People that Starve Children End Up in Hell
How the Tea Party Became a Billionaire Money Cult and Convinced Working-Class Conservatives Jesus Wants You to Starve Kids
Editorial Note
After deleting over 30 comments - some threatening violence against a 22-year-old for doing research - I need to be crystal clear about what The Wise Wolf is:
We are a non-partisan Christian publication that seeks truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. I don’t agree with everything Lily wrote here. But she cited her sources. She did the academic work. She asked questions that deserve answers. And apparently, that’s enough to get death threats now.
Here’s what I can’t reconcile: We have people claiming to be Christians calling for policies that would starve 16 million American children. Sixteen million. Children. And when someone points out that billionaires are running the show, suddenly she’s the problem?
That’s not Christianity. That’s insanity.
If you’re not willing to think for yourself - if you just accept whatever billionaires and their media empires tell you to think - The Wise Wolf isn’t for you. Go find a mega-church. Listen to prosperity gospel preachers in $3,000 suits tell you Jesus wants you to be rich while kids go hungry. That’s not what we do here.
This article is academically sound, fully cited, and asks hard questions. If that offends you more than the idea of starving children, you need to examine your faith, not this newsletter.
We follow Jesus. Not billionaires hiding behind Him.
I’m 22 years old. I grew up in a Baptist household where my dad was the preacher. Before that, he was a Marine. Everyone in our church was Republican - not because they were rich, but because they were working people who believed in fiscal responsibility, limited government, and the Constitution. In 2009, these same people became the Tea Party. They were furious about bank bailouts, the national debt, and government spending. They genuinely believed they were saving America from financial ruin.
Now, fourteen years later, I’m watching those same people cheer as billionaires take over the government, celebrate a Cabinet worth half a trillion dollars, and say nothing as the deficit they screamed about has exploded to insane levels. When I ask them about the things they taught me - fiscal responsibility, not trusting elites, thinking for yourself - I get conspiracy theories and Facebook memes about “demoncrats.”
It’s like watching people I love get possessed. They’ve just... stopped thinking. Stopped asking questions. Outsourced their brains to whatever their media feed tells them to be mad about this week.
So I spent months researching what the hell happened. How did a movement of working-class people worried about their kids’ future turn into a cult that worships billionaires? The answer is worse than I thought, and it’s been happening in plain sight since before I was born. This is the receipts.
The Bait and Switch
Remember the Tea Party? Those angry folks in tricorn hats screaming about the national debt in 2009? They were going to save America from fiscal ruin. They demanded balanced budgets, an end to deficit spending, and a return to constitutional principles. They were furious about government bailouts and out-of-control spending.
The Tea Party emerged in 2009 as a response to the financial crisis and Obama’s policies, advocating for lower taxes, reduced national debt, decreased government spending, and small-government principles. The movement opposed what members believed was excessive taxation and government intervention in the economy, with “TEA” standing for “Taxed Enough Already.”
Fast forward to today, and that same movement - now called MAGA - just cheered as Trump assembled the richest Cabinet in American history worth $450 billion, watched Elon Musk contribute $277 million to buy political influence, and said nothing as the federal deficit exploded to over $1.8 trillion.
The federal deficit was $160 billion in 2007. By 2024, it was $1,860 billion - more than 11 times larger. Budget deficits grew by nearly $4 trillion during Trump’s first term. Where were the Tea Party protests? Where are the tricorn hats?
They disappeared. Because it was never about fiscal responsibility. It was about something far more sinister.
The Puppet Masters Behind the “Grassroots” Movement
Here’s the part that should make you furious: the Tea Party wasn’t a grassroots movement at all. It was astroturf - fake grass planted by billionaires.
According to publicly available IRS records, five essential pillars of the Tea Party network were all funded and in place by spring 2009 - the Sam Adams Alliance, Franklin Center, State Policy Network, and Americans for Prosperity - with budgets that expanded significantly before the movement erupted into public view.
Charles and David Koch spent or raised more than a billion dollars to successfully bend the Republican Party to their will through this orchestrated, well-funded, and deliberate operation.
