Never Trump / Lincoln Project
~500k donors; founded 2019; George Conway/Steve Schmidt founders
Never Trump is economically center-right to libertarian (opposes Trump but maintains pro-market, anti-regulation conservatism in most policy dimensions; cofounders have libertarian-leaning backgrounds). Authority axis is slightly libertarian (−1) due to rhetoric opposing executive overreach and defending institutional checks, though the organization's actual framing of Trump-as-existential-threat approaches authoritarian rhetorical intensity. The organization's political position is anti-populist conservatism, not anti-conservative populism.
Private corporation or business enterprise.
The Lincoln Project was founded by a group of Republican Never-Trump consultants including Steve Schmidt, George Conway, Rick Wilson, and John Weaver, with leadership rotating among the founders. John Weaver's authority was compromised by the 2021 sexual harassment scandal, but the organization maintained collective consultant authority.
The Lincoln Project's sacred assumptions include the proposition that defeating Trump represents the primary political imperative, that traditional conservatism is recoverable from MAGA, and that the organization's attack-ad model represents authentic Republican values against Trumpism.
The Lincoln Project frames its work as defending American democracy from Trumpism — a mission that gives attack-ad production a transcendent democratic-defense purpose.
Lincoln Project support creates a specific political identity — anti-Trump Republican or Republican-adjacent — that provides a political home for conservatives alienated from the MAGA movement.
The Lincoln Project creates a mild information environment that frames Republican politics primarily through the lens of MAGA versus traditional conservatism.
Lincoln Project vocabulary includes 'grifters,' 'never-Trump,' 'Lincoln Republican,' 'constitutional conservatism.' These mark the organization's specific political positioning.
The Lincoln Project's Us-Versus-Them framework positions authentic constitutional conservatives against MAGA — an intra-Republican boundary maintenance.
The Lincoln Project extracted significant financial contributions from Democratic and liberal donors attracted to anti-Trump content — a financial model that has generated criticism that the founders profited disproportionately.
Lincoln Project community membership involves moderate social costs for departing from anti-Trump positioning within the organization's donor and social media network.
The Lincoln Project's documented extreme behavior includes the 2021 John Weaver sexual harassment scandal — in which a co-founder was found to have sent dozens of young men inappropriate messages — and documented criticism that the organization's fundraising significantly exceeded its demonstrable political impact.
Computed from criterion evidence across Lifton's eight themes of thought reform (breadth × intensity) — not a direct jury score.
The organization frames its work with a 'democracy defense' and 'Us-Versus-Them' narrative, imbuing its actions with a higher purpose, which is a mild form of mystical manipulation, but lacks orchestrated peak experiences.
Methodology & Provenance
Scored under V5.1 of the Organizational Coercion Index dual-metric system. Last revised July 2026. All scores are anchored to publicly documented, verifiable behaviors. Framework criteria derived from Young & Reed, The Culting of America (Otterpine, 2026). Full methodology →
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