Report: LI mogul aided group behind Muslim-scare videos
Billionaire Robert Mercer speaks on the phone during the 12th International Conference on Climate Change hosted by The Heartland Institute on March 23, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images
Five months ago, Robert Mercer ratcheted down his already low public profile by quitting the helm of Renaissance Technologies in East Setauket.
Since then the attention paid to the Long Island billionaire’s role in supporting President Donald Trump and right-wing causes has only intensified.
Official scrutiny centers on Cambridge Analytica, the data-mining firm largely funded by Mercer that used information from millions of Facebook users to target political messages in the 2016 presidential race and in the surprise Brexit vote.
Now the website OpenSecrets.org reports that Mercer donated $2 million to a nonprofit that produced video warnings of dystopia in the U.S., France and Germany once Muslim extremists seized power and imposed restrictive laws.
According to a tax filing linked by the website, the group called Secure America Now also received $1.1 million from Ron Lauder, the heir to the Estee Lauder fortune active in conservative and pro-Israel causes.
In October, Bloomberg News reported that these videos were directed to swing states including Nevada and North Carolina in the final months of the campaign after Trump for months had been raising about against Muslim refugees.
The videos clearly portend Islamic conquest if things don’t change soon. They include images of blindfolded men kneeling before guns, flying missiles and children training with weapons to defend the “caliphate.”
“Welcome to the Islamic States of America,” says a smug, accented female voice in one of the videos.
“Weak leaders who have allowed weak borders and Syrian refugee immigration have enabled our jihadi fighters to overtake and infiltrate America. The Islamic States of America now proudly sings the praises of Allah from sea to shining sea,” she says — over still photos of gay and straight water fountains and “men only” hiring signs and other hints of a future without liberty.
“The choice is yours,” the spot ends forebodingly.
It was chilling, slick, and obvious — and on-message for Trump.
Allen Roth, listed as president of Secure America Now, is a longtime New York State Conservative Party activist who has worked with Lauder.
Previous media reports have identified former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and incoming national security adviser John Bolton as members of SAN’s board of advisers.
According to OpenSecrets.org, the revelation of Mercer’s financial support for SAN may have been accidental. The website said:
“As a 501(c) (4) social welfare organization, Secure America Now is not required to disclose its donors to the public, but they are required to report them to the IRS.
This information is usually redacted when provided for public inspection. However, when OpenSecrets called to request a 2016 return, an unredacted return was provided by the group’s accounting firm,” which is Spielman Koenigsberg & Parker, LLP, based in Manhattan.
Mercer’s donation to those who produced tart messaging is no surprise. His spending on politics probably topped $30 million in 2016, according to The Washington Post.
When he announced his retirement, Mercer issued a statement saying, “Of the many mischaracterizations made of me by the press, the most repugnant to me have been the intimations that I am a white supremacist or a member of some other noxious group.”
“Discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, creed, or anything of that sort is abhorrent to me. But more than that, it is ignorant,” the statement said.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
