Founded | 2021 |
---|---|
Founder | Brooke Rollins |
Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
Linda McMahon[1] | |
President and CEO | Brooke Rollins[2] |
Key people |
|
Expenses (2022) | $25 million[3] |
Employees (2022) | 150[3] |
Website | www |
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3)[4] think tank that was founded in 2021 to promote former U.S. President Donald Trump's public policy agenda.[5] The organization was founded by Brooke Rollins, who serves as president and CEO and was formerly the acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council under Trump, and Larry Kudlow, who serves as vice chair and formerly served as the Director of the National Economic Council under Trump. Linda McMahon, who formerly served as Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Trump and then as chairwoman of America First Action, a pro-Trump Super PAC, is the organization's chairperson.[6]
According to Politico, the group is often described as a "White House in waiting."[3] The group produced a document about its vision, which includes "job creation and low unemployment, expansion of affordable housing, eradicating Covid-19, reducing federal bureaucracy, cracking down on crime and illegal immigration, passing congressional term limits, and ending foreign war and reliance on China."[3] As of 2023, AFPI had 172 employees, including eight former cabinet secretaries from the Trump administration.[3][7]
The institute does not disclose its donors and has taken meetings with lobbyists hoping to influence its policy agenda.[8] Trump has fundraised for the group and his Save America PAC has donated $1 million to the institute.[9][10][8]
AFPI has a transition project[11] which is viewed as a rival to Project 2025.[12]
[Linda] McMahon most recently served as the chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), one of the two Washington-based conservative think tanks that has been vying for influence over Trump's official transition effort. AFPI's transition project has been upstaged by its primary rival, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, but its mission has been largely the same: to build a stable of personnel and policy proposals to aid Trump's transition to the White House should he win in November.