Posted originally on CTH on November 11, 2025 | Sundance
On March 3rd through March 6th 2016, the Republican presidential primary was at the precipice of a key inflection point (Super Tuesday) when a large group of political leadership, tech titans, bankers and political influence agents assembled at the AEI summit in Sea Island, Georgia.
In the decade that passed, you have seen me reference this Sea Island group frequently, because the origin of where we are today can only be understood if you followed the outcome of that 2016 Sea Island meeting and the decade of activity therein.
In 2016 the agenda of the group, though they gently denied it at the time, was to figure out a way to remove the disruption Donald Trump represented from the business model of DC politics. The Sea Island confab discussed how to stop him, or at the very least manage the potential damage he could deliver to the system – specifically, to the Republican wing of the UniParty apparatus.
Here in 2025, we are currently witnessing an outcome of activity from essentially the same group. For this phase, the intention is to fracture the baseline of support that underpins President Trump’s movement; what is reasonably called MAGA and the America-First movement.
What follows below is a review that might help people understand what exactly is behind the various pressure narratives we see being introduced into this narrative operation. The attacks against Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, various iterations of Qatar vs Israel as espoused by voices like Mark Levin, the claims of antisemitism shouted against any voice that doesn’t put the interests of the Israeli government at the forefront, and the various alignments therein.
In the biggest picture, this is not a battle against individual voices, but rather the positioning of interests to maintain the same objective that was discussed in the aforementioned Sea Island confab.
A few points are needed for context as this discussion enlarges. First, I am only 80% finished with the year-long tracking of the participants; however, due to the severity of the issue and the urgency therein, this is one of the few times I will outline something that is not yet fully developed.
Second, this is not the first rodeo for this activity. After the Tea Party rose in 2010, we saw this same institutional response from almost identical participants to control the threat of a leaderless organic grassroots movement. President Obama, the DNC/RNC and the Republican power apparatus all opposed the Tea Party, as they do MAGA for exactly the same reason.
The need for control is a reaction to fear.
You might remember supporters of the various patriot or Tea Party grassroots organizations being targeted by the Obama DOJ and IRS. Simultaneously John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell labeled Tea Party supporters as political jihadists, extremists and hobbits. The targeting operations to isolate, ridicule and marginalize the movement was both a DNC and an RNC operation.
Republicans and Democrats worked together to eliminate the Tea Party, and Republicans were more than willing to lose elections to stop Tea Party supported candidates from winning. This is important to remember, because that type of activity both evidences the UniParty apparatus and the opposition to the modern iteration of the Tea Party in the larger MAGA voting base. In short, the DC professional political apparatus hates all versions of the same uncontrollable electorate regardless of label.
When they departed Sea Island, eventually the professional Republicans (GOPe) ended up settling on supporting Hillary Clinton, because Donald Trump could not be defeated within the confines of the party apparatus and became the presumptive nominee. The tech group from Sea Island was already part of the Hillary Clinton alignment, and the “political influence agents” also saw Hillary as the comfortable, predictable and non-disruptive candidate. The key underpinning all of them was “anyone but Trump.”
Hillary then walked toward November with party Democrats, party Republicans, tech, Silicon Valley and the never-Trump conservatives. However, Hillary encountered a major minus in the electorate when the Bernie Sanders group discovered the origin of the DNC control operation. Hillary Clinton gained the party Republicans, but Hillary Clinton lost a lot of Bernie voters; many of them went to Trump.
[NOTE: It’s a little funny, but the five-year-long RNC -vs- TP/MAGA fight is essentially what we are now watching within the other wing of the UniParty, the DNC wing. The grassroots left against the DNC professionals. The “progressives” or “socialist democrats” are taking Democrat scalps the same way the grassroots right took down Republicans. The old guard Democrats are quitting.]
All of this is said to frame the context for 2025, and the objectives of the political influence agents to break up the MAGA movement into smaller digestible pieces. The wedge issue is not accidentally Israel.
Israel has been selected as a wedge issue to divide MAGA, because Israel-First influencers viewed themselves in a vulnerable position. This too needs context.
♦ QATAR. All year long I have been watching the Qatar vs Israel battle surface on social media. At first it was a very odd dynamic to watch, because it did not make sense. Then a few things became more visible that made it evident why the U.S-Israel groups were concerned.
In the decade that preceded 2025, you cannot find too many examples of Qatar ever having a positive headline outside the praise from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. While Obama had always embraced Qatar (ex. bank for the Muslim Brotherhood), it was Joe Biden who labeled Qatar a major non-NATO ally. The Obama/Biden administration liked Qatar, the first Trump administration not so much.
Prior to 2025, Qatar had a history of bad influence operations, where “bad” is defined as them doing really bad things; like funding radical Islamic extremists (creating the Arab Spring), giving safe haven to the exiled Islamist Egyptian leadership, financing Al-Jazeera, shipping covert CIA/State Dept weapons to the al-Qaeda operatives in Libya and Syria, being the bankers for Iranian money, supporting Hamas leadership, etc.
