Many Republicans and conservatives have criticized Donald Trump since he rose to first place in the polls — but for two months, none of them put up serious cash to try to stop him. 
 
 On Tuesday, that changed. The Club for Growth — an anti-tax, anti-spending conservative pressure group — announced it would spend $1 million on anti-Trump ads in Iowa. Here's a look at one, which says Trump has a "very liberal" record and is "playing us for chumps," and calls him "just another politician." 
 
 This is the first significant anti-Trump ad buy, and the political world will watch with bated breath to see if it helps knock Trump out of the lead in Iowa — and also to see how Trump, who hasn't run paid TV ads yet, will respond to a challenge on the airwaves. 
 
 But it's no surprise that the Club for Growth is taking the lead. For months now, Trump and the club — which is mainly funded by wealthy investors and financiers — have been at each other's throats, publicly feuding on Twitter. On the surface, the dispute is about what happened around a meeting months ago, after which the club's president asked Trump for a $1 million donation. 
 
 In reality, though, the feud gets to the heart of why the billionaire's candidacy is so dangerous to the conservative electoral coalition. The club's mission has long been to push the GOP far to the right on economic issues — slashing taxes and spending as much as possible. But Trump has pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare spending, and says the wealthy should be taxed more. 
 
 That makes his candidacy incredibly dangerous to both the club and the current orthodoxy on tax and spending issues that exists across the GOP — an orthodoxy that the club helped bring about, and tries to enforce. 
 
 The Club for Growth has tried to push the GOP far to the right on economic policy 
 
 Despite keeping a low profile with the general public, the Club for Growth has gradually become an important player in GOP politics by funding primary challenges against politicians the group deems as tax-hiking, big-spending RINOs (Republicans in name only). 
 
 The group's origins date back to the early 1980s, when wealthy investor Richard Gilder and several of his friends on Wall Street joined up to interview political office seekers about their views on economic policy. If Gilder and his friends liked what they heard — the bigger the tax and spending cuts, the better — they'd hand over campaign donations. 
 
 "If you want to run as a Republican, you are going to have to be for smaller government, lower taxes, free trade" 
 
 Eventually, however, the group's members became convinced that the Republicans they were helping elect to Congress were becoming too comfortable with the status quo. To prevent this, the group would target moderates in primaries, spending big to support conservative challengers. "We are saying that if you want to run as a Republican, you are going to have to be for smaller government, lower taxes, free trade," the club's then-president, Steve Moore, told the Washington Post in 2000. 
 
 Eventually, some of the club's challengers, like now-Sens. Mike Lee in Utah and Marco Rubio in Florida, started to defeat their moderate, establishment-supported rivals. And the mere threat of an expensive, well-funded primary challenge caused many Republicans to move to the right on fiscal issues. "I always say politicians are cowards, and they really are. We say we're going to run someone against them, and they start wetting their pants," Moore bragged to the New York Times Magazine in 2003. 
 
 Sometimes this strategy seemed to backfire. In 2009, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania avoided a repeat GOP primary challenge by the club's then-president, Pat Toomey, by switching parties and becoming a Democrat — and then provided one of the crucial 60 votes to pass Obamacare months later. And far-right club-backed challengers like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Richard Mourdock in Indiana have won their primaries, and lost badly to Democrats in general elections that were supposed to be competitive. 
 
 But overall, the party has moved in the direction the club wants. Republican politicians have become more united in opposition to tax hikes, and in support of entitlement-cutting budgets like Paul Ryan's (which despite trillions in cuts is still too moderate for the club). Specter may have voted for Obamacare, but Toomey now holds his seat. This change in the GOP isn't entirely due to the club, but the group is perhaps the most prominent and best-funded player that's trying to scare congressional Republicans away from moderating via primary challenges. 
 
 Donald Trump's economic policies are the exact opposite of what the club wants 
 
 During Trump's presidential campaign, the mogul has gained notoriety for his pledge to deport 11 million unauthorized immigrants, and for his claims that the Mexican government is sending criminals and rapists across the border. This has led many to view him as a far-right fringe candidate. 
 
 But it's not so simple. Indeed, on the tax and spending issues that the club has always cared about most, Trump is a downright heretic in the modern GOP. He's pledged he'll make "no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." He's said he'll hike taxes on the wealthy, especially hedge fund managers, whom he refers to as just "guys that shift paper around" and "get lucky." 
 
