America First Policies is a 501 nonprofit social-welfare organization, incorporated on January 27, 2017, to promote the America First policy agenda of the Donald Trump presidential campaign. Social welfare organizations are commonly called "dark money" groups in elections contexts, especially pejoratively. On March 30, 2017, Katie Walsh, formerly White House Deputy Chief of Staff, left that position to join America First Policies. The organization has courted controversy, as one of its directors was forced to resign due to racist and inflammatory comments and another adviser was caught proclaiming support for the Nazis on video.
History
America First Policies was founded by several people, including Nick Ayers, a Republican consultant who is regarded as Mike Pence's top political adviser,, Rick Gates and Brad Parscale. America First Policies and its affiliated super PAC, America First Action, have faced criticism for their high turnover of GOP givers. Trump Presidential Campaign donor Rebekah Mercer disagreed with Parscale about the direction of America First Policies. According to investigative journalistVicky Ward, Mercer wanted America First Policies' data engine to be Cambridge Analytica, which would have effectively given her organizational control and potentially influence over the Republican Party. If Mercer had control over the organization's database and the money, Mercer could have led the organization to sway President's supporters against the President. Parscale aggressively sought to establish himself as leader of the group and commented in an early meeting that although he meant "no disrespect" to the Mercer family, the focus of America First Policies ought to be on Donald Trump and his political movement, rather than on the Mercers.
The legally separate America First Action Super PAC serves a similar function of promoting Trump’s policies under the "America First" theme, but due to its legal status may expressly advocate for the election or defeat of particular candidates, and must disclose its donors. Both organizations have overlapping personnel. In the 2018 midterm election cycle, the Super PAC spent $29 million. As of the end of March 2020, it had reported spending $9 million during the 2020 election cycle.
America First Policies' Director for Advocacy, Carl Higbie was forced to resign as head of Corporation for National and Community Service to which he had been appointed by Donald Trump, after making racist and inflammatory comments on a radio talk show about black Americans, Muslims, women, LGBT people, veterans suffering from PTSD and immigrants, which included advocating violence. Higbie also pushed the false Birther conspiracy about Barack Obama. In a 2018 tweet, Higbie apologized for his comments. On May 10, 2018, it became public that the group's policy advisor, Juan Pablo Andrade, was a Nazi sympathizer, who was recorded on snapchat saying that "the only thing the Nazis didn't get right was that they didn't keep fucking going." Andrade has been on Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, Trump’s National Diversity Coalition and the Trump campaign as a surrogate. He also wrote for The Hill, but the outlet dropped him when it learned of the video and its contents. Later that month, it was reported that John Loudon, a policy advisor for the group, used inflammatory and derogatory language against women, Muslims and Democrats. He suggested that Obama was a Kenyan-born Muslim. In May 2018, CVS Health and Dow Chemical announced that they would not contribute more money to America First Policies, citing racist and bigoted comments by the staff at America First Policies. This announcement followed a report stating that three Fortune 500 companies, including CVS Health and Dow Chemical, had contributed to America First Policies.
