The secret of the Crypto Billionaires
Crypto Billionaire Robert Mercer, a staunch conservative, is spending millions of dollars to try and sway Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Mercer, who once called Trump a “phony” and a “con artist”, is also a big Trump supporter, and has repeatedly pledged to give Trump $100 million for his presidential bid.
The Mercer-backed super PAC, called Rebuilding America Now, has been spending tens of millions of euros on the campaign and has promised to use Trump’s populist rhetoric to turn out conservative voters.
“We will help elect a pro-growth president that will create jobs, rebuild our economy and restore prosperity to our communities,” Rebuilding American Now spokesman Chris LePage said in a statement on Monday.
But Trump’s advisers say he has little chance of winning the nomination, and he is struggling with low approval ratings.
The billionaire’s campaign has repeatedly criticized his opponents, and his campaign has also been caught on tape calling a Hispanic reporter a “b*tch”.
But the billionaire’s supporters have found a way to counter this by claiming he’s been doing a lot of good things, including a $100m donation to help rebuild the US economy after the 2010 earthquake and a $2 billion deal with the University of Pennsylvania that gives some students financial aid.
“There is an ongoing, and certainly increasing, focus on economic populism, on rebuilding the American economy, and on restoring trust in the political process,” said former Republican strategist David Frum.
“He’s done a lot.
He’s done the right thing.”
But the populist rhetoric has not made a dent in the GOP race.
According to a recent poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, the billionaire has a 7.7 percent approval rating.
Trump’s supporters argue that Trump has always been a true conservative, but this is the first time they’ve been able to articulate it so effectively.
“The reality is that Mr Trump has spent the last eight years fighting against the establishment, against the elites,” Mercer said in an interview with CNN.
“
I think the American people want an outsider, they want somebody who’s going to change the direction of the country.”