In the first Trump term, President Trump confronted Qatar and told the Gulf Cooperation Council (Egypt, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia) to maintain pressure on Qatar. So, it was quite a reversal to see the second Trump term reverse course entirely and begin praising Qatar. However, if you think about the issue of the Israeli war in Gaza, and how that changed the landscape, things begin to take on a new context.
This new 2025 positive-Qatar vibe created anxiety for the pro-Israel elements inside the USA. It wasn’t a matter of direct policy that seemed to unnerve them, but rather a change in influence priority. Influence is a tenuous game of position.
In early 2025, Israel-first voices started to seem visibly worried their White House influence operation may be diminished by a positive Trump message toward Qatar. In my opinion, that influence fear was actually substantive, and yet part of an intentional Trump foreign policy agenda; akin to a soft brushback pitch against the U.S-Israel influence shop who had become very comfortable taking their Trump influence for granted.
Friendly messaging toward Qatar’s influence shop was viewed by U.S-Israeli voices as a betrayal. However, given the nature of the Trump transition team having former lobbyists for Qatar, the friendly messaging was understandable; however, x2, that set of facts didn’t make it palatable for the Israeli coalition. Ergo, an influence battle began very early in the Trump administration, and the internecine Qatar vs Israel issue was visible to those of us who watch things closely.
Keep in mind, historically within the GOPe apparatus, this was a lucrative financial tug-of-influence game. The neocon/intelligence wing (Bolton/McCain) had one foot in pro-Qatar and one foot in pro-Israel, with ¹both sides funding for influence and delivering affluence. So much so that their interests from a USA viewpoint were virtually indistinguishable, see Libya. Additionally, behind this financial set of motives, this confab of influence beneficiaries was/is the core of that Sea Island meeting.
[¹President Obama played this dynamic brilliantly to the benefit of his Muslim Brotherhood allies.]
♦ THE RACE – At this point in the analysis, it is worthwhile dropping the traditional viewpoint of U.S. politicians as “candidates” and start thinking about them in the more accurate term as “horses.” The horses race in the Kentucky Derby, but it is the owners who win the prize money.
When you view U.S. politicians as horses in the various races, we start to think more clearly about who their owners are. This is the key to understanding U.S political candidates.
You might be able to remember the name of the horse who won the Triple Crown, you might even remember the jockey who rode the horse, but less likely you remember who owned it. In U.S. politics, it’s the owners within the political races who control the horses not the horses who control the owners.
Donald J. Trump represented a serious threat to this dynamic. Trump is a horse who is also his owner; this is a major disruption in political sport.
The owners assembled in Sea Island, March 2016, to discuss this disruption.
By the time we get to 2020, the ‘anyone but Trump’ theme was clearly at play. The Intelligence Community assisted, Big Tech assisted, corporate media assisted, our ever-predictable Republicans were once again purposefully and willfully blind, and with mail-in ballots all the rage, Trump was all alone against the entire apparatus with only voters trying to offset the American political control operation. In the aftermath of the ridiculous outcome, all of the participants circled the wagons, and Nancy Pelosi provided the literal fence.
In 2021, the Big Tech sub-segment of the Sea Island confab then went full combat against MAGA elements, banning, deplatforming, demonetizing and removing any countervailing voices. Meanwhile, anyone associated with Trump was targeted by the collaborating government mechanisms, DOJ/FBI and the media once again ran cover.
In the 2023 version of ‘anyone but Trump,’ 43 billionaires together with an assist from Sea Island attendee, Elon Musk, tried to launch Ron DeSantis as a MAGA alternative. However, the Tea Party-hardened MAGA voters looked at their scars, and when they saw the $100 bill on a fishing line being dragged through the MAGA community, they refused to chase it.
By then, the 2016 Cruz Crew had switched to 2024 Alligator emojis, but even the “Evangelicals” with unlimited funding couldn’t fuel the DeSantis starship.
The Ron launch was as wobbly as DeSantis’ head during speaking engagements; and Casey wearing Melania’s heals, Duck Dynasty skinny pants and Sarah Palin’s ‘Grizzly Mama’ T-shirt couldn’t compensate.
What a hot mess.
The MAGA alternative was as structurally inauthentic as Ron’s boots, even with the lifts.
Hey, be thankful. No one has ever accused the Republican consultant class of accurately assessing the political landscape around them.
Their inauthenticity is what helps us to know who they are. It’s a net positive.
I would make the argument that if Ron’s owners had somehow pulled it off, Biden would have been yanked fast and replaced with Newsom, and we’d be looking at the “future in hindsight” right now.
♦ 2025 – That Sea Island crew doesn’t quit. The “anyone but Trump” operation is back in full swing despite the 2024 victory message.
