UNEXPECTEDLY: Never Trump Lincoln Project paid millions in 2024 to companies owned by its leaders.
Dubbed in Esquire one day after the election as “the most useless people in America,” the Lincoln Project raised $15.5 million and burned through $16.2 million this year. The organization limped out of this cycle with more than $630,000 in unpaid invoices, largely in connection to limited liability corporations tied to Lincoln Project personnel, records show.
Since last January, the Lincoln Project has paid $2.1 million to Lever Communications, the media agency of its senior adviser, Joe Trippi. The funds were earmarked for digital ads and other consulting services.
In that timeframe, the Lincoln Project also dished out $1.5 million to Third Act Media, which counts Lincoln Project creative adviser Ben Howe as a staff member.
There was $934,000 from the Lincoln Project’s war chest set aside for Wilson’s Intrepid Media for “political strategy consulting,” “strategic consulting,” “equipment,” and “travel,” according to records. Summit Strategic, and the firm’s leader, Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen, scooped up $758,500 from the Lincoln Project.
Lincoln Project adviser Stuart Stevens’s Message Mountain firm came away this election with $535,000 for “political strategy consulting,” according to financial disclosures. Lincoln Project senior adviser Trygve Olseon’s Viking Strategies was paid $435,000, largely for “communications consulting,” while another senior PAC adviser, Jeff Timmer, saw $387,000 paid to Two Rivers Public Affairs — in which Timmer is a partner.