Steve Bannon’s billionaire Mercers declare war on Donald Trump’s billionaire Koch Bros
If you’ve been paying attention to politics this generation, you know that the Republican Party is collectively owned by a relative handful of billionaires who each decide which GOP candidates get funded. It’s allowed these billionaires to write whatever laws they like whenever the Republicans have been in charge. But now, thanks partly to the divorce between Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, two of these billionaires are going to war against each other.
Steve Bannon has long been a puppet of billionaires Robert and Rebekah Mercer. Bannon ran the Mercers’ data company Cambridge Analytica, which is suspected of having been involved with Russia’s effort to rig the election in Donald Trump’s favor. The Mercers and their money were the reason Bannon had such a prominent job in the White House and was able to hang onto it for so long. And the Mercers are still funding Bannon now that he’s back to being a free agent.
Now Bannon is using his alt-crazy site Breitbart to declare war on the billionaire Koch Bros, who despite having gotten off to an icy start with Donald Trump, have since managed to take control of his agenda in issues like health care. Breitbart is even running the headline “Kick the Freedom (a.k.a. ‘Koch’) Caucus to the Curb.” The implications for this war between the Mercers and the Kochs could have defining – and devastating – consequences for the future of the Republican Party.
It’s remarkable enough that the Mercer-backed Bannon is now publicly attacking the Koch Bros and calling for their ouster from Republican Party control. It demonstrates that Bannon is willing to go scorched earth to try to destroy everyone who ended up with the White House influence that was taken away from him. But it also means that we could be looking at the Mercers and the Kochs backing rival candidates in Republican primary races and more. Keep an eye on this.
