{"id":4389,"date":"2025-05-02T02:25:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=4389"},"modified":"2025-05-02T02:25:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:25:36","slug":"charles-koch-says-many-in-the-country-are-abandoning-its-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=4389","title":{"rendered":"Charles Koch Says Many in the Country Are \u2018Abandoning\u2019 Its Principles"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and conservative megadonor, made a rare public appearance Thursday evening and called for libertarians to embrace their principles, in comments that seemed obliquely directed at a Republican Party taken over by President Trump.<\/p>\n

Mr. Koch was at one time among the most powerful forces in Republican politics. In the 2016 election cycle alone, he and his allies spent $750 million to promote the party\u2019s candidates and causes. But his political power has waned significantly since Mr. Trump\u2019s election that year, and he is now seldom seen in Washington. And neither do Republicans worry much about his plans in a party that is much more in Mr. Trump\u2019s image than in Mr. Koch\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Koch, who will turn 90 this November, showed up in Washington to accept an award from the Cato Institute. Almost 50 years ago, Mr. Koch helped found Cato, one of the nation\u2019s prominent libertarian think tanks. By 2012, Mr. Koch and his brother David had given about $30 million to the institute, but the relationship soured and the Kochs ended up suing the nonprofit before settling that June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Accepting a prize named after Milton Friedman, the free-market economist, on Thursday, Mr. Koch made his first public remarks since Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January and enacted a number of policies that are anathema to Mr. Friedman\u2019s and Mr. Koch\u2019s politics, most notably the sweeping tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n