Kicking Money Out
of Politics: Trump Boots Koch Brother from Golf Course
by Katie McHugh 2 Jan 2017
President-elect Donald Trump told a critical
biographer and guest of billionaire David Koch to
leave his West Palm Beach golf course on New Year’s Eve, forcing Koch
to leave with him.
Trump’s gesture was another slight against the
pro-amnesty, pro-“free trade”
billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who opposed Trump during the
Republican primary season and refused to help him
during the general election. It also signals Trump will not necessarily
play nice with the GOP political establishment and Beltway right.
The Kochs swooped in during
the Tea Party revolt in 2010, training amateur political activists and trying
to channel populist energy against the Obama administration into
supporting the progressive-business alliance that wanted more cheap labor and
lesser sentences for drug traffickers, under the umbrella term of “smaller
government.”
But the “grassroots army… was not controllable,” as one
former Koch staffer lamented,
and the Kochs appeared curiously unwilling to make any
concessions to Americans who wanted populist, nationalist policies,
and relief from the relentlessly eroding forces of mass immigration and
globalization. A majority of voters— some of whom saw more demographic change
take place in their communities than many countries saw in a
millennia—want immigration slashed in half or reduced to zero. Trump
captured that energy and it propelled him to the White House, much to the
Kochs’ and their network’s chagrin.
The Kochs wanted candidates amenable to their will, and
Trump didn’t fit the bill. They considered him a distraction before he
rocketed to first in the polls, and even
toyed with the idea of spending tens of millions of dollars to
attack him.
Trump mocked the Kochs while on the campaign trail,
calling their preferred candidates “puppets” enacting their donors’ agenda:
Koch’s guest: Harry Hurt III, who authored the 1993 book,
Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, which stated Ivana
Trump accused her ex-husband of “raping” her in a sworn deposition during their
divorce.
In a Facebook post published on the same day, Hurt recounted the incident in third person:
Donald Trump personally booted the author of an
unflattering biography off Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on
Friday. Harry Hurt III, who penned the 1993 biography, Lost Tycoon: The Many
Lives of Donald J. Trump, had come to play with billionaire industrialist
David. H. Koch, a Trump club member, and two other golfers. Hurt, who has a
scratch handicap and plays in colorful knickers, walked over to Trump on the
practice range prior to his group’s assigned tee time, only to suffer a tongue
lashing from the president-elect. “I said, ‘Congratulations, sir,’ and shook
his hand,” Hurt recalls. “Trump said, ‘You were rough on me, Harry. Really
rough. That shit you wrote.’” Hurt says he looked Trump in the eye, and said,
“It’s all true,” to which Trump rejoined, “Not in the way you wrote it.” Among
the juicy tidbits in Hurt’s tome was Ivana Trump’s allegation in a sworn
deposition that Trump had “raped” her during their divorce battle. Trump told
Hurt it was “inappropriate” for him to play at the club, and had his security
detail escort Hurt, Koch, and their playing partners to the parking lot. “David
[Koch] was appalled,” says Hurt. “He branded Trump ‘petty’ and vulgar.’ We played
Emerald Dunes instead, which is a much, much better golf course than Trump
International.”
Accusing Trump of “raping” his ex wife, Ivana Trump, was
a false media accusation arising early in the Republican primaries—and a
weapon the Democratic Party planned to use in the general election after
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and the Daily Beast “rushed it on air”
and into print, using Hurt’s book,
before bothering to check with Ivana about its truth.
It backfired spectacularly when Ivana slammed the
allegations and endorsed her ex-husband for president. ““I have recently read
some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high
tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit,” she
said in a July 2015 statement. “Donald
and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we
love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him
the best of luck on his campaign. Incidentally, I think he would make an
incredible president.”
Breathless media coverage of the New Years’ Eve encounter
between Trump, Koch, and his guest framed it as Trump having
little tolerance for criticism: Nearly every headline focused on the
biographer and his critical book, not Koch.
Read Politico’s report, including more from Hurt and a
transition official’s account, here.
David Koch
David
H. Koch is the EVP for Koch
Industries, and a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Note: Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think
tank), and the Economic Policy
Institute.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Economic Policy Institute.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Thomas A. Coburn
is a member of the National Commission
on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and was a guest at the Koch Industries annual conference.
Paul
Ryan is a member of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a member & speaker for
the U.S. House of Representatives,
and was a guest at the Koch Industries
annual conference.
Koch Industries
is the sponsor for the Koch Industries
annual conference.
Mike
Pence was a guest at the Koch
Industries annual conference, and is the VP-elect for the Donald Trump administration.
