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Protesters demonstrate against Breitbart News in 2017 in Los Angeles. | Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images MERCERS funded BREITBART & STEVE BANNON...THOSE WHO EMBRACE EXTREMISM & LIES FAIL TO CONSIDER FUNDING....MERCERS PARK THEIR GAZILLIONS OFFSHORE ACCORDING TO THE PARADISE PAPERS AVOID FUNDING DEMOCRACY!
WHAT OF THE RUSSIAN FUNDING OF THESE EXTREMISTS THAT'S IGNORED? Inside The Wealthy Family That Has Been Funding Steve Bannon's Plan For Yearsexcerpt:
Jane Mayer writes in the New Yorker about Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, who have poured millions of dollars into Breitbart News, and who pushed to have Bannon run Trump's campaign.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. According to our guest, Jane Mayer, one of the most influential figures in America today is a man most of us have never heard of. Mayer's new piece in The New Yorker focuses on Robert Mercer, a wealthy hedge fund manager with very conservative - and as you'll hear - somewhat eccentric views. Mayer writes that Mercer and his daughter Rebekah played critical roles in President Trump's successful campaign last year, were influential in the transition to the White House and remain connected to key players in the West Wing. The Mercers have been major backers of Breitbart News and Steve Bannon's other projects for years, and they were influential in getting Bannon and Kellyanne Conway into leadership positions in the Trump campaign. Jane Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker who's won numerous honors including the George Polk Award. Her latest book now out in paperback is "Dark Money: The Hidden History Of The Billionaires Behind The Rise Of The Radical Right." Well, Jane Mayer, welcome back to the show. In this piece, you tell us about Robert Mercer, who it turns out has a profound influence on the Trump campaign and on the White House. How did he make his fortune? JANE MAYER: He made his fortune as a computer scientist who figured out how to write programs that anticipated swings in the stock markets in all kinds of trading, and he brought that sense of how to game the - sort of the financial markets to a hedge fund called Renaissance Technologies which has absolutely minted money ever since. DAVIES: We'll get to his political views, but first what kind of person is he? I think he's described in the title as reclusive. MAYER: He's a very unusual character. He is somebody who speaks very, very rarely. He has told colleagues that he prefers the company of cats to humans, and he has some very peculiar ideas about how the world should work and how it does work. And he tends to read kind of extreme far-right publications from which he gets his information. DAVIES: Somewhere he told someone that he loves the solitude of a computer lab at night. MAYER: I've read a couple of speeches he's given and talked to people about him. The one sort of instance in which he expresses sort of complete passion is about computers. He talks about how he just loves hearing the clacking of the disks late at night and working alone. He's a real loner who is a - something of a genius when it comes to math and computers, but almost so painfully awkward with other human beings. He can't look them in the eye when he speaks to them. DAVIES: Do we know anything about his wealth, how rich he is? MAYER: Well, it's hard to know exactly, but according to institutional investor, he makes approximately $135 million a year. DAVIES: And while we don't know his net worth, for certain, I mean, there is a pretty extravagant lifestyle. It's - I love the description of the yacht Sea Owl. MAYER: Well, yes. I mean, what happened was he made an incredible amount of money very fast, and he'd lived a relatively middle-class life until he switched over to this hedge fund in 1993 and started making so much money that he and his family could pretty much indulge any kind of material fantasies that they had. And one of the things that he started spending money on were these just spectacular yachts. So he's got one called the Sea Owl that is 203-feet long, and it is - it's just - I've seen pictures of it in yachting magazines. It's almost unimaginable. It's filled with all kinds of frescoes for his grandchildren of "Alice In Wonderland" and Newton's physics and math. NPR
| BACK TO THE FUTURE — As the political media landscape reshuffles in the aftermath of the 2024 election, a once-influential conservative outlet that had lost its relevance is making a renewed bid for influence ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House: Breitbart News. The infamous news website, which rose to prominence under Steve Bannon’s leadership during the 2016 election as the self-proclaimed “platform of the alt right ,” has fallen on hard times. Over the past eight years, the proliferation of other right-leaning news outlets has chipped away at its audience and led to a decline in digital ad sales, exacerbated by a long-standing advertiser boycott . Compared to its heyday in the opening days of the first Trump administration — when Breitbart’s average monthly viewership hovered approached the 20 million mark — the site’s current audience has severely contracted, with around 700,000 unique viewers visiting the site in October 2024. But despite its diminished readership, the site’s influence in the MAGA universe has been on the upswing in recent months — a vivid