 Trump has called the club "pathetic" and "phony," and suggested it's a "scam operation" 
 
 And — worse yet for the club — there's some evidence that his views are quite popular among Republican voters. A 2014 Gallup poll found that 45 percent of Republicans thought the wealthy pay too little in taxes, compared with just 21 percent who thought they pay too much. Similarly, more Republicans want to raise spending on Social Security and Medicare than cut it. And when Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson interviewed Tea Party supporters for a political science study, the people they talked to "were very anxious that Social Security and Medicare be maintained." 
 
 The wealthy elite GOP donor class that funds campaigns — and the think tanks that help mold conservative ideology, and the advocacy groups that enforce ideological discipline — have, so far, succeeded in preventing Republican politicians from adopting these views, even though they seem rather popular. 
 
 But Trump, who's self-funding his campaign, doesn't need to raise money from these sources. He's free to take whichever positions he thinks will win him the most votes. 
 
 Donald Trump has been fighting with the club for months 
 
 So when Trump announced his presidential candidacy on June 16, the Club for Growth immediately released a statement trashing him. Citing the mogul's past support for single-payer health care and a huge tax on wealth, club president David McIntosh said Trump was "not a serious candidate for president." 
 
 But Trump soon revealed that just weeks earlier, McIntosh had come to meet him in New York — and, in a letter soon afterward, had asked him for a $1 million contribution to the club. Trump, who didn't pay up, tried to argue that the club was opposing his candidacy in revenge. In a barrage of tweets, he called the club "pathetic" and "phony," and suggested it's "a scam operation." He even tweeted out the letter from McIntosh asking for the money. 
 
 .@club4growth should release the letter they sent me asking for $1,000,000. When I said no, they came out against me. A scam operation? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2015 
 
 This is mainly a red herring — an attempt at spin by Trump. The club's views on economic policy are well-established, and have been for decades. When Republicans run in primaries with a platform like Trump's, the club tries to take them down. That's its whole reason for being. 
 
 The true conflict here is a struggle for control of GOP orthodoxy. Conservatives have had a stranglehold on Republican economic policy ideas for years now. Tax cuts for the rich and entitlement cuts for average Americans have become the party's platform, despite the dubious electoral benefits of such an approach. This has been great for the Club for Growth and its wealthy backers — though they of course still see the establishment as full of RINOs, and want the party to do much more. The rise of Trump puts this triumph at risk — so he must be stopped. ||||| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on Monday in Dallas. Tom Pennington/Getty Images 
 
 The fiscal conservative advocacy group Club for Growth said on Tuesday it was funding $1 million in advertisements attacking Republican Donald Trump in the early-nominating state of Iowa, the first concentrated campaign to dislodge the front runner in the race for the GOP nomination. 
 
 The ads will launch on Thursday, a day after the second official GOP debate in which Mr. Trump will again take the center podium. They publicize statements Mr. Trump has made in recent years in which he takes positions on health care, taxes, and other issues that the group says align him with Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton. One ad ends with a picture of Mr. Trump and his wife posing with the Clintons. The ads also seek to undermine Mr. Trump’s efforts to cast himself as an outsider to Washington, calling him “just another politician.” 
 
 “In fact, he’s the worst kind of politician,” spokesman Doug Sachtleben told reporters on Tuesday. “He’ll say anything to get elected, and then he’ll do just the opposite when he’s in office.” He suggested the group will expand its efforts against Mr. Trump, and said it would be open to joining forces with other organizations. “This is the beginning,” he said. 
 
 Mr. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The group’s ad campaign has been several weeks in the making. Following the first GOP debate last month, Club for Growth President David McIntosh sent an email to the group’s members asking them to fund an anti-Trump campaign. 
 
 He wrote: “One thing we know about Trump, because he tells us every five minutes, is that Trump has a LOT of money. Which means it is going to take SUBSTANTIAL funds to expose him for what he is – the WORST kind of politician!” 
 
 Club for Growth typically throws its weight behind fiscal conservative candidates who support replacing the tax code with lower, flatter rates, repealing President Barack Obama‘s health law, and cutting government spending. The group has also gone after GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, criticizing his tax record as governor of Arkansas. 
 
 When Mr. Trump first announced his campaign in June, Mr. McIntosh said the group did not plan to subject his candidate to the level of scrutiny it had other major GOP hopefuls, calling him not a serious Republican candidate.” But as Mr. Trump maintains his lead in the polls, some Republicans have ramped up their efforts to blunt his rise. 
 
