‘Anti-Trump activist’: Conservative groups rip former Romney adviser’s attempt to influence MAGA agenda

A salient economist trying to power the incoming Trump administration's economical policies is facing disapproval from blimpish groups implicit his organization's wide donors and past disapproval of President-elect Trump's agenda.

Oren Cass, who antecedently worked connected some of Mitt Romney's statesmanlike campaigns, is the laminitis and main economist of American Compass, a blimpish deliberation vessel that has made inroads with aggregate salient Republican lawmakers successful Congress.

Over the past year, Cass' doctrine has reportedly gained traction successful immoderate pro-Trump circles, but respective conservatives person taken contented with his accrued power and interest his policies volition undermine the Trump docket based connected his past anti-Trump comments. During a May 2021 interview, Cass likened Trump to "an earthquake" due to the fact that helium believed Trump was a "disaster successful galore ways."

"Self-proclaimed ‘conservative’ Oren Cass and his American Compass is not, and volition ne'er be, viewed arsenic a morganatic dependable successful Republican argumentation circles. CNBC’s Joe Kernen got it close erstwhile helium called them 'bonkers, walking quacking uniparty progressivism.' And their backing lone proves that," Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital.

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Oren Cass, right, is the main economist astatine American Compass. (Getty Images)

"As American Compass continues to enactment successful concern acknowledgment to generous donations from extremist left-wing organizations similar the Hewlett Foundation and the Omidyar Network, Club for Growth is arrogant to basal with President Trump and the overwhelming bulk of Republican voters who enactment existent blimpish policies, similar the proposals described successful our Foundation’s recent "Freedom Forward Policy Handbook," including: taxation cuts, spending cuts to trim the deficit, deregulation to boost American manufacturing, American-first vigor policies, schoolhouse prime and idiosyncratic freedom," helium continued.

A important chunk of American Compass' backing comes from a fistful of foundations tied to wide causes, including astir $2 cardinal from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Omidyar Network, which has provided 11% of American Compass' backing and is led by a laminitis described arsenic "notable for backing liberal-in-conservative covering groups that people erstwhile president Donald Trump and his supporters."

American Compass is besides associated with the "Reimagining Capitalism Partners" fund, which includes the Center for American Progress, Sixteen Thirty Fund-linked Groundwork Action, Progressive Caucus Action Fund, Tides Advocacy and Demos, a socialist deliberation tank.

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Cass’ radical has besides received implicit $200,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, a multibillion-dollar instauration that has bankrolled respective left-wing causes, including extremist biology groups and "Imagining America," a "coalition of colleges engaged successful left-wing program development," according to the Capital Research Center. 

The San Francisco Foundation, which has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to far-left groups, gave $100,000 to American Compass.

When Fox News Digital pressed Cass connected his organization's backing and disapproval from rival blimpish groups, helium blasted the "anti-tax zealots" criticizing his organization.

"American Compass advocates for constricted authorities and a committedness to paying for the authorities that we person alternatively than leaving the measure to our children," Cass told Fox News Digital. "Anti-tax zealots tin lobby for larger deficits if they want, but conservatives are nether nary work to travel them into the fiscal ditch." 

President-elect Trump during UFC 309 astatine Madison Square Garden Nov. 16, 2024 successful New York City. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

In summation to the wealth that American Compass has received from left-wing groups, its advisory committee includes aggregate Democrats, including Ganesh Sitaraman, who served arsenic a elder chap astatine the Center for American Progress and has been a longtime advisor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., dating backmost to her 2012 Senate campaign. 

Matt Stoller, the probe manager astatine the American Economic Liberties Project, which received astatine slightest $500,000 from George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society and astatine slightest $230,000 from the Omidyar Network Fund, is besides connected the advisory committee and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats.

Tom Hebert, the manager of contention and regulatory argumentation astatine Americans for Tax Reform, blasted Cass arsenic an "anti-Trump activist" successful a connection to Fox News Digital.

"The American radical returned Donald Trump to the White House with a beardown economical mandate: chopped taxes, slash job-killing regulations and beforehand idiosyncratic freedom. Oren Cass founded American Compass arsenic a ‘post-Trump’ enactment and opposes the Trump economical docket astatine each level, adjacent calling the landmark Trump taxation cuts an ‘expensive failure,’" Hebert said. 

"Cass is not a conservative. He’s an anti-Trump activistic that MSNBC has connected velocity dial to undermine Trump’s second-term agenda."

In summation to Hebert’s quote, Americans for Tax Reform published a portion successful July with the headline, "Who Said It, Oren oregon Warren?" The portion pointed to the taxation plans of Sen. Warren and Cass’ American Compass, which were some published a period earlier and see aggregate quotes from Warren and Cass, asking readers to place the root of each quote.

In this June 1, 2018, record photo, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks astatine the 2018 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention successful Worcester, Mass.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

"Warren’s program calls connected Democrats to cull extending the Trump taxation cuts," the portion says. "The projected fund released by Oren Cass’ American Compass, which describes itself arsenic ‘the flagship for a healthier and much responsive post-Trump blimpish movement,’ calls for the afloat expiration of the 2017 Trump taxation cuts, would summation the firm complaint to the Biden-preferred level of 28%, and backs Warren’s telephone for a fiscal transaction tax."

Americans for Tax Reform went connected to call American Compass "left-wing" and said Cass was the "leader of the tax-hiking American Compass" successful a abstracted station from earlier this twelvemonth owed to his absorption to Trump’s taxation cuts.

Cass was mocked earlier this twelvemonth aft helium went connected CNBC and suggested that lowering taxes and the firm taxation complaint is not "conservative," adding, "There is thing blimpish astir that … implicit extremist nonsensical notion." 

The clip prompted Richard Stern, who serves arsenic the manager of the Heritage Foundation's Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, to dependable disconnected connected Cass, saying, "[Cass on] CNBC this greeting defending the uniparty's effort to bargain your wealth and enactment it successful their hands — and to halt superior from flowing to caller and tiny businesses. With ‘friends’ similar this, who needs socialists."

During a C-SPAN interrogation implicit the weekend, Cass praised immoderate aspects of Trump's archetypal administration, saying the United States "made a tremendous magnitude of progress" by implementing a "much much assertive commercialized argumentation and confronting China." He besides praised the incoming Trump-Vance medication connected immoderate of its Cabinet picks, including calling Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., an "excellent" State Department prime due to the fact that of his enactment sounding the alarm astir China being our "main adversary." 

He added helium hopes the medication volition person a "labor argumentation that is overmuch much focused connected the interests of workers," pointing to Vice President-elect JD Vance's past comments and saying commerce and labour are the "heart of our economical policy."

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Despite Cass offering immoderate praise of Trump, helium has been a longtime professional of Trump's 2017 taxation cuts, calling them an "expensive failure" and saying Trumpism is facing an "inevitable expiration" and adding successful September 2020 that Trump is "building nary intelligence foundation, nary organization infrastructure and nary argumentation agenda."

After Trump's 2024 predetermination victory, Cass continued to awesome absorption to Trump's taxation policy. 

"Well, I deliberation we person contiguous a authorities wherever some candidates spell astir talking astir however they`re conscionable going to chopped everybody`s taxes," Cass told PBS Nov. 10. "And, of course, everybody likes a taxation cut. But I don`t deliberation those are the things that are going to crook our system successful a overmuch amended direction."

During different interview from earlier this year, Cass said 1 of the things helium thought was "most encouraging" was that determination aren't "mini Trumps" and that helium is "extremely encouraged" by the post-Trump epoch Republican leaders helium is seeing.