illustration of how thoroughly Trump’s return to power has scrambled the Washington media ecosystem. Signs of the site’s quiet resurgence are quickly piling up. In late October, just weeks before the election, the site’s Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle snagged a coveted sit-down with Trump , in which Trump decried the “weaponization” of the justice system against conservatives like him and Bannon. Just this week, the site published a lengthy and exclusive interview with incoming Ohio Republican senator and stalwart Trump ally Bernie Moreno, which was chock full of on-the-record praise for Moreno from senior Trump aides — a tell-tale indication that Mar-a-Lago played ball for the story. The site has flexed its political and editorial muscle in more subtle ways as well. In the first week of December, as conservatives were ratcheting up the pressure on Republican Sen. Joni Ernst to support Trump’s top Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, Breitbart quietly published an op-ed by Iowa’s Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird calling out “D.C. politicians think they can ignore the voices of their constituents.” The op-ed was widely interpreted as a threat that Bird — an outspoken Trump ally — might mount a primary challenge to Ernst in 2026 if she refused to support Hegseth. The gambit seems to have played a significant role in the broader pressure campaign targeting Ernst, with the Iowa Republican softening her opposition to Hegseth shortly thereafter. In one way, Breitbart’s resurgence is a consequence, at least in part, of Trump’s own topsy-turvy media strategy during his campaign, which eschewed traditional legacy media in favor of friendly right-wing outlets and unconventional sources like “bro podcasts ” and YouTube comedy shows. As Trump prepares for his return to Washington in January, his allies are promising to bring that same spirit of media disruption into the West Wing, with one senior staffer recently telling POLITICO that a second Trump administration “could very well see a press briefing room where Maggie Haberman sits next to Joe Rogan.” But to hear Boyle, the Washington bureau chief, tell it, Breitbart’s newfound relevance is the culmination of nearly a decade of constant coverage of the president and his inner circle. “We’ve been doing this for a long time,” said Boyle, recalling the early coverage of Trump’s 2016 campaign, when Breitbart was among the first media outlets of any ideological stripe to take the president-to-be seriously as a political force. “I always describe it like [the difference] between 2004 New England Patriots versus the 2017 New England Patriots. At a certain point, they know how to win — and we know how to win.” A look through Breitbart’s traffic numbers might raise the question of what exactly “winning” means in this context. But at a minimum, Trump’s inner circle seems to have a renewed appreciation for Breitbart — and has rewarded them with a steady stream of exclusive and public praise. In his pre-election interview with Joe Rogan, for instance, Vice President-elect JD Vance namechecked Breitbart’s Boyle as one of the most plugged-in reporters in Washington — and suggested that he would make a welcome addition to newsrooms like the Washington Post . A spokesperson for the Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment about its relationship with Breitbart. “We have great relationships with them, and I expect that not only to continue but to intensify,” said Boyle of his ties to Trump world. “We have deep personal relationships with many of them that go back years, and they know that they can trust us — and that’s why they’re going to work with us on stories.” Still, Breitbart faces a steep climb back to the top of the right-wing mediasphere. Boyle acknowledged that the conservative media ecosystem has gotten more competitive in recent years, as mid-sized sites like the Washington Examiner, TheBlaze and The Daily Wire have consolidated their own readerships, and the ascendancy of non-traditional media like independent podcasts and YouTube shows have drawn eyeballs away from digital news. For what it’s worth, Boyle said that he isn’t satisfied with toiling away in the “right-wing [media] ghetto,” and that he sees legacy outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post as Breitbart’s real competitors. “I’m not trying to spin,” he said. “We’re trying to break news that focuses on stuff that our audience cares about.” Seriously challenging the Gray Lady may be a bit of a quixotic quest for a newsroom with just a dozen political reporters and a relatively small online reach. But the past few years have shown that it’s risky to count Breitbart out as a significant player in the MAGA mediasphere. Back in 2019, following the collapse of the site’s early Trump-era readership and the exodus of its advertiser and donor base, most media watchers roundly declared the website all but dead . And yet, five years and two presidential elections later, they’re still plugging away at it — and, to the extent that MAGA is now the beating heart of the Republican Party, they’re no longer the exotic mouthpiece of the party’s fringe. “Our influence has never been stronger,” said Boyle, pointing to Trump’s victory in this year’s popular vote. “We are the mainstream.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at iward@politico.com on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports .
