Remember how Charles Koch was fed up with the Republican party, denouncing Donald Trump and claiming that in this cycle he and his brother are "not interested in politics," and are just "interested in moving us towards a culture and policies that will enable people to improve lives." Hell, he said, it was "possible" Hillary Clinton would be a better president than any of the Republicans. So much for all that, even though Koch is still playing coy.
WICHITA, Kan. — Top officials within Charles Koch’s powerful policy network plan to meet with aides to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the industrialist told USA TODAY on Wednesday.
The meeting comes at the request of the Trump team, Koch said. No date has been set for the gathering, which has not been publicly disclosed before.
“We are happy to talk to anybody and hope they understand where we’re coming from, and they will have more constructive positions than they’ve had,” Koch said of the sit-down with Trump’s team. […]
Koch said it would require a major shift in tone and policy for him to back Trump. Koch said he would need to be convinced that Trump supported his top causes “in a way ... wasn’t just hype,” ticking off as conditions: support for free trade, "free speech," eliminating “corporate welfare” and “trying to find common ground with people.”
Let the rapprochement begin. Never in a million years are the Kochs going to consider supporting a Democrat. Never in a million years is a Democrat going to approach the Kochs—they're toxic now to the Democratic base. It would be suicide. Republicans and Koch go together like Orcs and Sauron. It's just how this works. They'll figure out a way to embrace Trump, even if it's not a big public deal.
The Kochs also have an agenda to push with Trump—making sure a down-ballot disaster doesn't happen to them, or that they don't end up carrying the full load of trying to save the House and Senate. The bottom line, the Kochs need Republicans to win. If that means playing with Trump, so be it. That’s how it’s been from the beginning, no matter their earlier disavowals.