Mapping the Authoritarian Movement: Part Three - The Council for National Policy

[Celerity]

https://globalextremism.org/post/mapping-the-authoritarian-movement-part-three-cnp/



For a special four-part series, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) created a database of senior officials and members of the boards of directors of organizations that are most tightly tied to the Trump administration and the key far-right networks creating and backing his agenda. GPAHE has found three networks to be most influential: the cluster of organizations around Project 2025, individuals connected to the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), and those connected to the Council for National Policy (CNP). In this third part of the series, GPAHE analyzes the influence of the relatively secretive Council for National Policy (CNP), a decades-old coalition of business executives and far-right activists.

GPAHE created a database of senior officials and members of the boards of directors of organizations tied to CNP, and those in their proximity, in order to document their relationships with other pro-Trump organizations, and calculate the extent of their “influence” in the broader far-right network, including their ties to the Project 2025 coalition, and AFPI (for more on GPAHE’s methodology, see the note at the bottom of the text). CNP serves as a private hub for social events, communications, and organizing of conservative activists. It was founded in 1981 when six prominent social conservatives, including Christian Right activist Tim LaHaye, came together to celebrate the election of Ronald Reagan. Soon after, they became active in organizing the Christian Right, business groups, and other wealthy donors in order to influence the Reagan administration.

The group is known for keeping private their official membership lists, which count hundreds of names, and excluding the public and journalists from their activities. To the public, CNP portrays itself as a simple apolitical charity, or a “Rotary Club,” that aims to inform the public about conservative issues. However, CNP has a long history of being an influential pressure group behind-the-scenes. Many Republican presidential candidates have spoken to the group in closed-door meetings. This was the case for George W. Bush in 1999 when it was reported that Bush promised to only appoint anti-abortion judges and take positions against LGBTQ+ rights. Other speakers have included figures such as Oliver North, who sought financial support for the covert military campaign led by the Contra rebels in Nicaragua when he spoke to CNP in 1984. CNP Action, Inc. is CNP’s official lobbying arm.

The only means of identifying CNP’s membership comes from leaked lists and tax forms filed by the organization. CNP appears to have a rotating leadership, with new names found in their executive committee whenever there is a leak. CNP’s private nature means the data GPAHE has access to is certainly not comprehensive. If an individual was listed as a member in a leaked list, GPAHE indicates the year or years, as we are unable to determine if a member left CNP at some point given the limited nature of publicly available information. Many of CNP’s members are extremely influential, including the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, far-right Catholic philanthropist Leonard Leo, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, and former Vice President Mike Pence. Other members lead some of the most powerful Christian nationalist think tanks in the country, or are activists in the broader movement. This is the case for former CNP fellow Ali Alexander, a former Kanye West advisor who was one of the main organizers of the post-2020 election “Stop the Steal” protests.

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related:

Mapping the Authoritarian Movement: Part One - Project 2025

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220251831

Mapping the Authoritarian Movement: Part Two - American First Policy Institute (AFPI)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220253615