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| | A message from American Beverage: America’s beverage companies – The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo – are iconic American companies making American products with American workers in America’s hometowns. And we’re committed to doing our part to address today’s health challenges. We’ve taken real steps for more than a decade to transform the beverage aisle, like offering smaller portion sizes, more zero-sugar options and putting nutrition information right up front. Explore more at BalanceUS.org. | | | | | THE ORANGE TURD FAILED TO APPEAR IN COURT....WHO PAID ATTENTION? E. JEAN CARROLL SAVED THE DRESS....TRUMP REFUSED TO PRESENT A DNA SAMPLE....TRUMP'S 'ENDOWMENT' is apparently so small, E. JEAN CARROLL was unable to be precise...that's similar to what STORMY DANIELS described....remember? JUST TRUMP BLABBER & THREATS, INTIMIDATING THE MEDIA : Trump sued the network after host George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, who won a civil verdict against Trump for sexual abuse last year. — Judge orders Trump to sit for in-person deposition in libel lawsuit he filed against ABC: A federal judge has ordered President-elect Donald Trump and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos to sit for four-hour depositions next week in a libel lawsuit Trump brought against the network earlier this year. Miami-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid issued the order today, signaling that Trump’s status as president-elect is not a reason to put off sworn questioning of him in connection with the suit he filed. EXCERPT: A federal judge has ordered President-elect Donald Trump and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos to sit for four-hour depositions next week in a libel lawsuit Trump brought against the network earlier this year. Miami-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid issued the order Friday, signaling that Trump’s status as president-elect is not a reason to put off sworn questioning of him in connection with the suit he filed. “The parties are reminded that the Court ‘has already granted a lengthy discovery period . . . and, with Election Day now behind us, there is no reason for any further delay,’” Reid wrote, quoting an earlier order in the case. Reid said Trump’s deposition must take place “in person” in the Southern District of Florida, which includes Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. Trump sued ABC after Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump raped writer E. Jean Carroll, who won a civil verdict against Trump for sexual abuse last year. The jury did not back Carroll’s rape claim against Trump, but in a subsequent opinion, the judge presiding over the case emphasized the distinction between the legal definition of rape and its more colloquial understanding. Spokespeople for Trump and for ABC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The suit against ABC is one of a series of cases Trump filed against news organizations and perceived political enemies after leaving the White House in 2021. The suits, in which Trump claims financial damages sometimes up to billions of dollars, generated fodder Trump could point to during the 2024 campaign highlighting his continued fight with what he claimed to be his opponents in the mainstream media. However, the legal cases now carry a potential hangover for the president-elect, as they expose him to the possibility of court orders directing him to offer sworn testimony and fork over documents related to the cases. Trump could avoid depositions and other demands in the cases he filed by seeking to drop or settle them, but a spokesperson said last week that he plans to keep pressing forward.
— Trump renews push to end daylight saving time: President-elect Donald Trump is advocating to eliminate daylight saving time. In a Truth Social post today , Trump said the practice of changing the clocks twice a year is “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.” “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” he said in the post. Trump threw his support behind the idea of permanently keeping America on daylight saving time in 2019 when state legislatures across the nation were considering eliminating the practice. Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states that don’t observe daylight saving time. — Pelosi hospitalized after injury in Europe : Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi suffered an injury and was hospitalized for treatment while traveling in Luxembourg to the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, according to spokesperson Ian Krager. The California Democrat, her spokesperson said, is “receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals” and “continues to work and regrets that she is unable to attend the remainder of the CODEL engagements to honor the courage of our servicemembers during one of the greatest acts of American heroism in our nation’s history.”
