There are few families more consequential to the rise of fascism in this country than the Mercers. Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah have been the big-money funders behind most of the most aggressively fascist-minded groups you may have heard of. While the more famous Koch family has centered its political giving around corporate-friendly dismantling of government, the Mercers are the funders for Republicanism's far right, from white nationalist organizations to anti-democratic hoaxes and paranoia.
The Mercers backed Donald Trump's 2016 rise before becoming disenchanted with him somewhere near the midpoint of his term, reportedly unsatisfied with what their political investment had brought them. A new CNBC report, however, suggests that the father-daughter pair are once again mulling whether to back Trump as Trump attempts to retake the presidency on a platform of openly authoritarian rule.