Think about that. The “spontaneous uprising” of ordinary Americans concerned about spending was actually a billion-dollar operation planned and funded by oil billionaires months before it happened.
The Kochs built something unique: a full-service operation, a pipeline that runs from universities and colleges where they recruit students (programs in 200 to 300 universities), to state think tanks in every state in America, to Koch Industries itself with $115 billion in revenues lobbying Congress.
But who were these puppet masters? And why should we care about their family history?
A Legacy Built on Dictators and Hate Groups
Fred C. Koch made his fortune between 1929 and 1932 building fifteen modern oil refineries for Stalin’s Soviet Union during its first five-year plan, training Bolshevik engineers to help the regime. After watching Stalin brutally purge several of his Soviet colleagues, Koch became obsessed with fighting communism.
But here’s the twist: In 1934, Koch partnered to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving Nazi Germany. So Fred Koch literally made money from both Stalin AND Hitler.
Then, after profiting from dictators, Fred Koch came home and decided the real threat to America was civil rights and public schools. In 1958, Fred Koch became a founding member of the John Birch Society, one of the original twelve founders. As a founding board member, Fred helped engineer attacks on labor, intellectuals, public education, and liberal clergy members, decrying everyone from President Eisenhower to water utility administrators as pawns in a global communist conspiracy.
In his writings, Fred railed against civil rights leaders and claimed the movement against racial segregation was a communist plot to use African Americans to destabilize the country. The Koch-funded Birchers held numerous rallies during the 1960s claiming integration would lead to a “mongrelization” of the races.
Charles Koch moved home to Wichita and joined the John Birch Society, which his father co-founded. Charles was an active member during the Society’s campaigns against the civil rights movement, purchasing a lifetime membership and funding operations that attacked Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the civil rights movement.
This is who built the infrastructure that became the Tea Party. A family with a legacy of profiting from dictators and funding racist conspiracy theories.
From Tea Party to Trump: The Mask Comes Off
Here’s where it gets really interesting. Research shows that what distinguished Tea Party Republicans wasn’t their fiscal conservatism but their positions on social and racial issues - they were more socially and racially conservative than other Republicans, and pioneered the social media incivility now associated with Trump.
The Tea Party never really died - it mutated into the Trump movement, with Trump himself being the leading purveyor of ‘birtherism’, the racist conspiracy theory that animated much Tea Party energy. Trump co-opted the Tea Party agenda and grievances, and Tea Party stalwarts now see Trump’s administration as the culmination of their efforts.
Senator Ron Johnson, who gave his first political speech at a Tea Party rally, said Tea Party supporters “found a new champion in President Trump, and he took it to a whole new level with MAGA.”
But here’s the betrayal: every single principle the Tea Party claimed to stand for was abandoned the moment Trump took power.
The Deficit Only Matters When Democrats Spend It
Let’s talk about the transcendent level of stupidity we’re witnessing.
The Tea Party screamed bloody murder when Obama’s 2009 stimulus passed. They held rallies with signs saying “Grandma is Not Shovel-Ready” and “Don’t Make ME Pay For Your Wasteful Spending.” They shut down the government over deficit concerns.
Despite the Tea Party’s claim that fiscal conservatism was its most sacred principle, Trump’s supporters raised no objections when budget deficits grew by nearly $4 trillion during his first term.
Why? Because it was never about the deficit. It was about who benefits.
When Trump wanted to give away trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy, conservatives cheered. When Obama wanted to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, they called it socialism.
A single mother getting $200 in food stamps? Outrage. Fraud. Dependency culture.
Elon Musk’s seven companies collectively receiving $20 billion in federal contracts and subsidies? Who Cares?
The Oligarchy Isn’t Coming - It’s Already Here
This is where the story gets truly dystopian.
Trump is assembling the richest set of advisers and Cabinet members in American history, worth a collective $450 billion. At Trump’s inauguration, billionaires like Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg sat closest to Trump, ahead of Cabinet members. Elon Musk contributed an estimated $277 million toward Trump’s election and has been appointed to co-lead a government department tasked with slashing federal spending.
