HuffPo’s Grim: 54 Private Jets at Meeting to Stop Trump
by JOEL B. POLLAK
9 Mar 2016
Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Tuesday that “something like 54 private jets” had arrived at an elite meeting of tech CEOs, GOP party insiders and big donors set on stopping Donald Trump before he wins the Republican nomination.
The meeting was the annual World Forum, an off-the-record conference hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a leading Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank. AEI has hosted the “secretive” event since 1982, but this year had a unique focus. Republican pundit Bill Kristol and former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove were there, among others, including leaders of both the House and Senate.
Grim broke the story:
Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute’s annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering.
The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)44% (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)56% , GOP Sens. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)75% (Ark.), Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO)33% (Colo.), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)88% (S.C.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)50% (Ohio) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), who recently made news by saying he “cannot support Donald Trump.
Rob Portman is in the fight of his life to save his seat after Ohioans are pissed at him for shelling out $100,000 to fund the race baiting in Mississippi.
He is keeping a very low profile with a primary opponent this coming Tuesday. I predict that after he survives the primary that he will come out full-throated against Trump. But he dare not attack Trump himself prior to the Ohio primary.
Ted Strickland will beat him in November. His last best chance is to loudly support Trump in the general election. He won’t. The puppet masters will insist he attack Trump.