ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump railed Tuesday [7-31-18] against billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, accusing them of being against key components of his populist agenda and suggesting they’re irrelevant in today’s Republican Party. Trump’s public attack, following a weekend in which he was criticized at a Koch network summer meeting, comes amid speculation that the Koch brothers are reconsidering their typically full-throated support for Republican candidates during the midterm elections…In a separate tweet, Trump argued that he ‘made them richer’ and that the Koch network ‘is highly overrated’…Trump has long had a contentious relationship with the Koch brothers, who often support a libertarian perspective. They did not financially back Trump in 2016, though they did spend to support down-ballot races and remain very much a force in Senate and House contests. Since Trump became President, the Koch brothers, whose business interests range from petroleum to ranching to textiles, have supported some of his economic policies — especially rewriting the tax code, which their network backed vigorously — while opposing many of his populist initiatives, particularly his strategy on trade and tariffs.”
–Veronica Stracqualursi, “Trump says Koch brothers are a ‘total joke’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 31, 2018 8:54 am