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Person

Thomas D. Klingenstein

Occupation(s):

Board chair, Claremont Institute

Principal, Cohen Klingenstein, LLC.
Spouse:

Nancy Perlman

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Thomas D. Klingenstein is the chairman of the board of directors of the right-of-center Claremont Institute and a principal in the investment firm Cohen Klingenstein, LLC. 1 He founded the Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund. 2

Klingenstein has argued that the United States is in a “cold civil war” between conservatives and “woke communists.” 3

He has contributed millions to conservative organizations and Republican-aligned political committees. 4 He has also contributed to cultural organizations in New York City and conservation efforts in Maine. 5 6

Background

Thomas D. Klingenstein is the chairman of the board of directors for Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, a California-based right-of-center think tank. He is also a principal in the investment firm Cohen Klingenstein, LLC. 7 Cohen Klingenstein administers a portfolio worth more than $2.3 billion. Klingenstein is the grandson of a successful investor. 8

He also founded the New Jersey-based Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund, a grant maker. 9

Klingenstein has written for the Claremont Review of Books, Newsweek, American Mind, American Greatness, and Real Clear Politics. He is also known for giving speeches promoting former President Donald Trump, including “A Man vs. A Movement,” and “Trump’s Virtues.” 10

Klingenstein is a playwright. One of his better-known plays was in 2017 titled If Only: A Love Story about a fictional interracial love story with President Abraham Lincoln playing the role of matchmaker. 11

Philanthropy

Thomas D. Klingenstein founded and runs the New Jersey-based Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund, a philanthropy organization and the largest donor to the Claremont Institute. 12

Klingenstein told the New York Times that Claremont had become “increasingly less reliant on me” for funding. His Fund has given more than $19 million to the Claremont Institute since 2005, according to the Guardian. He contributed $2.97 million in 2021, which was the largest contribution to date. 13

From 1992 to 2016, he gave a total $666,000 in political donations. Since 2020, Klingenstein has contributed $11.6 million to Republican candidates and Republican-leaning political action committees, the Guardian reported in August 2023. The bulk of the donations, $7 million, have gone to Club for Growth Action. 14

In 2021 and 2022, Klingenstein contributed $2 million to the American Leadership PAC, and contributed $500,000 to the Firebrand PAC. 15

Klingenstein has also funded the Edmund Burke Foundation. 16

The fund gave $100,000 to Public Media Lab for production of Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words, a documentary on the life of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas that was released in January 2020 and broadcast on PBS in May 2020. 17

In 2018, the fund donated $280,000 to The American Vicarious, a theater development group. In 2005, he commissioned a dance from Elisa Monte Dance as a birthday present for his wife, Nancy Perlman. 18

The fund also supports conservation efforts in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine, with 2018 grants to 7 Lakes Alliance, Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance, and the Maine Lakes Society. 19

Political Commentary

Thomas D. Klingenstein has said a “cold civil war” is happening in the United States between “woke communists” and conservatives. 20 He said a “a cold civil war… is not a time for too much stability, compromise, or for imputing good motives to the enemy.” 21

Klingenstein has argued that “woke communists” are winning the “cold civil war” in America because most Republican politicians have failed to engage. 22

In June 2020, Klingenstein wrote in the Claremont Review of Books that “Republicans are somewhat lost” but their goal should be “to preserve the American way of life.” He frames this in terms of protecting America against multiculturalism, which he views as “a collection of cultural identity groups, ranked in order of victimhood (although all oppressed by white males).” Klingenstein called for strengthening “the institutions that nurture the foundations” of the American way of life, including “family, religion, education, and community.” 23

During President Donald Trump’s first year in office, Thomas D. Klingenstein said that scholars at the Claremont Institute “have the ear of this administration and may help Trump take what he feels in his gut and migrate it to his head. This is Claremont’s moment.” 24

Klingenstein told the New York Times, “if there is within the conservative movement a kind of intellectual justification for Trump, it comes from Claremont.” He also told the Times, when Trump kicked off his first presidential campaign, the Claremont board decided “that we were going to become a little more ‘small-p’ political, in addition to the philosophy.” 25

Klingenstein has said “Trump is a manly man,” and an exemplar of “traditional manhood.” 26

He has also voiced support for other conservative figures including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. During a 2022 interview with Steve Deace, he said, that “DeSantis understands that we’re in a war, and that’s the most important thing. … If you don’t understand we’re in a war, almost nothing else matters.” 27 Klingenstein said in 2020 that Republicans, “would do well to follow Tucker Carlson’s lead. Night after night, in appropriately apocalyptic terms, Tucker explains the revolution.” 28

Bowdoin College

In an article in the Claremont Review of Books, Klingenstein stated that Bowdoin College’s president Barry Mills was inaccurate when he stated that Klingenstein called Bowdoin “a ridiculous liberal school” that he would never support “because of all your misplaced and misguided diversity efforts.” Klingenstein disputed Mills’s version of the conversation, claiming that he never even mentioned Bowdoin to Mills. 29

