Despite a resounding Electoral College and popular vote victory for President-elect Donald Trump, the grift continues for former GOP operatives turned anti-Trump fanatics. If high-net worth Democrat donors can only shell out a few more million dollars, they insist, the “never-Trump Republicans” can take down Trump for good.

The latest such development in this saga was an announcement from former Republican consultant Rick Wilson that he was helping launch a new organization called the “Two Plus Two Coalition.”

According to The New York Times, that group “began prospecting for donors with a pitch that it would unearth unflattering revelations about the Murdoch family and Elon Musk.” They are asking donors “for a minimum investment of $1 million” with a goal of raising “$10 million to $15 million” per year. Wilson further said that his new organization would “operate as an opposition research firm but with a military-grade intelligence-gathering operation that went far beyond the document vetting typical of a political campaign.”

What exactly that means remains unclear. But if this newest endeavor is anything like Wilson’s previous projects, it likely won’t amount to much other than liberals lining the pockets of Wilson and his compatriots.

Political observers may remember Wilson from his involvement as co-founder for another infamous anti-Trump organization – the disgraced “Lincoln Project.” That group, which was founded in 2019 by establishment Republican operatives, was sold to liberal donors as a rallying point for a mythical bloc of “never-Trump Republican” voters.

Despite The Lincoln Project raising more than $90 million, only a small fraction of those funds were spent on actual anti-Trump advertisements and voter outreach. Reports revealed that approximately $50 million in donations went to firms controlled by the organization’s leaders, including Wilson. Moreover, Trump managed to grow his GOP voter support in 2020, undermining the group’s stated mission of swaying Republican voters against him.

The Lincoln Project’s downfall was further hastened by scandals involving its leadership. Co-founder John Weaver was accused of sexually harassing young men, with allegations spanning years. In October 2021, The Lincoln Project was also behind a disgraceful stunt in Virginia, organizing five individuals to dress as tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists and appear outside GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin’s campaign bus.

The Two Plus Two Coalition looks to be little more than a rebrand effort from Wilson and his allies. Following November 5, however, it remains unclear how many liberal donors are still willing to buy the charade. Across the political spectrum, Wilson’s announcement was met with a mix of ambivalence and criticism.

“This is the same Wilson who assured his social media followers on Election Day, ‘Trump’s going to lose. He’s gonna lose badly,’” Washington Post correspondent Jim Geraghty posted on X. “As you may have heard, things turned out a little differently.”

The New York Times, meanwhile, acknowledged that, despite promises from individuals like Wilson that the never-Trump Republicans will surely “get” Trump and his allies this time, “exhausted liberals seem more inclined to tune out Mr. Trump than fight.”

It’s easy to see why the left is now skeptical of the never-Trump crowd. In both 2020 and 2024, Trump only increased his vote share among self-identified Republicans. Not only that, he increased his overall vote total, and this year became the first Republican nominee to win the popular vote since 2004. The efforts of individuals like Wilson and groups like The Lincoln Project have had precisely the opposite effect as what was promised to liberal donors.

The myth of a wave of Republicans who would vote against their values to spite Trump began in 2016. Establishment GOP operatives like Bill Kristol, Stuart Stevens, and Sarah Longwell believed that Trump’s 2016 campaign was likely to end in failure and, therefore, declined to endorse him. They saw his loss as an opportunity to retake control of the party and steer it back toward candidates that they could control.

Unfortunately for them, Trump prevailed. Almost immediately, they and other never-Trumpers formed a cabal known as the “Meetings of the Concerned.” In 2017, the group went public, releasing an open letter endorsing the Russiagate hoax and encouraging Mitch McConnell to do everything in his power to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Over the subsequent eight years, these never-Trumpers have formed a cottage industry of publications like the Bulwark, NGOs like Third Way, and Political PACs like The Lincoln Project.

These groups purport to speak to and for disaffected anti-Trump Republican voters, despite being mainly funded and backed by wealthy liberals. The same handful of former Republican operatives who have all disavowed the Republican Party are nonetheless cited, quoted, and interviewed as authorities on the Trump movement by corporate media.

In the closing weeks of Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign, the vice president leaned heavily into the myth created by never-Trump operatives – that a vast swath of GOP voters were ready to cast their ballots for Democrats. To that end, Harris spent weeks campaigning alongside never-Trump leader Liz Cheney. Harris seemingly believed the former congresswoman was key to unlocking these GOP votes. Never-Trump Republicans like Tim Miller, Longwell, and Wilson gleefully endorsed this strategy.

The strategy backfired spectacularly. Not only did Republican voters not turn out for Harris, but, according to Rolling Stone magazine, cozying up with neocons instead of mobilizing her base likely did Harris more harm than good. By spending so much time trying to peel off Republican votes, Harris alienated the passionate base that propelled Biden to victory in 2020.

Ultimately, what 2024 showed is that vanishingly few “never-Trump” Republicans exist outside of Washington, D.C. As one swing state political operative told NBC News shortly after the election, “The never-Trump Republicans are gone: they are all now Democrats.”

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.