(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A libertarian organization shut down because of the ideological split in a Republican Party dominated by Donald Trump.
“We’re dissolved. It’s effective immediately,” FreedomWorks’s president, Adam Brandon, told Politico while adding that FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the company on May 7, 2024, with May 8, 2024, being the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees.
Brandon added that the staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.
In March 2023, FreedomWorks laid off 40% of its staff and as a result of a drop in fundraising, the organization’s total revenue has declined by roughly half, to about $8 million, since 2022.
The decision to shut down was driven by the conservatives going back to their roots after Trump came to power, which resulted in a “huge gap” between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA movement, Brandon said.
“A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist. So you look at the base and that just kind of shifted,” he said.
The company itself faced the same split.
“Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,” Brandon said in an internal document.
The change in the conservative movement also impacted fundraising.
“Now I think donors are saying, ‘What are you doing for Trump today?’. And we’re not for or against Trump. We’re for Trump if he’s doing what we agree with, and we’re against him if he’s not. And so I think we’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors,” Paul Beckner, a member of FreedomWorks’ board, said.
Brandon also said that some donors would contact him to complain that the organization was doing too much to help Trump, while others called to complain that they weren’t doing enough to help Trump.
“It is an impossible position,” Brandon said.
