Trump ally-turned-enemy starts $3.5 million ad campaign urging GOP to pick someone else

A new group affiliated with the conservative Club for Growth is launching almost $3.5 million worth of TV ads this week urging GOP primary voters in South Carolina and Iowa to move on from former President Donald Trump.

In ads run by Win It Back PAC, a white male voter tells viewers, "I love Donald Trump. I love what he did."

He adds, "He was attacked all the time and it seemed like, you know, it just seemed non-stop. The drama ... He’s got so many distractions. The constant fighting — something every day — and I’m not sure he can focus on moving the country forward."

The man in the ad doesn't endorse another Republican candidate, but does say near the end of the ad, "I mean, we definitely need somebody that can freaking win. I think you’d probably lose that bet if you voted for Trump." 

The officials behind Win It Back include Club for Growth president David McIntosh, who publicly stated earlier this year that his organization likely wouldn't back Trump's re-election bid in the 2024 GOP primary.

“The party should be open to another candidate,” David McIntosh, the president of the group, told the New York Times in February.

So far, though, the group hasn't endorsed any other candidates in the GOP primary field. They also haven't publicly confirmed that Win It Back PAC is linked to the Club, though McIntosh is listed on Win It Back PAC's FEC paperwork filed last week.

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The Club for Growth opposed Trump in 2016 before becoming a close ally of his during his presidency, but he and McIntosh fell out during the 2022 midterm elections. The Club publicly clashed with Trump in several Senate primaries last year. The group even ran ads attacking Trump's chosen candidate in Ohio's Senate race: JD Vance, who eventually won the nomination and the general election.

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In response to the Win It Back PAC ad campaign, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign referred to the Club as "another swampy DC insider group using shady money to hurt America," in a statement to NBC News.

The Club isn't the only high-powered Republican group pledging to go against Trump in next year's GOP primary. Americans for Prosperity, one of the main groups in the conservative Koch networks, has also said it'll spend money against Trump in the primary.

The New York Times reported last week that the Koch network has already raised over $70 million to spend on the 2024 election cycle.