Northwestern University political scientist Jeffrey Winters argues we’re “at a moment of maximum oligarchic power in the United States,” with Citizens United removing virtually all limits on the use of wealth-power in the political system.
More than 500 political scientists surveyed found that the vast majority think the United States is moving swiftly toward authoritarianism, with American democracy’s rating dropping from 67 to 55 on a 100-point scale in just months. Harvard professor Steven Levitsky states: “We’ve slid into some form of authoritarianism.”
And what are millions of Americans mad about? Transgender athletes. “Woke” corporations. Cancel culture.
They’re Buying Democrats Too
Here’s the part that should terrify you: the Koch network isn’t just buying Republicans anymore.
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-backed group, has indicated willingness to fund Democratic candidates who support their agenda against more progressive primary challengers, with internal memos stating they will support sitting legislators “regardless of whether they are Republican, Democrat, Independent or otherwise.”
The LIBRE Initiative, part of the Koch network, praised Democrats like Rep. Ben Ray Luján, Reps. Raul Ruiz and Pete Aguilar of California, and Sen. Chris Coons, sending mailers to more than 100,000 homes. Translation: they’re buying the “moderate” Democrats who will protect their tax cuts and deregulation agenda while pretending to be progressive.
In 2015, the Koch network planned to spend $889 million on elections - about as much as the entire Republican Party. The Koch network consists almost entirely of groups that don’t register under campaign finance laws and don’t publicly identify their donors.
Political scientist Darrell West noted that with the Koch donors “you’re talking about an incredibly tiny slice of Americans” - 400 of the richest people in the country picking the next leaders, regardless of party.
The Greatest Magic Trick Ever Performed
This is the masterpiece. This is the con that should go down in history books as the greatest psychological operation ever perpetrated on a democracy.
The Koch network spent 40 years teaching Americans that their enemy is the government, that taxation is theft, that regulation is oppression. They funded think tanks to produce academic papers. They funded professors to teach courses. They funded politicians to pass laws. They funded media to broadcast their message.
They created the Tea Party to channel economic anxiety into anti-government rage. Then they let Trump transform it into MAGA - a cult of personality around billionaires that has completely abandoned every principle it claimed to believe in.
The Tea Party demanded fiscal responsibility. MAGA explodes the deficit.
The Tea Party opposed executive overreach. MAGA cheers Trump’s authoritarian impulses.
The Tea Party claimed to support the working class. MAGA hands government over to the richest Cabinet in history.
And the same people who wore tricorn hats and screamed about Obama’s spending are now waving MAGA flags while Elon Musk and his fellow billionaires literally take over the government.
What You Should Be Angry About
You want to know why your wages haven’t gone up in decades? Why healthcare costs are bankrupting families? Why infrastructure is crumbling? Why you’re working harder and falling further behind?
It’s not because of welfare moms. It’s not because of immigrants. It’s not because of government bureaucrats getting pensions.
It’s because billionaires bought both political parties and convinced you to blame your neighbor instead of them.
While you were arguing about whether people on food stamps should be able to buy steak, billionaires were rewriting tax law to hide trillions offshore.
While you were mad about “government waste,” billionaires were getting billions in subsidies and contracts and calling it “job creation.”
While you were terrified of socialism, billionaires were creating an oligarchy where 400 people have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined.
The Koch brothers and their fellow travelers didn’t steal American democracy in the shadows. They bought it in broad daylight. They created a fake grassroots movement to make you think you were rising up against elites, when you were actually doing their bidding. They transformed that movement into a cult that worships billionaires while claiming to fight for the working class.
And the most brilliant part? They convinced you that questioning any of this makes YOU the problem. That noticing their wealth and power makes you “jealous” or “socialist.” That pointing out they’re robbing you blind makes you “divisive.”
The Endgame
This isn’t a conspiracy theory.
This is documented, verifiable fact.
