"The Quiet Funding of Conservative Causes by a Major American Pharma Family"
The G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company's family fortune, channeled through the Searle Freedom Trust, has quietly funded conservative causes, with over $200 million in grants distributed to conservative nonprofits over the last decade. The trust, set to close in 2025, has more than $59 million left to spend and has supported groups advocating for conservative policies, weakening child labor laws, stricter voting rules, gutting affirmative action policies, and climate change denial. The trust's influence reflects how generational wealth can shape political debates, and its endowment stems from the pharmaceutical company's development of common medicines and supplements, including the first birth control pill.