Billionaire Robert Mercer has reportedly stepped back from his role as a prominent Republican fundraiser and donor amid scrutiny over his relationship with President Trump.
CNBC reports that close associates of Mercer and his family say that the billionaire’s downsized political contributions this year followed after public scrutiny for his backing of Trump and his agenda.
{mosads}”They’ve disappeared,” one top GOP fundraiser told CNBC, referring to Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer, another prominent GOP fundraiser. “I think they just don’t like being in the spotlight.”
Robert Mercer and his wife Diana gave more than $25 million in 2016 to various conservative causes. This year, that number shrank to $6.4 million, according to CNBC — the lowest sum since 2012.
The Mercers have not made any direct contributions this year to Trump’s campaign or his joint fundraising committees, the outlet reported. Robert Mercer funneled millions into Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.
“He’s out,” a former associate of Robert Mercer told the outlet. “He’s not going to play any major role going forward. They’re tired of the attacks from the Democrats and the media constantly ganging up on them.”
Mercer has faced criticism in the past for his investments in Breitbart News, once run by former White House strategist Stephen Bannon. His financial support for Cambridge Analytica, the since-closed data-gathering firm that was used to collect private information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles, was cited by Robert Mercer’s associates as a key reason for his diminished political work.
Rebekah Mercer was on the board of Cambridge Analytica. The information that was gathered by the company was found to have been wielded by the Trump campaign in an attempt to influence voters.
“He really scaled back since all the Cambridge news,” one associate told CNBC.
Spokespeople for the Mercers declined to comment for the story, according to CNBC, but Robert Mercer has defended himself against criticism of his political support in the past.
“A society founded on the basis of the individual freedom that flourishes under a limited federal government has no place for discrimination,” Mercer said last year. “Of the many mischaracterizations made of me by the press, the most repugnant to me have been the intimations that I am a white supremacist or a member of some other noxious group.”