‘Billionaire Bully’ and GOP Megadonor Told Jewish Texas House Speaker He Only Wanted Christian Leaders

Former Texas Republican House Speaker Joe Straus confirmed Thursday a conversation reported in 2018 by Texas Monthly, in which Republican megadonor and “billionaire bully” Tim Dunn told him that only Christians should hold leadership positions in the House.

“Straus, a Jewish Republican, recounted the meeting in an interview with former Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith at the LBJ School of Public Affairs,” the Texas Tribune reported Thursday. “It appeared to be the first time Straus publicly confirmed the anecdote, first reported by Texas Monthly in a 2018 article that cited “Straus insiders.”

While anti-Semitism is evergreen among the far right and therefore not breaking news, the connection to the defense of embattled Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with Texas’ successful push toward the radical far right and Today’s openly pro-Hitler conservative movement is revealing.

Straus’ confirmation of the comments comes as Dunn’s political empire continues to face scrutiny for its ties to white supremacists and avowed anti-Semites. In October, the Texas Tribune reported that Jonathan Stickland, then the leader of Dunn’s most powerful political action committee, hosted prominent white supremacist and Adolf Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes in his office for nearly seven hours. The Tribune later uncovered close ties between several other Fuentes associates and Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC that Stickland led until he was quietly replaced last year.

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And then there is Dunn’s involvement in the “holy war” against public education, non-Christians and renewable energy.

“The most powerful figure in the state, Tim Dunn, is not an elected official. But behind the scenes, the West Texas oilman is generously funding what he sees as a holy war against public education, renewable energy and non-Christians,” Texas Monthly reported in a piece titled “The Billionaire Bully Who Wants to Transform Texas in a Christian Theocracy”.

Dunn is actually one of the main reasons behind Texas’ huge shift toward the radical right, leaving common-sense Republicans and middle-of-the-road Democrats behind.

“A 68-year-old oil billionaire, Dunn seeks to turn Texas into something resembling a theocracy. If you ever wonder why state laws and policies are more radical than most Texans would prefer, the answer has a lot to do with Dunn and his checkbook,” Texas Monthly explained.

The Trib goes on to suggest that while there was initially some backlash, Dunn is stronger than ever. And it was his network that “made good on its promises of revenge against House Republicans who voted to impeach their top state ally, Attorney General Ken Paxton. Nine GOP presidents have been ousted by hardline conservative challengers and eight others, including Phelan, have been forced into runoffs, mostly against major foes backed by Dunn’s network.

So let’s add corruption to Dunn’s list of “accomplishments.”

One billionaire oilman caused all this damage to the Texas Republican Party and Texas itself, which to some extent infected the entire country.

The obsession that rich white billionaires have with imposing their religious beliefs on everyone else isn’t that hard to understand: it’s a way to maintain authority and manipulate the masses. The use of religion to control the masses is as old as religion itself.

Supporting a theocracy is the opposite of patriotism, but that matters little to people like Dunn. He is determined to protect his own privileges and keep others in check in any way he can, and religion is an easy sell to justify ugly attempts to undermine the principles of the United States.