When is a Republican political action committee not a Republican political action committee? Arguably when it takes in almost $40 million from Democrat donors, profligately spends those donations on operating costs, and does it all in an attempt to defeat the incumbent Republican candidate.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Republican party, the Lincoln Project may not be working toward your interests.

In a tweet thread, Rob Pyers, Research Director for the non-partisan California Target Book, revealed that the Lincoln Project, an organization run by current and former Republicans dedicated to preventing the re-election of Donald Trump, took in $$39,384,397 from Democrat donors according to 3rd quarter FEC filings.

“[The Lincoln Project] burned a staggering $13 million on operating expenditures, made $23.9M of IEs (mostly routed into its founders firms), and ended with $13.2M on hand,” Pyers wrote.

The Lincoln Project convinced Democratic donors to part with $39,384,397 in Q3. It burned a staggering $13 million on operating expenditures, made $23.9M of IEs (mostly routed into its founders firms), and ended with $13.2M on hand. https://t.co/wvOXUYp7ed

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) October 14, 2020

Further down in the thread (which should be read in its entirety), Pyers shares FEC documentation revealing that leftist “dark money” group Sixteen Thirty Fund contributed $300,000 in Q3, and that founder Reed Galen’s Summit Strategic communications firm “logged $129,668 in expenditures for lodging reimbursement in August”; which, incidentally, amounted to a hefty boost from the 2018 cycle when it only took in $12,000 from a PAC backing a congressional candidate challenging former California GOP Rep Dana Rohrabacher.

The turnaround for Galen's firm is particularly pronounced, coming off a 2018 cycle where its only receipts from a federal client amounted to $12,000 from an IE backing a GOP primary challenger to Dana Rohrabacher. pic.twitter.com/61FOlDoxKN

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) October 14, 2020

The Lincoln Project, described as “a group of lifelong Republicans — political strategists for Republican candidates for the last 30 years — [that] have banded together to mount a rogue offensive aimed at defeating the sitting president of their own party,” is known more colloquially as a prominent “Never Trump” group, which makes one of the comments on Pyers thread truly hilarious.

<chef's kiss>https://t.co/APdvCn4zxp

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) October 14, 2020

And just to drive home that the organization is less dedicated to conservative policy than their claims of conserving conservatism would suggest, among the group’s donors are some well-known “Hollywood heavyweights” such as David Geffen and Jennifer Aniston.

According to its latest quarterly report with the Federal Election Commission, The Lincoln Project has also become a favorite for some of Hollywood’s political heavyweights, with a number of prominent Democratic donors shifting some of their 2020 election spend toward the PAC, which took in a total of more than $39 million this past quarter.

Among the PACs top 10 donors are Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen, who has contributed $300,000 to The Lincoln Project, as well as fellow Dreamworks co-founder and Quibi CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has donated $100,000. The PACs biggest individual donor is businessman and oil heir Gordon Getty, who contributed $1 million.

But even among The Lincoln Project’s more rank-and-file donors, notable names from the world of Hollywood are present. Jennifer Aniston donated $5,000, Felicity Huffman donated $9,300, Ken Jeong donated $3,000 and Jason Bateman donated $6,000.

Meanwhile, executives, writers and directors have also helped to fill the PACs coffers, including AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron and MGM chairman Michael De Luca, who each donated $5,000, and Jumanji and Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan who also donated $5,000.

It’s one thing to dislike the current head of one’s political party and lobby to move the party in a direction one feels is better representative of that party’s policy ideas. It’s quite another to successfully solicit donations from people who have radically different ideas about policy than the members of the party one claims to represent simply to pad an operating budget. The Lincoln Project would do better to stop the charade of claiming conservatism or any ideology that comports with rank and file American Republicans and simply admit they are already what their big money donors expect them to be: progressives for the right price.