.5bn, has backed Job Creators Network which also belongs to the coalition.

The coalition and some member groups have held strategy conference calls that include some wealthy donors and underscore White House ties. FreedomWorks and Brandon hosted one such call on May 21 with Vice-President Mike Pence and Moore.

A GOP source who heard the call said Pence offered mostly familiar rhetoric about “restoring American greatness” and congratulated the call’s “distinguished” participants.

In turn, Moore stressed FreedomWorks support for a payroll tax cut, an idea Trump has pushed but which has faced bipartisan Senate opposition in part because it mainly helps workers with jobs, and not the tens of millions newly unemployed.

Jerry Taylor, who heads the non-partisan Niskanen Center and used to work at Alec leading a taskforce on energy and the environment, faults the coalition’s economic and health analyses.

“The political actors involved with these groups are united both in their hostility to mainstream science – which they consider a conspiratorial leftist plot to destroy free market capitalism – and their superficial understanding of economics. Fully reopening the economy will not produce an economic recovery until the coronavirus is contained and can stay contained,” he said.