--- title: Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump description: The Club for Growth is taking aim at Donald Trump in a new television ad campaign. canonical: https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-15T15:40:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:27.817Z article:section: Politics og:title: Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump og:description: They argue he's just another politician. og:url: https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e2254822ab289a7/698863a20b72e334a06e5d1c/donald-trump-club-growth.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump twitter:description: They argue he's just another politician. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e2254822ab289a7/698863a20b72e334a06e5d1c/donald-trump-club-growth.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2015-07-23. Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes_  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Sep 15, 2015 3:40 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Tom Pennington—Getty Images  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Sep 15, 2015 3:40 PM UTC The Club for Growth is taking aim at Donald Trump in a new television ad campaign. The influential anti-tax group unveiled a pair of ads Tuesday that assail the Republican frontrunner as a closet liberal. The 30-second spots will air in the pivotal caucus state of Iowa. The total cost of the ad buy is more than $1 million, the Club said. The first ad, titled “Politician,” attacks Trump for supporting higher taxes, national healthcare and the Wall Street bailout. “He’s really just playing us for chumps,” the narrator says. Another spot calls Trump “the worst kind of politican,” and whacks the real-estate developer for supporting eminent domain “abuse.” The Club’s decision to target Trump was not a surprise. The free-market group, which bundles contributions from large donors, is known for attacking candidates that fall short of its fiscal standards; in 2008, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was the candidate in its crosshairs. And the Club has been declaring its opposition to Trump for some time now. “It’s astonishing that he’s even running as a Republican,” said David McIntosh, a former congressman who serves as the Club’s president. Trump has said the feud dates to a meeting earlier this year at his office in New York, where, according to the developer, McIntosh asked for a $1 million contribution. The Club’s version is different. > [](https://twitter.com/club4growth/status/638902016266379264) The Club is known for using its financial muscle to propel insurgent conservatives—such as Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio—past Establishment favorites in House and Senate races. But it’s unclear how much difference $1 million will make in the context of a presidential nominating contest flooded by cash. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump","datePublished":"2015-09-15T15:40:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:27.817Z","description":"On taxes, eminent domain, Democratic ties","url":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e2254822ab289a7/698863a20b72e334a06e5d1c/donald-trump-club-growth.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Altman","jobTitle":"Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/alex-altman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e2254822ab289a7/698863a20b72e334a06e5d1c/donald-trump-club-growth.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas.","creditText":"Tom Pennington—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/","name":"Conservative Anti-Tax Group Targets Trump"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump","description":"Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7MzTpVq2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-23T21:38:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4034766/club-growth-donald-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```