On Wednesday, conservative group FreedomWorks announced it is shutting down, blaming Donald Trump for his “splintering effect” on the Republican Party.
“We're dissolved,” said the group's president, Adam Brandon. “It's effective immediately.”
FreedomWorks' board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday was be the last workday for the group's roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.
He said the decision to dissolve the company was driven by the ideological changes driven by Trump's time in office. (RELATED: Koch Network Cuts Funding For Nikki Haley After South Carolina Primary)
“A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist,” Brandon said. “So, you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.”
He said FreedomWorks staff became divided into MAGA Trump supporters and “Never Trump” Republicans. Brandon said the organization saw “an erosion of conservative donors” because they specifically wanted the group to work for Trump, when the organization would only support Trump if it was on topics they agree with. (RELATED: Kevin McCarthy Predicts Act That Could Secure Donald Trump's Victory)
Brandon called it “an impossible situation” to navigate as some donors would say he wasn't doing enough to support Trump and others would say he was doing too much. Brandon, who has been with FreedomWorks since 2005 and has acted as president for about 10 years, told the outlet he plans to create a new organization that is focused on politically independent millennials and Gen Z members.
The group's closure doesn't come as a complete shock for employees as FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March 2023, and its total revenue dropped by roughly half since 2022, Brandon told Politico.
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