Could the Koch Brothers have stopped Trump?

[darklordoftech]

Uncertainly as to which of the other candidates would be their best bet and anxiety within Koch Industries about bad publicity led to decide not to support anyone during the primaries.

[Basil]

No. The Republican base has thrown off the shackles of their donors. Somehow, the only thing worse than the GOP ran by Randian billionaires is the GOP not ran by Randian billionaires.

[Stranger in a strange land]

No. The GOP Billionaire Donor Class has created a monster they cannot control.

[Annatar]

No, the influence of elites on primaries has been declining for some time due to the democratisation of information and money flows. There used to be a time when a small group of elites could wield huge influence because there were few information outlets and no real way to raise money from the public, both those things are no longer true and real grassroots politics is therefore possible.

Due to this, since Trump was supported at the grassroots level, even if the Koch brothers had spent vast amounts of money to stop him it wouldn't have mattered since his supporters could disseminate information among social media and he had no shortage of money. Personally I think the decline of elite influence is a very good outcome as it allows for real democratic expression among voters, in an earlier age before the internet, the GOP elites may have used their control of conservative TV to stop Trump and override the desires of GOP voters, something that was not possible in 2016.

[Vosem]

Had one of them run themselves, perhaps; the Koch brothers are very personally popular in the GOP. Otherwise no.

[OSR stands with Israel]

If the Republicans had the Democrats rules for allocating delegates , yes as Trump would have just been denied a majority due to super delegates and proportional allocation and then denied the nomination at the convention .