OpenSecrets has obtained tax documents that show reclusive hedge-fund mogul and Donald Trump backer Robert Mercer funneled $2 million to a group that targeted Islamophobic ads at voters in swing states like Nevada and North Carolina in 2016.
The ads created by Secure America Now play on the nativist fears of some Americans that Muslims could take over the world. Yes, it's preposterous and yet insidious. The group generated several ads reimagining France, Germany and the U.S. under Islamic State rule.
In the ad "Welcome to the Islamic State of America," a female narrator says, "Weak leaders, who have allowed unsecured borders and Syrian refugee immigration, enabled our jihadi fighters to infiltrate and overtake America." The video features the Hollywood hills adorned with "Allahu Akbar," the Statue of Liberty wearing a burka, and young voices saying, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Islamic State of America."
While most Americans never saw the digital ads, the voters most likely to be moved by the shameful propaganda did see them during the final weeks of the 2016 cycle. OpenSecrets writes:
The group, a social welfare organization called Secure America Now, worked hand in hand with Facebook and Google to target their message at voters in swing states who were most likely to be receptive to them.
And new tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets show that the money fueling the group came mostly from just three donors, including the secretive multimillionaire donor Robert Mercer. [...]
Mercer has become a household name not only for his political spending in recent years or his peculiar interests — such as part-timing as a New Mexico police officer or funding stockpiles of urine in the Oregon mountains — but also for bankrolling the alt-right and the data firm Cambridge Analytica, both of which helped Trump clutch victory in 2016.
The two other biggest donations to the group came from the 45 committee, a "social welfare" nonprofit partly funded and run by the Ricketts family, which also donated $2 million; and Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, who put $1.1 million toward the effort.
Secure America Now also appears to be tangled up with Elliott Broidy, who has recently made headlines for seeking to cash in on his connections in the Trump administration. In fact, a new report this morning connects Broidy directly to Robert Mueller's cooperating witness George Nader and the seedy effort to get Trump to turn on Qatar, which Trump did do, naturally.
A recent New York Times report detailing internal emails between top Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy and a political adviser to leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia noted that Broidy referenced SAN as “one of the groups I am working with” to push the Trump administration to fill key positions with individuals favorable to those Persian Gulf leaders.
Trump attended a fundraiser in Beverly Hills last month hosted by Broidy, who continues to be part of the RNC’s finance leadership team. Because why let the air of corruption keep the spigot from flowing to Trump’s re-elect?