Trump has reportedly lost one of his biggest 2016 financial backers
The reclusive Mercer family was one of President Trump's biggest and most influential backers in 2016, pouring at least $15.5 million into different organizations working to elect Trump, pumping another $10 million into Trump-friendly media company Breitbart News, and investing millions more into Cambridge Analytica, the now-disbanded Facebook-mining data firm Robert Mercer cofounded in 2013. Their influence was so great with Trump they installed Steven Bannon and Kellyanne Conway to run his campaign in its final months, Rebekah Mercer was a senior member of Trump's presidential transition team, and the family donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.
The 2020 election cycle? "Crickets," a prominent Republican strategist tells Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman. "They're gone."
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Plus, the Mercers essentially got what they wanted out of Trump's victory, and it wasn't necessarily President Trump. "They never really liked Trump," a source close to the Mercers told Sherman. They were supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and they only came around to Trump when he was the last option against Hillary Clinton. "Trump was just Bob's play against Hillary," a former Renaissance executive told Sherman. "Bob said she and her husband were murderers who would destroy the country. He thought she was an evil person and a socialist." The Mercers did not respond to Vanity Fair's request for comment.
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