DESPERATE MOVE

Don Jr. and JD Vance Launch Power Grab After GOP Disaster

Plans are already in motion for a younger, livelier GOP in 2028.

Allies of Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. have been linked to a new right-wing movement that’s already gearing up for the 2028 election.

Former staffer to Sen. Mike Lee and Heritage Foundation chief of staff Ryan Neuhaus is leading a new 501(c)(4) called American Ascent.

The project launched Monday, just six days after the GOP was annihilated in the midterms, losing both the House and the Senate and sparking widespread concern inside the party about the knock-on effects it could have for 2028.

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It will aim to put younger conservatives in seats it thinks need a fresh injection of energy and that are currently held by lawmakers it perceives as aging.

Vance is not directly affiliated with the group, but his new-right allies are. Among them is Turning Point Action, Politico reports. Neuhaus said that it won’t be a “Vance political project,” but the politics it is pushing are understood to be closely aligned with his.

“For too long, the Republican Party has relied on rerunning candidates over and over again,” Neuhaus said. “The American people told us pretty clearly that they want to see younger, more energetic politicians leading in America, representing them. They want to feel closely connected to them, and American Ascent is going to accomplish that.”

Turning Point Action has already endorsed Vance for president in two years’ time. The Claremont Institute and the Oversight Project are also both partnered with American Ascent.

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Neuhaus said that the group is also working with The American Leadership PAC, led by Andy Surabian, an aide to both Vance, 42, and Don Jr., 48.

Politico reports that the new group’s leadership was already in the planning stages before last week’s whitewash, but now feels that the result only proves they’re onto a good thing.

It may, however, open a new battlefront in the rumbling MAGA civil war.

“That’s up to them,” Neuhaus said when asked whether his new cadre of candidates would take on incumbent Republican lawmakers in the primaries. “But I’ll prepare any young and able and competent American to run for higher office.”

Neuhaus said American Ascent was looking to back candidates who were “inspirational to the base,” like Vance, Rep. Brandon Gill, Sen. Eric Schmitt and Rep.-elect Jace Yarbrough.

“America needs statesmen who understand we are fighting against an enemy that wants to destroy us,” said GOP megadonor and Claremont Institute chair Thomas Klingenstein.

He is understood to be funding the group’s startup with a $12 million donation.

“Our statesmen must understand in such a situation reaching across the aisle is a sucker’s game,” he said. “American Ascent shall find such leaders and then develop them.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew and former aide, Jackson Hines, is also joining the project.

“We watched a complete rebuke of the type of Republicans that were in Congress. Old ideas are for old people,” he said.

It comes after Vance said in the hours after the election that the reason the GOP was steamrolled was because of his boss Trump’s war in Iran. The post was shared by Don Jr., who said he agreed with everything Vance had said.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Vice President’s office, Neuhaus, and the Trump Organization for comment.

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