U.S. Senators and Representatives may be abandoning Donald Trump’s Presidential bid, but Renaissance Technologies’ co-CEO and prominent Trump supporter Robert Mercer is standing by his man.
In a statement first published by the Washington Post following the release of a decade-old video of Trump making sexually crude remarks — which critics say are tantamount to admissions of past sexual assaults on women — the hedge fund manager and his daughter Rebekah made clear that they “stand steadfastly” behind the candidate.
“Donald Trump’s uncensored comments, both old and new, have been echoed and dissected in the media repeatedly in an effort to kindle among his supports a conflagration of outrage commensurate with the media’s own faux outrage,” the duo wrote. “We are completely indifferent to Mr. Trump’s locker room braggadocio.”
In maintaining their stand, the Mercers suggested that their support would have shifted if Trump had changed his positions on “open borders, open trade, and executive actions in pursuit of gun control.” In clear reference to a number of women who have accused Clinton’s husband Bill of sexual assault in the past, the Mercers also noted that their support would have waned if “Trump had serially terrorized and silenced the victims of violent sexual assault whom he feared could damage his political career.”
The Mercers had backed Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the GOP primaries before Trump won the Republican nomination. Their support of Trump now is at odds with many elected members of the Presidential candidate’s own party.
Since the release of the video on Friday, October 7, members of congress who have said that they can no longer support Trump include Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and more.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Robert Mercer has donated over $20 million to Republican candidates and causes during the 2016 election cycle. This makes Mercer the top Republican donor of this cycle, slightly ahead of Elliott Management’s Paul Singer, who has given $18 million.
The top Democratic donor, and largest individual donor of the entire cycle, is Thomas Steyer of Farallon Capital.
