The champagne was flowing as hedge fund executive Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah hosted a reception during the Cannes Film Festival last May to promote “Clinton Cash,” a film by their political adviser Stephen K. Bannon and the production company they co-founded, Glittering Steel.

The Mercers, Republican mega-donors who had spent millions on the failed presidential bid of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Bannon, then executive chairman of Breitbart News Network, were still weeks from formally aligning with Donald Trump’s campaign. But the festivities that balmy evening aboard the Sea Owl, the Mercers’ luxurious yacht, marked the growing influence of their financial and political partnership in shaping the 2016 campaign — and in encouraging the populist surge now reverberating around the world.

The Mercers’ approach is far different from that of other big donors. While better-known players such as the Koch brothers on the right and George Soros on the left focus on mobilizing activists and voters, the Mercers have exerted pressure on the political system by helping erect an alternative media ecosystem, whose storylines dominated the 2016 race.

Their alliance with Bannon provided fuel for the narrative that drove Trump’s victory: that dangerous immigrants are ruining the country and corrupt power brokers are sabotaging Washington.

Inside the partnership between Stephen Bannon and the Mercer family

Before he became President Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon was involved in several ventures with Republican mega-donor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah. (Bastien Inzaurralde, Dani Player/The Washington Post)

The wealthy New York family and the former investment banker-turned-media executive collaborated on at least five ventures between 2011 and 2016, according to a Washington Post review of public filings and multiple people familiar with their relationship. The extent of their partnership has not previously been reported.

Through those projects, the Mercers and Bannon, now chief White House strategist, quietly built a power base aimed at sowing distrust of big government and eroding the dominance of the major news media.

The Mercers provided the money, while Bannon, working in tandem with Rebekah, acted as business partner and political guide. The family’s overarching strategy, according to people familiar with their giving, is to test various tactics to see which is most effective.

“The Mercers have a Silicon Valley approach to politics: Let a thousand entities bloom, and let’s see what works,” said one associate, who, like others close to the Mercers, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private family…. READ THE REST HERE

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