(Bloomberg) -- Two prominent advisers who helped President-elect Donald Trump win a second White House term will be taking on roles at an outside group to help promote his administration’s agenda.
Chris LaCivita, who was Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager, and Tony Fabrizio, the operation’s pollster, will be joining Building America’s Future as senior advisers, they said in a statement.
“We look forward to helping guide BAF and their efforts to promote President Trump’s America First agenda so their efforts compliment and augment the President’s team’s efforts,” they said.
The move, which was first reported by Fox News on Monday, ensures a high-profile role for two people who were instrumental in helping Trump achieve a stunning political turnaround — returning him to power with a Republican House and Senate and with ambitious plans to reshape the US economy and its international commitments.
LaCivita ran Trump’s third White House campaign alongside Susie Wiles and the two were praised by political watchers for bringing a level of discipline and professionalism seen as lacking from the president-elect’s past campaigns. Trump has tapped Wiles as his incoming chief of staff.
LaCivita is a seasoned political operative, who first gained attention as the architect of the so-called Swift Boat operation against John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Party nominee, attacking him over his Vietnam War service. Kerry said the people behind the campaign smeared him by presenting “alternative facts.”
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In 2020, LaCivita led a pro-Trump super political action committee, Preserve America, before being brought on the campaign.
Fabrizio, a veteran of Republican campaigns, was also the pollster for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 runs.
In their statement, the two hailed Building America’s Future as a “valuable and key ally” in promoting the president-elect’s 2024 candidacy and agenda.
The nonprofit which doesn’t disclose its donors, gave $28.3 million to a pair of pro-Trump super political action committees, Federal Election Commission records show. One of them, Future Coalition PAC, ran ads in Michigan, which has a large Muslim community, casting Trump’s general-election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, as a strong supporter for Israel, according to Google’s political ad library. The same super PAC ran YouTube ads directed at Pennsylvania suburbs with large numbers of Jewish voters, presenting her as a staunch ally of Palestinians.
The group is already active in laying the groundwork for Trump’s incoming administration, including running ads in support of his contentious Defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth.
While Republicans will control the House and Senate in the next Congress, the recent turmoil over passing a short-term spending package highlighted both Trump’s sway over his party’s lawmakers and the limits of that influence.
GOP lawmakers scrapped a bipartisan deal House Speaker Mike Johnson had negotiated after Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk attacked the plan, but a subsequent funding package that met the president-elect’s demands on the debt limit failed when 38 Republican conservatives refused to back it.
Lawmakers eventually approved a measure extending government funding through March 14 that President Joe Biden signed.
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.
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