Chuck Darwin<p>Since Mitt Romney’s loss in the 2012 election, <br>the Mercers have drifted ever further out of the orbit of Planet Koch, <br>building up their own entities, including <a href="https://c.im/tags/Breitbart" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Breitbart</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/News" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>News</span></a>, <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Cambridge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Cambridge</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Analytica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Analytica</span></a> (the data startup), <br>and the ironically named <a href="https://c.im/tags/Government" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Government</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Accountability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Accountability</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Institute" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Institute</span></a>, <br>all of them featuring <a href="https://c.im/tags/Steve" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Steve</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bannon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bannon</span></a>, the self-described economic nationalist, in top slots<br>—until he joined the White House. <br>Cambridge Analytica, on whose board Bannon served, and Breitbart, where he was the chief executive, are private companies. <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/GAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GAI</span></a>, which produced the campaign-season book <br>"Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich", by Peter Schweizer, <br>is a nonprofit organization.<br>Schweizer’s book, together with an accompanying movie executive-produced by <a href="https://c.im/tags/Rebekah" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Rebekah</span></a> Mercer, was designed to sully the reputation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. <br>It was part of a Bannon-crafted strategy to steer the sort of smears that usually bubble up from the right-wing fever swamps directly into the mainstream media. <br>It worked; in 2015 the New York Times and the Washington Post both made exclusive agreements with the GAI to report on advance excerpts of Clinton Cash.</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Bannon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bannon</span></a> was wealthy before he met up with the Mercers, <br>first through his work as a banker for Goldman Sachs back when it was a privately held company, <br>and then through his own privately held ventures in movie-making and consulting. <br>Though Bannon’s wealth, when compared to that of Betsy DeVos, makes him a pipsqueak in the Trump money universe <br>(assets worth between $12 million and $54 million, according to the New York Times), <br>it nonetheless derives primarily from privately held entities.</p>