WASHINGTON — A Swiss billionaire is funneling his money into a pop-up progressive advocacy group claiming to support “working families” and denouncing President Trump’s plans to extend tax cuts as a giveaway to the ultra-rich.
Families Over Billionaires, which launched when Trump returned to the White House in January, was set up as a temporary entity to oppose the extension of Trump’s signature 2017 tax legislation — but its “eight-figure” fundraising campaign, through an array of pass-through organizations, is backed by the very wealthy.
That’s because the fledgling Families for Billionaires, which doesn’t even have a donation option on its website for the public, is actually a trade name of the massive liberal dark money Sixteen Thirty Fund, according to business records filed in Washington, DC.
Sixteen Thirty has received $280 million from the Wyss Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, 89, past reports and disclosures from its affiliated groups show.
Wyss also sent around $34.5 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund through another one of his philanthropic groups, the Berger Action Fund, according to 2023 tax filings disclosed by the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust.
“Families Over Billionaires is nothing more than a front group for the dark money behemoth Sixteen Thirty Fund,” Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland told The Post.
“It’s the height of irony that a group that has received at least $280 million from a foreign national is trying to brand themselves as fighting for American families.”
The fledgling group intends to use “paid media, rapid response, surrogate operations, and grassroots mobilization” to get its message out, a press release notes, while congressional Republicans draft Trump’s marquee tax legislation.
Similar to Families Over Billionaires, The Payback, which enjoys billionaire funding, purports to be a champion against corporations and the ultra-wealthy “scamming our tax system.”
“Families Over Billionaires is a nonprofit campaign working to ensure the American people understand what the 2025 tax fight is really about: Politicians in Washington trying to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of working people,” a spokesperson for the group told The Post.
“We follow all local, state, and federal law in our work.”
