How Will the Left Even Process This? Charles Koch Opposes Trump’s Temporary Travel Ban

Billionaire libertarian Charles Koch was one of the left’s primary boogeymen before Donald Trump burst into the china shop and started flipping over shelves. How will the left respond to the fact that Charles Koch is not backing Trump’s latest move to temporarily halt travel from terrorist hot spots until vetting procedures can be evaluated and improved?

I suppose it won’t be that difficult for them given that they don’t place a very high value on being intellectually consistent. Keeping people ignorant and agitated is a much higher priority for them, as we have witnessed since Trump’s inauguration.

Media outlets are click baiting readers by conflating Koch’s older statements about a theoretical “Muslim registry” with his reaction to this week’s executive order. They’ll use any excuse to put a Hitler or Nazi Germany reference in a headline these days.

Charles Koch first likened candidate Donald Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigrants to something Adolf Hitler would have done in Nazi Germany.

The billionaire industrialist and his chief lieutenants offered a more delicate response this weekend when asked about President Trump’s plan to block immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. They described Trump’s plan as “the wrong approach” that violated its dedication to “free and open societies.”

The executive order is not a ban on Muslim immigrants, or a block on immigration—at least not a permanent or even long-term one. Even Koch seems to be falling for the leftward spin with regard to Trump’s executive order.

The Koch brothers weren’t supporters of Donald Trump’s campaign but they are tight with Mike Pence, so they reportedly are optimistic about exercising some influence with the new administration.

“Many former network staffers that are in the White House now remain good friends of ours. So we’re in constant contact with them,” said Koch spokesman James Davis. “Conversations have been open and continue to be.”

There is perhaps no bigger Koch ally than Vice President Mike Pence, whose staff and ideology has been in close alignment with the Kochs for years.

Charles Koch spoke directly with the vice president on the phone days before his inauguration as Pence considered hiring a Koch communications staffer, Stephen Ford, to serve as his chief speechwriter. Ford was soon hired, along with former Koch chief Marc Short, who now serves as the White House legislative director.

The Koch’s relationship with Pence has a few internet conspiracy theorists discussing whether they’re evil plan was to get Pence into the White House as VP and then orchestrate  an impeachment of Trump in order to elevate Pence to the Presidency, but they expect Pence to wield a fair amount of power as Trump’s veep.

“The reason we’re optimistic… is really Mike Pence,” said Doug Deason, a prominent Trump supporter and major Koch donor. “If you think Cheney had power in Bush White House, just watch and see what happens with Mike Pence.”

Imagine what Harry Reid would be saying if he were still relevant in Washington.

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