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When Steve Bannon’s name is mentioned in a conversation, it’s normally about Donald Trump, the alt-right, Breitbart, immigration, and sometimes even white nationalism. Words that aren’t normally associated with the former White House adviser are “social welfare,” but his newest plan includes forming a tax-exempt social welfare organization.
No, seriously.
Bannon intends to set up a 501(c)(4) to push his and President Trump’s agenda forward. The significance of such a tax status is that it allows him to collect “dark money” – donations from individuals and corporations that do not have to be reported publicly. There’s a catch to such an organization. According to the IRS, a 501(c)(4) is intended for “social welfare” and cannot have politics as its “primary activity.”
In other words, they need to do enough to help the world in a way that satisfies IRS criteria for social welfare. With the rest, they can go after politics and there’s no way to know who has money plugged in.
A source close to Bannon told Axios he’d be focusing on China, trade, immigration, education, and inner city infrastructure development. The last two should qualify easily as “social welfare” while the first three will likely be positioned in ways that allow Bannon’s group to claim them as social welfare as well.
Overall, the intent is to promote the President’s agenda. Of this there should be little doubt. The reason they’re willing to mess with social welfare at all is because it gives them the cover their donors need. There are plenty of big donors out there that would love to support certain aspects of the President’s agenda but would never associate their money with him or his causes publicly. By filing as a 501(c)(4), Bannon’s group hopes to be the dark money pit in which these donors can pump their dollars.
Further Reading
Steve Bannon’s new group
Why it matters: For all the speculation about Bannon’s relationships with donors he’s had no fundraising apparatus to date.
What we don’t know: Which donors will fund the group. And we may never know because, under the law, Bannon won’t have to tell us.
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