K-STREET, 10,000 FEET: Arnold Ventures gave health-related funding to organizations critical of President Trump and his administration
THE LOWDOWN:
Arnold Ventures, the far-left investment group led by Texas billionaire John Arnold that is trying to cozy up to Republicans, gave money to organizations critical of President Donald Trump and his administration, the Washington Reporter has learned.
Some of these organizations critical of President Trump and his administration receive government grants, including the RAND Corporation and the Brookings Institute.
A Senate leadership aide told the Reporter that “Arnold Ventures is the new Soros, only they try to hide what they do.”
The revelations brought criticism towards Arnold Ventures — which has been trying to kiss the president’s ring after his historic 2024 win — from inside the Beltway.
Arnold Ventures, the far-left investment group led by Texas billionaire John Arnold that is trying to cozy up to Republicans, gave money to organizations critical of President Donald Trump and his administration, the Washington Reporter has learned.
Sources told the Reporter that Arnold Ventures has given health-focus investments to several groups who have made ad hominem attacks and criticized people rather than policies with which they disagreed.
Several of the Arnold Ventures-funded groups include the Brookings Institution, Families USA, and the RAND Corporation. Of the critical groups, a good number of them received millions in federal funding.
The RAND Corporation is one of those groups critical of President Trump and his administration but receiving both Arnold Ventures and federal funds. One of RAND’s political scientists, Alexander Noyes, wrote a January 2024 Newsweek commentary piece that referred to January 6, 2021, as “a failed executive coup.” Additionally, RAND senior policy researcher Daniel Gernstein criticized the first Trump administration’s COVID-19 response in a virtual roundtable with the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
RAND Corporation received $321,794,205 in government grants.
The Brookings Institution, which received $1,409,405 in government grants, criticized Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as not having "much of a handle on Medicaid at all” in a February article about the now-secretary’s confirmation hearings.
“His comments, for example, that premiums are killing Medicaid enrollees when essentially none of them pay premiums was an indicator of just how little understanding he has of the actual workings of the program,” Frank said.
Additionally, Families USA — another Arnold Ventures funding recipient but not a recipient of federal grants — has a history of attacking President Trump and his policies and actions. The group criticized the president’s streamlining of HHS in a February press release, saying the "reckless and random actions of the Trump Administration... are not good-faith efforts to improve programs, but rather a lawless wrecking crew aimed at devastating core programs and protections that millions of Americans need and depend on.”
Families USA also attacked the Trump administration in January of this year while promoting its own agenda to lower healthcare costs.
“This release comes after President Trump spent his first days in office signing a flurry of executive orders, none of which took any concrete steps to improve affordability for Americans or lower the cost of health care and instead focused on attacking specific communities, whether they be immigrant, transgender, or otherwise, making it harder for them to access health care,” the group wrote in the second line of its release.
The revelations brought criticism towards Arnold Ventures — which has been trying to kiss the president’s ring after his historic 2024 win — from inside the Beltway.
A lobbyist with ties to the Trump administration told the Reporter that “Arnold Ventures continues to act like a bipartisan organization. But their funding tells otherwise.”
“Including funding anti-Trump groups. Why would the Trump administration take them seriously?” the lobbyist said.
A Senate leadership aide told the Reporter that “Arnold Ventures is the new Soros, only they try to hide what they do.”
“Every Republican on the Hill knows that we can’t take them seriously,” the aide said.
An Arnold Ventures spokesperson told the Reporter that these “are simply false allegations.”
“We support individual projects with numerous nonprofits, think tanks, and research organizations, and these projects are squarely focused on evidence-based policy solutions,” the spokesperson said.
“We are not supporting any efforts critical of President Trump–or any political figure. We are taking on powerful, special interest lobbyists who are standing in the way of making health care more affordable for the American people,” the spokesperson continued.
“RAND is a nonpartisan policy research organization,” RAND Corporation spokesperson Vanee’ Vines said told the Reporter. “Our focus is on providing objective, evidence-based analysis to inform decisionmakers.”
“We focus on policy, not people, and we conduct analysis, not advocacy. Arnold Ventures is one of many RAND funders, representing a small part of our research portfolio,” she continued. “None of RAND’s funders have any influence on the results of RAND’s work, including policy recommendations.”
The Reporter reached out to the Brookings Institute and Families USA for comment.