 Among the top donors in the first half of the year to Club for Growth Action—the group’s super PAC, which will pay for the ads—are some who have given millions to Mr. Trump’s rivals. Richard Uihlein, the CEO of a Wisconsin-based shipping company, gave a $2.5 million, together with his wife, to the super PAC backing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He gave the largest contribution to Club for Growth—$500,000. The group’s second-largest donor, hedge-fund magnate Robert Mercer, gave $11 million to the super PAC backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and another $500,000 to the group supporting former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Carly Fiorina. 
 
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 After weeks of quiet and not-so-quiet discussions about how to derail Donald Trump, the first major conservative group has decided it can wait no longer. 
 
 Josh Voorhees Josh Voorhees is a Slate senior writer. He lives in Iowa City. 
 
 The Club for Growth, a powerful and deep-pocketed free-market advocacy group, announced Tuesday that its super PAC will spend $1 million on a television ad blitz in Iowa attacking the current GOP front-runner. The group has been sparring with Trump for a few weeks now on Twitter and elsewhere, but the ad buy is the first time that it or any other conservative group has decided to spend big on the airwaves in a bid to bring The Donald back to Earth. 
 
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 The first of the two TV spots is largely a repeat of attacks we’ve seen before: It hits Trump for his previous support of universal health care and the 2008 Wall Street bailout, and his more recent suggestion that he would hike taxes on hedge fund managers and impose tariffs on companies that outsource their manufacturing (both of which are lumped together by the ad as simply supporting “higher taxes”). “In many cases, I probably identify more as a Democrat,” Trump says in a clip from 2004 that is played twice during the 30-second commercial. 
 
 The second ad, meanwhile, blasts the billionaire businessman for his support of a 2005 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for the government to use eminent domain in the name of economic development—a somewhat wonky issue that might not fire up the average American but one that is aimed directly at the type of anti-establishment Tea Party voter who has helped Trump rise to the top of the polls. Both of the ads come with taglines suggesting that the real estate mogul is far from the outsider hero he presents himself as on the stump. “Trump,” the narrator says in one, “just another politician.” 
 
 There’s a certain irony to the fact that the Club for Growth is now doing the heavy lifting for a Republican establishment that is increasingly fretting about Trump’s unexpected staying power. Traditionally the group has focused most of its resources on electing fiscally conservative hardliners to the U.S. House and Senate—hardliners who have made life less than pleasant for GOP establishment leaders like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. (The group spent big to help Rand Paul get elected in 2010 and Ted Cruz to do the same in 2012.) Still, the club has played the presidential primary game before, most notably in 2008, when it spent heavily to attack Mike Huckabee for his record on taxes and spending while governor of Arkansas. 
 
 The big question, of course, is whether the Trump-targeting attacks will work. The billionaire has survived similar Republican-in-name-only digs before. Megyn Kelly and co. grilled him on his liberal past during the Fox News debate last month, and Jeb Bush and other GOP hopefuls have since leveled similar criticisms. Such attacks, though, have failed to strike a chord with Trump’s unique band of supporters, many of whom appear more attracted to the businessman’s anti-establishment anger and brash bluster than anything else. Maybe these voters simply don’t care about the party line. The fact that the new attacks are coming from a super PAC, meanwhile, will play into Trump’s ongoing criticism of his GOP rivals for being too dependent on the type of wealthy patrons that are funding their campaigns and working behind the scenes.
– Donald Trump's campaign may be about to hit its first big test. Club for Growth will drop $1 million on anti-Trump ads in Iowa, to begin airing tomorrow, reports the Wall Street Journal. The anti-tax, anti-spending group has already aired one ad that attacks Trump's "very liberal" record and labels him "just another politician." Why the hate? Vox explains the group, which falls to the far right on economic issues, has been feuding with Trump since he announced his run. Though Trump's views on immigration make him seem like a far-right candidate, his promises of "no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid" and higher taxes on the wealthy place him closer to the left. "When Republicans run in primaries with a platform like Trump's, the club tries to take them down," reports Vox. "That's its whole reason for being." The Club's president David McIntosh wasted no time in attacking Trump back in June, noting he was "not a serious candidate." But things heated up weeks later when Trump shared a letter from McIntosh asking for a $1 million contribution. Trump has suggested the "phony" group is attacking him because he refused to comply. "He'll say anything to get elected, and then he'll do just the opposite when he's in office," a Club for Growth rep says, adding the group may team with other conservative or Republican groups against Trump. "This is the beginning." "If nothing else, the ads will provide the latest test case for whether the former reality TV star is really as immune to the laws of politics as he currently appears to be," notes Slate. "For Republicans and their conservative allies who worry that Trump is inflicting daily damage to their eventual nominee's 2016 chances, $1 million is small price to pay to find that out."