The family that owns the Chicago Cubs has given millions to an anti-Donald Trump super PAC and the Republican presidential front-runner isn’t happy about it.
According to a New York Times report on Sunday, the wife of Joe Ricketts, a top GOP donor who owns the Major League Baseball team, recently contributed $3 million to Our Principles PAC. The super PAC, led by former Mitt Romney staffer Katie Packer, released ads questioning Trump’s conservative credentials in each of the four earliest voting states and have launched a major campaign to damage the billionaire’s reputation among Republican voters.
“I hear the Rickets family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” Trump tweeted Monday.
Rickett’s wife, Marlene, had previously made donations to a super PAC supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker prior to his exit from the 2016 race. Brian Baker, an adviser to the Ricketts family, told the Times that Marlene “shares the disappointment of many Trump supporters who believe that our leaders in Washington have failed us, and also believes our next president must be a principled leader.”
But, he noted, “in her view, Donald Trump has not been a consistent conservative and therefore would be unpredictable as our party leader.”
Federal Election Commission filings show Ricketts to be the leading financial backer of Our Principles PAC, which previously refused to reveal the identities of its donors. According to the group’s latest monthly report, filed on Feb. 20, only two other donors — Richard Uihlein and Timothy Griffy — contributed to the PAC in January. Compared to Rickett’s contribution of $3 million, Griffy and Uihlein together contributed $7,750.
