Trump super PAC to spend $100M on tax reform, 2018 races: report

An outside political group closely affiliated with President Trump is looking to spend $100 million to boost the GOP’s tax-reform push and elect pro-Trump Republicans in the 2018 midterms, according to a Thursday Politico report.

America First Action, a super PAC formed earlier this year to promote the president’s agenda, is already outlining plans to raise the money, recruiting wealthy Republican donors and bringing in billionaire energy mogul Harold Hamm to help with fundraising.

Vice President Pence is reportedly set to attend a fundraiser for America First in the coming months, and the group is also discussing the possibility of Trump himself headlining an event.

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“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass strong, bold tax reform for the American people,” Brian O. Walsh, the group’s president, said in a statement to Politico. “Failure is not an option and America First is committed to mobilizing grass-roots supporters behind President Trump’s commitment to the middle class.”

Just last week, senior Trump administration officials met with America First leaders about the push for tax reform, telling the officials that the group planned to spend millions to promote the efforts.

America First is allegedly trying to reestablish itself as Trump’s main outside super PAC, after some other groups, including the Stephen Bannon-backed Great America PAC, have grown their profile in recent months.

Walsh met with donors at a Texas ranch owned by business magnate T. Boone Pickens last week to brief them on the organization’s multimillion-dollar push. He said the group and an affiliated nonprofit had already raised $25 million between the two of them.

Trump and congressional Republicans are in the middle of an all-out push to sell a set of sweeping tax cuts that they hope to pass by the end of the year.

At the same time, Democrats, hoping to seize on the president’s low approval ratings in his first year in office, are preparing to take on vulnerable Republican incumbents in the 2018 midterm elections.