Beyond the summit, staff at the America First Policy Institute have been laying their own groundwork for the future, “making sure we do have the policies, personnel and process nailed down for every key agency when we do take the White House back”, Rollins said.
The non-profit developed, she said, from efforts to avoid the chaotic early days of Trump’s first term, when he arrived at the White House unprepared, with no clear plans ready to put in place.
As Trump was running for re-election, Rollins, then the head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, began to sketch out a second-term agenda with fellow administration officials, including top economic policy adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
When it became clear that Trump would be leaving the White House, she said, AFPI was created to continue that work “organised around that second term agenda that we never released”.
The organisation, once dismissed as a landing zone for former Trump administration officials shut out of more lucrative jobs, has grown into a behemoth, with an operating budget of around US$25 million and 150 staff, including 17 former senior White House officials and nine former Cabinet members.
The group also has more than 20 policy centres and has tried to extend its reach beyond Washington with efforts to influence local legislatures and school boards.
An “American leadership initiative” led by the former head of the Office of Personnel Management, Michael Rigas, was launched several weeks ago to identify future staff loyal to Trump and his “America First” approach who could be hired as part of a larger effort to replace large swaths of the civil service, as Axios recently reported.
The group is one of several Trump-allied organisations that have continued to push his polices in his absence, including America First Legal, dedicated to fighting Biden’s agenda through the court system, the Center for Renewing America and the Conservative Partnership Institute.
The summit is intended to highlight AFPI’s “America First Agenda”, centred around 10 key policy areas including the economy, healthcare and election security.
It includes many of Trump’s signature issues, like continuing to build a wall along the southern border and a plan to “dismantle the administrative state”.
In a speech on Monday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, whose “Contract with America” has been credited with helping Republicans sweep the 1994 mid-term elections, praised the effort as key to future GOP victory.
“The American people want solutions,” he said.
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