A family that made money from Stalin and Hitler, then founded a racist conspiracy group, used their billions to build a political infrastructure that hijacked American conservatism. They created the Tea Party as a weapon against Obama and government spending. Then they stood back and watched as Trump transformed it into MAGA - a movement that abandoned every principle it claimed to hold, and instead became a vehicle for the richest oligarchy in American history.
The same people who screamed about the deficit are now silent as billionaires loot the Treasury. The same people who opposed executive overreach now cheer authoritarianism. The same people who claimed to fight for working Americans now worship business magnates who’ve never done an honest day’s work in their lives.
And while you’re being told to be angry about culture war bullshit and welfare fraud, the people you voted for are handing over your government to unelected billionaires who view democracy as an obstacle to profit.
Look up. Stop looking at your neighbor with the EBT card. Stop blaming teachers and unions and immigrants and whoever else they tell you to hate this week.
Look at the billionaires who bought both parties. Look at the oligarchs sitting in Cabinet positions. Look at the movement that went from “Taxed Enough Already” to “Give Elon Musk a Government Department.”
The Tea Party to MAGA pipeline isn’t a political evolution. It’s a hostile takeover. And it was funded, orchestrated, and executed by people whose daddy built oil refineries for dictators and whose legacy is turning American democracy into a billionaire’s playground.
They didn’t just steal the Tea Party. They stole your government. And they’re laughing because you’re still mad about food stamps.
References
On the Tea Party Movement:
Tea Party origins and principles (Britannica, Wikipedia, 2009-2010 sources)
Harvard study by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism” (2012)
NPR, “10 Years of the Tea Party” (September 2019)
On Koch Funding of Tea Party:
Time Magazine, “The Secret Origins of the Tea Party” (April 2016) - IRS records showing infrastructure in place before movement erupted
Jane Mayer, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”
NPR interviews with Jane Mayer (January 2016)
On Fred Koch and John Birch Society:
Fred C. Koch Wikipedia - Soviet Union refineries (1929-1932), Nazi Germany refinery (1934)
John Birch Society founding documents listing Fred Koch as one of 12 founding members
ThinkProgress and PR Watch documentation of Koch-Bircher anti-civil rights activities
Time Magazine 1961 profile on JBS operations in Wichita
On Charles Koch and Civil Rights Opposition:
The Progressive, “Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher (New Documents)” (July 2014)
DeSmog documentation of Koch involvement in JBS during civil rights era
PR Watch, “How Charles Koch Backed the John Birch Society at the Height of Its Attacks on Martin Luther King” (January 2016)
On Tea Party to MAGA Transformation:
NPR, “Trump’s MAGA is marching down a trail blazed by the Tea Party” (May 2022)
Washington Post, “How the tea party paved the way for Donald Trump” (September 2018)
Niskanen Center, “How the Tea Party Paved the Way for Donald Trump” (February 2024)
The Hill, “Tea Party movement finds a new champion in Trump” (March 2025)
On Deficit Hypocrisy:
Washington Examiner, “Did Tea Partiers ever actually mean it?” (June 2025)
MSNBC, “The Tea Party’s silence on Biden highlights Trump’s lasting impact” (May 2021)
The Hill, “The Tea Party has died of hypocrisy” (November 2019)
Treasury Department and Congressional Budget Office deficit data (2007-2024)
On Modern Oligarchy:
Slate interview with Northwestern political scientist Jeffrey Winters (November 2024)
The Week, “Is America becoming an oligarchy?” (December 2024)
Rolling Stone, “In Trump’s America, the Oligarchy Is Done Pretending to Care About You” (January 2025)
Time Magazine, “The Rise of America’s Broligarchy” (February 2025)
Elon Musk’s $20 billion in federal contracts and subsidies (various sources, 2024-2025)
On Bipartisan Koch Influence:
CNBC internal memo from Americans for Prosperity CEO Emily Seidel (2019)
NPR, “Breaking With Trump’s GOP, Koch Brothers Praise Democrats on Immigration” (May 2018)
Salon reporting on Koch willingness to fund Democrats (June 2019)
Koch network spending: $889 million pledge for 2016 elections (NPR, January 2015)
On Authoritarianism:
NPR survey of 500+ political scientists on U.S. authoritarianism (April 2025)
Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt research on democratic backsliding
Protect Democracy, “The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025”
A Statement from Lily
I need to be really clear about what this article is and what it isn't.
