Trump alumni launch America First Policy Institute

Former Trump administration officials on Tuesday have launched America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit group allied with former President Trump, almost three months after the former commander in chief left office. 

The group, comprised of 40 staff members and a first-year budget of $20 million, has been in the planning stages since December and is currently based in Arlington, Va., Axios reported. 

“The America First Policy Institute is launching to continue the transformative changes that happened over the last four years,” Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the group, said in its launch video.

Rollins was formerly the head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council.

“We know what the insider approach is; it’s failure. It’s the outsider approach that wins and we saw it first hand,” she continued. 

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has one central focus: to advance the causes and interests of the American people. #AmericaFIRST, always. https://t.co/hSwfigJnxm pic.twitter.com/uJrcYdUKZX

— America First Policy Institute (@A1Policy) April 13, 2021

Other Trump administration alumni involved include former Energy secretary Rick Perry running the Center for Energy Independence and Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White running the Center for American Values.

The national security section of the group will be chaired by former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as well as former national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.  

Rollins told Axios that the group’s goal is to be “dreamers and … risk-takers.” Rollins hopes the group doubles its current budget for 2022.

The group eventually wants to expand to offices near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., New York and Miami.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband and former White House adviser Jared Kushner will be informal advisers for the nonprofit, according to Axios. 

Under the nonprofit’s website “priorities” it emphasized “jobs first,” “opportunity first,” “security first,” “freedom first” and “innovation first.”

Updated at 4:20 p.m.