Political group Bikers for Trump has dropped the former president’s name, and changed its title to Bikers for America, according to a Federal Election Commission filing on Monday.
The group’s FEC financial summary reports that as of June 30, it has $471.60 cash on hand and owes $50,022.27 in debt and loans.
Newsweek has contacted Bikers for America via email for comment.
The grassroots activist group was founded in 2016 by Chris Cox, a chainsaw artist from South Carolina, to support and provide informal security for Donald Trump‘s political rallies.
Cox formed the group after protesters in Chicago forced Trump to cancel a rally. At future rallies he said the bikers served as human barriers to stop protesters.
Donald Trump and members of Bikers for Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, August 22, 2018. Bikers for Trump has dropped the former president’s name, and changed its name to Bikers for America, according to Federal Election Commission filing on Monday.
Carolyn Kaster/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In 2018, Cox converted the group to a political action committee, able to formally fundraise for the president. In 2021, after Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, FEC filings suggest the group merged with another group called Bikers for the President PAC, which had lawyer and conservative activist Dan Backer listed as treasurer from 2018 to 2020.
In its 2021 to 2022 FEC filing, Backer’s group Bikers for the President PAC renamed to Bikers for Trump and Cox replaced Backer as treasurer.
In its 2023 to 2024 FEC filing, the group was registered as Bikers for 45, with Cox still treasurer, and then in the latest filing from this week, the name is now registered as Bikers for America.
The group’s website is still listed as bikersfortrump.com, but appears to not have been updated since Trump announced his candidacy in November 2022.
The website’s main page reads “Bikers for TrumpTM is leading the charge to Draft President Trump to run in 2024. If he enters the race, he would be the undisputed front runner to take back the Presidency!” It then has a form for a petition requesting Trump to run in 2024, and a link to donate.
Despite the dated webpage, the group maintains an up-to-date Facebook page with 371,000 followers, which continues to posts in support of the Republican candidate several times per week.
The group made headlines in 2018 when Cox, who at that time was protesting Harley-Davidson’s intention to move its motorcycle manufacturing out of the U.S., admitted to the New York Times that the T-shirts he was selling were made in Haiti.
“If I get a T-shirt made in the USA, it’s going to cost about $8 more,” Cox said in the Times interview.
“I looked far and wide to try to get a shirt made in America, it’s just they get you, they gouge you,” he added, his comments coming despite his—and many bikers’—opposition to motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson’s announcement that it would be making some of its motorcycles for the foreign market overseas.