This article is not about you. It's not about your faith, your patriotism, or your vote. It's about the people who manipulated your faith, your patriotism, and your vote for their own profit.
I grew up watching good people - people who taught me right from wrong, people who actually live their values - get played. And now I'm watching those same people defend the con artists instead of admitting they got conned.
Here's the point everyone is missing: The Tea Party started because working people were furious about bank bailouts and government spending. Real anger. Legitimate grievances. But it wasn't a grassroots movement - it was funded by billionaires from day one. I cited the IRS records. The money trail is public. This isn't opinion - it's documentation.
Those same billionaires then transformed that movement into MAGA. And now the people who screamed about deficits are silent while the deficit explodes. The people who hated elites are cheering for a Cabinet worth half a trillion dollars. The people who opposed government corruption are defending billionaires literally running government departments.
This is the largest wealth transfer and power grab in American history, and it's happening in broad daylight.
But instead of looking at the evidence, people are attacking me for pointing it out. They're more offended by the messenger than by the fact that policies being pushed would cut food assistance to 16 million children. They're more upset about a college student doing research than about Elon Musk buying political influence for $277 million and getting a government position in return.
The media - Fox News, Newsmax, talk radio, Facebook algorithms - has convinced good people that their enemies are other working people. Immigrants. Teachers. "Welfare queens." Meanwhile, billionaires are rewriting tax law, gutting regulations, and literally taking over government functions. But questioning them makes YOU the enemy?
That's not Christianity. Jesus flipped tables when religious leaders exploited people for profit. He had nothing but contempt for the wealthy and powerful who ignored the poor. Read the actual Gospels - not what some prosperity preacher tells you they say.
I'm not asking you to agree with me politically. I'm asking you to look at who benefits from the policies you're defending. Follow the money. Ask why the richest people in human history need your help getting richer. Ask why the same people who funded opposition to civil rights are now funding your political movement. Ask why a movement about fiscal responsibility now defends exploding deficits.
My dad taught me to question everything, to think for myself, to never trust someone just because they say what I want to hear. This article is me doing exactly what he raised me to do.
If pointing out that billionaires are taking over the government makes you angrier than billionaires actually taking over the government, then they've already won. They've got you defending them while they rob you blind.
I love the people who raised me. I love my community. That's WHY I wrote this. Because I can't watch good people get used anymore without saying something. Even if it costs me friendships. Even if I get death threats. Even if people I grew up with think I've betrayed them.
The real betrayal is watching a used-car salesman in a $10,000 suit convince working people to hand over their government to his billionaire buddies, and staying silent about it.
This isn't about left or right. This is about up and down. This is about power. And if you can't see that the richest men in America just pulled off the greatest heist in history because you're too proud to admit you got duped, then I don't know what else to say.
I provided the receipts. The rest is up to you.
— Lily
I want to point out that this is an editorial piece written by Lily. We are a non-partisan publication that does not cater to the Left or Right. We call it like we see it. If you do not like that, this is not the right publication for you. We are both Christians and do not like watching our faith being politicized by billionaires for their own selfish gain.
There are aspects of this article I agree with and there are other parts I do not agree with. The difference is, I am willing to hear what she has to say instead of just screeching like an autistic moron 'YOU ARE WRONNNNNNNNNNNNG!' like so many comments I have deleted have stated. I am seriously starting to think that there must be a vast number of mentally deficient 'lead paint chip eaters' that have stumbled on to Substack in the last year because some of these comments i have deleted were clearly not written by anyone with any post-secondary education let alone a high school diploma.
If you are not capable of thinking for yourself - this is not the right newsletter for you.