After the controversy, the Klingenstein Fund paid for a multi-year grant to the National Association of Scholars (NAS) for a study of Bowdoin College. 30 The report titled “What Does Bowdoin Teach?” by Peter Wood and Michael Toscano, was issued in April 2013. 31

Klingenstein is a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Scholars. 32

In a piece in the NAS’s journal Academic Questions, Klingenstein said he hoped the report “will ring in Bowdoin’s ears for years to come” and “is likely to restrain Bowdoin’s more extreme impulses.” 33

References

  1. “Thomas D. Klingenstein.” Claremont Review of Books. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/author/thomas-d-klingenstein
  2. Stewart, Katherine. “The Claremont Institute: The Anti-Democracy Think Tank.” The New Republic. August 10, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://newrepublic.com/article/174656/claremont-institute-think-tank-trump
  3.  “About Tom Klingenstein.” Tom Klingenstein. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://tomklingenstein.com/about/
  4. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  5. Julie Bloom, “Nothing Says I Love You Like A Dance.” New York Sun. February 1, 2005. Accessed August 18, 2020. http://www.nysun.com/arts/nothing-says-i-love-you-like-a-dance/8509
  6. Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund. Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF). 2018. Part XV Line 3
  7.  “Thomas D. Klingenstein.” Claremont Review of Books. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/author/thomas-d-klingenstein
  8. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  9. Stewart, Katherine. “The Claremont Institute: The Anti-Democracy Think Tank.” The New Republic. August 10, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://newrepublic.com/article/174656/claremont-institute-think-tank-trump
  10.  “About Tom Klingenstein.” Tom Klingenstein. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://tomklingenstein.com/about/
  11. Wood, Peter. “Abraham Lincoln, Matchmaker.” First Things. September 11, 2017. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/09/abraham-lincoln-matchmaker
  12. Stewart, Katherine. “The Claremont Institute: The Anti-Democracy Think Tank.” The New Republic. August 10, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://newrepublic.com/article/174656/claremont-institute-think-tank-trump
  13. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  14.  Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  15. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  16. Stewart, Katherine. “The Claremont Institute: The Anti-Democracy Think Tank.” The New Republic. August 10, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://newrepublic.com/article/174656/claremont-institute-think-tank-trump
  17. “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words.” PBS. Accessed June 20, 2020. http://ww.pbs.org/created-equal-clarence-thomas-his-own-words
  18. Julie Bloom, “Nothing Says I Love You Like A Dance.” New York Sun. February 1, 2005. Accessed August 18, 2020. http://www.nysun.com/arts/nothing-says-i-love-you-like-a-dance/8509
  19. Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund. Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF). 2018. Part XV Line 3
  20. “About Tom Klingenstein.” Tom Klingenstein. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://tomklingenstein.com/about/
  21. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  22. “About Tom Klingenstein.” Tom Klingenstein. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://tomklingenstein.com/about/
  23. Thomas D. Klingenstein. “Preserving The American Way of Life.” The American Mind. June 3, 2020. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://americanmind.org/features/preserving-the-american-way-of-life/
  24. Schuessler, Jennifer. “Charge The Cockpit And You Die.” New York Times. February 21, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/arts/charge-the-cockpit-or-you-die-behind-an-incendiary-case-for-trump.html
  25. Zerofsky, Elisabeth. “How the Claremont Institute Became a Nerve Center of the American Right.” New York Times. August 3, 2022. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/magazine/claremont-institute-conservative.html
  26. Williamson, Kevin D. “Thanks for the ‘Memory.’” National Review. July 28, 2022. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/thanks-for-the-memory/
  27. Wilson, Jason. “The far-right financier giving millions to the Republican party to fight ‘woke communists.’” The Guardian. August 4, 2023. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/far-right-republican-donor-woke-thomas-klingenstein
  28. Guerrero, Jean. “Donald Trump’s Politics of White Fear Have Roots in Southern California.” L.A. Magazine. September 10, 2020. Accessed September 23, 2023. https://lamag.com/news/claremont-institute-trump
  29. Peter Wood and Michael Toscano. “What Does Bowdoin Teach?  How A Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students.” Accessed August 20, 2020. https://www.nas.org/storage/app/media/images/what-does-bowdoin-teach.pdf
  30. Thomas D. Klingenstein. “A Golf Story.” Claremont Review of Books. Winter/Spring 2010/11. Accessed August 18, 2020. https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/a-golf-story
  31. Peter Wood and Michael Toscano. “What Does Bowdoin Teach?  How A Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students.” Accessed August 20, 2020. https://www.nas.org/storage/app/media/images/what-does-bowdoin-teach.pdf
  32. “Staff and Boards.” National Association of Scholars. 2022. Accessed October 13, 2022. https://www.nas.org/about-us/staff-boards.
  33. Peter Wood and Thomas Klingenstein. “What Does Bowdoin Teach? A Dialogue Between Wood and Klingenstein.” Academic Questions. Summer 2013.
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