Trump campaign plans 'entirely off-the-record' meeting with outside groups after FEC ruling

26 April 2024

Former President Donald Trump's campaign is seizing on a new opportunity after the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) issued a ruling last month easing restrictions on coordination between political campaigns and outside groups.

Politico reported Friday that Trump's 2024 campaign is organizing an "entirely off-the-record, private" meeting next week in Palm Beach, Florida with several well-heeled GOP-aligned organizations so they can discuss election-related activity. A letter by Trump campaign political director James Blair invited the groups to the "invite-only" strategy session, which was described as a "meeting of the political minds" with the goal of sharing "priorities and plans" leading up to November.

"Please know that your attendance is considered critical, and your effort to be there would be greatly appreciated," the letter read.

While a full list of invitees was not released, Politico confirmed that two of the groups present at the meeting will be Heritage Action — the political arm of the far-right Heritage Foundation behind the controversial Project 2025 presidential transition plan — and Turning Point Action (TPA). The latter group is the campaign arm of Turning Point USA, whose founder, Charlie Kirk, described the Civil Rights Act as "a huge mistake" and said that the late civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was "awful."

Prior to March 20, political campaigns and outside groups were not permitted to have any official coordination with each other, with its rules laying out three "prongs" that it uses to categorize ways in which coordination could be possible — a payment prong, a content prong and a conduct prong. However, the FEC last month issued an advisory opinion allowing a limited amount of coordination on canvassing (door-knocking) operations. That ruling concerned a Texas group supporting Republican candidates for the state legislature seeking to coordinate on campaign literature and scripts for canvassers.

"The Commission concluded that the canvassing literature and scripts are not public communications under Commission regulations," the FEC wrote in the opinion. "As a result, the canvassing literature and scripts would not satisfy the content prong of the Commission’s coordinated communications regulations."

Blair's letter indicated that the Trump campaign would “share our macro view of the electorate with you and discuss new opportunities (in light of a recent FEC ruling) for our organizations to collaborate more effectively than we have been able to in the past,” and asked participants "to come prepared to share any information you legally can about your priorities and plans with us.”

The letter also acknowledged that several Republican officials "will oversee this meeting to ensure legal compliance," including Republican National Committee chief counsel Charlie Spies and Trump campaign counsel Dave Warrington.

Politico also reported that around the same time as the May 3 meeting, there will be a three-day donor confab in Palm Beach featuring several high-profile Republicans including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Tim Scott (R-Florida), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Governors Doug Burgum (R-North Dakota), Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota), Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Florida), Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and the former president himself.

Trump is still trailing President Joe Biden in campaign fundraising despite having several high-dollar fundraisers featuring Republican-aligned billionaires writing six-figure checks. As of March 31, Ballotpedia reported that Democratic-aligned campaign committees and the Democratic National Committee had raised $462.2 million so far, with $157.3 million in cash on hand. Republicans and their committees have raised just $375 million, with $114 million in cash on hand.

Click here to read Politico's full report.

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