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| | Billions in spending. Critical foreign aid. Immigration reform. The final weeks of 2024 could bring major policy changes. Inside Congress provides daily insights into how Congressional leaders are navigating these high-stakes issues. Subscribe today . | | | | | | | CHECKING THE CHECKERS — Top House Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin is seeking information from the Trump-Vance transition team about how nominees will undergo background checks, including a “clear assurance” that an FBI background check will be performed for all Trump administration picks. Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter today to Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the co-chairs of the Trump-Vance transition, saying that while the transition team has “reached an agreement with the Department of Justice that makes it possible for the FBI to conduct background checks, it remains unclear whether the Transition will require nominees to submit to them.” ANOTHER INCOMPETENT, INEXPERIENCED TRUMP NOMINEE, BROOKE ROLLINS...USDA... CALL ME MAYBE — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called his likely successor at USDA, Brooke Rollins, and left a voicemail — but hasn’t received a response , he told reporters today. “I received her cell phone number from a senator who had visited with her, and I called, I used it immediately, called her and left a message,” Vilsack said. “At any point in time, if she thinks it’s appropriate and necessary, and she would like to talk, I’d be more than happy to talk to her.” President-elect Donald Trump announced Nov. 23 that he will nominate Rollins to be his Agriculture secretary. The co-founder and leader of the Trump-allied America First Policy Institute think tank served as acting director of the Domestic Policy Council in his first term and is close to Trump, but she has little formal agriculture policy experience.
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New French Prime Minister François Bayrou during the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris today. | Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images | IT’S BAYROU — French President Emmanuel Macron today tapped François Bayrou to serve as France’s fourth prime minister this year , tasking the longtime centrist to help steer the country out of a political and budgetary quagmire with no clear solution in sight. Bayrou, one of Macron’s earliest supporters, was long seen as a front runner for the job, but the messy, disorganized manner in which he was named to the post signals a difficult road ahead. Bayrou and Macron sat down together at the Élysée for nearly two hours this morning in what French media described as a “tense” meeting. Le Monde reported the French president told Bayrou he would not be prime minister. The choice appeared to be debated until the last minute. Macron missed a self-imposed deadline to name a new premier by Thursday, before his office told reporters that a new prime minister would be named this morning. The statement from the Élysée was emailed to reporters shortly before 1 p.m. in Paris. Though Bayrou ended up being named to a job he has sought for years, it’s unclear how the 73-year-old from southwestern France will be able to escape the same fate as his predecessor, Michel Barnier. Lawmakers from the far right and left united to torpedo his government last week after the former Brexit negotiator tried to pass an unpopular, slimmed-down social security budget to rein in the country’s massive deficit.
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GENUFLECTING!
$1 million The amount of money that OpenAI’s Sam Altman will donate to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. Meta said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million. |
| | | NIGHT MOVES — Rising temperatures around the world have made it particularly difficult for farmers and fishermen used to being outside all day to do their jobs. Extreme heat makes activities like plowing fields or catching fish difficult. So, many farming communities have come up with a solution — do it at night . Out of the sun, they’ve often been able to carry on their work. But working in the dark, many farms are now finding, leads to a whole host of other issues, from physical safety problems brought on by the dark to sleep deficits that have led to long term health issues. The solution is working, in some ways, for now. But how long can these farms around the world carry on large scale nighttime work? Ayurella Horn-Muller reports for Grist.
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On this date in 1942: American soldiers and nurses in England decorate a Christmas tree. Ping-pong balls played a large part in the decoration, with tinsel and other metallic decorations in short supply. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .
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| | A message from American Beverage: America’s beverage companies are committed to delivering families the freedom to choose the beverage that’s right for them. And it’s working. Thanks to our innovation, nearly 60% of the beverages Americans buy have no sugar or calories.
Our commitment to helping Americans find the right balance for them includes:
· Offering more than 600 brands with less sugar or no sugar at all.
· Putting clear calorie labels on the front of every bottle, can and pack.
· Encouraging consumers to think about balance with signs on coolers and displays in store.
· Voluntarily removing full-calorie beverages from schools through our National School Beverage Guidelines, which cut beverage calories in schools by 94%. In fact, the USDA Smart Snacks in Schools Beverage Guidelines were largely based on these guidelines.
Learn more at BalanceUS.org. | | | | |
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