Step #1 in the control process is to lose the 2026 election and put the Republican wing of the uniparty bird back into the minority. Again, this isolates our people’s president.
However, they can’t just lose 2026 and call it a day. They still need to manage the problem that President Trump represents for another three years. There are Trump policies to undermine, Trump executive orders to let sit non-legislatively supported, and all of this inaction must take place while Trump supporters are distracted with maximum shiny things.
This is where the “political influencers” come into play as mercenaries and advanced operative messengers for a very useful dynamic to emphasize – the operation that began as Qatar vs Israel.
Tucker Carlson representing the face of JD Vance’s support network becomes a target for Mark Levin et al. Candace Owens is labeled as the female face of Nick Fuentes, who, for some odd reason, is being algorithmically boosted by the same tech platforms that banned his account as an identified racist, extremist and antisemitic content producer.
This Fuentes boosting, again not coincidentally by the same elements who attended that 2016 Sea Island confab including Google, began in July 2025, about a month prior to TPUSA head Charlie Kirk telling his pro-Israel friends (billionaire Bill Ackman) that the content messaging on behalf of the Netanyahu government was backfiring amid Gen-Z. To wit, Netanyahu said, ‘not to worry’ my good friends of Israel, Larry Ellison and David Ellison, have things under control with TikTok, Twitter and Paramount. CBS’s Bari Weiss announced shortly thereafter.
While the inside White House influence game continues, all of these various 2025 interests again find their origin in Sea Island, Georgia, at the March 2016 AEI conference. Remember, think “owners” not “horses.”
♦ HORSES:
• Vice President JD Vance – Heir apparent to the MAGA endorsement of President Donald Trump. Groomed from the stable of billionaire influence agent and one time (no more) friend of President Trump, Peter Thiel. A more libertarian co-founder of Palantir, a skyrocketing AI software platform creator with billions in new federal contracts and likely more to come. Palantir CEO Alex Karp, a key industrialist applying the very best of AI creator systems to the merging targeting and identity tracking technology of the future.
Without Peter Thiel, there is no Senator JD Vance in 2022. Without Senator JD Vance there is no VP nominee in 2024. Oh, and despite their stealth separating in 2017, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel remain BFF influencers in 2025. And without Larry Ellison in 2022, there is no liquidity Musk to capture the Twitter Platform, which not coincidentally became a launch vehicle for the Ron effort shortly after Ellison said he would not allow Musk to fail.
So, where does that put JD Vance’s collar? Who knows? We’ll keep watching as Mr Ellison, having successfully moved beyond the X operation, now moves to the TikTok/Paramount phase while simultaneously owning the Oracle system operation that X utilizes.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio – For the first time in his political career, Marco is in a position where he is not directly accountable to voters. Having risen through the Florida legislature, state house and on to a federal Senate seat representing Florida, for the first time Rubio is applying himself without any election worries. His constituent base consists of President Trump.
Rubio is seemingly giving the appearance of having turned Maverick, having fun poking back at his previous owners, while running amuck in the free-range of Trump’s well-manicured landscape. Is Rubio required to return to a previously designated stable? Again, who knows. It’s super fun to watch this new less groomed, yet well maintained, stallion running in the wild. However, his pedigree is as trained as a Lipizzaner stallion. Will he tire of the free-range? We’ll keep watching.
• Governor Ron DeSantis – The one constant political hot mess in an ever-consistent GOPe playbook.
You might say that DeSantis could never stand a chance given his failure to launch in 2024. However, do not underestimate the stupidity of the professional consultant class who have a way of convincing owners that horse can run.
Ron’s only problem is he needs very narrow blinders and can’t turn corners. Other than that, he’s solid in the straights when all the obstacles are removed and the track is groomed specifically for his platformed shoes.
The issue for Sea Island, with DeSantis, is that despite his extremely managed exteriors, and despite the massive amount of money spent on the influence operations and appearances, only a specific type of Jockey can fit that little saddle.
[I mean someone had to tell Casey what to wear in Iowa the last time, and, well, think about it…. They both looked in the mirror that morning and thought, “Awesome – this will get em’.” How’d that work out?]
SUMMARY: Underneath all of what we are visibly seeing and witnessing, especially the outrage du-jour, is an underlying political background that consistently tries to control outcomes through various methods. This effort to split the MAGA base, using Israel or (insert_next_thing_here) as a wedge issue within the America First movement – only benefits one larger apparatus, the Sea Island billionaire control system.
This billionaire control system, a public-private partnership, previously deconstructed and co-opted the Tea Party returning the system to status quo.
The billionaires in finance and tech are set; their influence operation only varies slightly depending on the challenge, because they know they can purchase every horse in the race, and they are working earnestly through various iterations of the same owner playbook, with the end goal the same – control.
Just reject it.
Centinel2012 