Breitbart’s funding sources are somewhat obscure. As a private company, Breitbart has declined to reveal its investors or how it makes money.
In 2014, before its overseas expansion, Bannon said that the site wasn’t quite profitable, external. There are ads on the site and it also sells merchandise such as campaign coffee cups.
It has been reported that the company has been funded by Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund manager who is the founder of Cambridge Analytica, a data firm which worked for the Leave.EU campaign as well as Trump’s bid for the White House.
Mercer’s daughter Rebekah is part of Trump’s transition team.
Another big Leave.EU backer was UKIP donor Arron Banks, who accompanied Farage and Kassam to Trump Tower.
In Washington, the big question people have been asking about Bannon is how he will act in the Trump administration, and what the role of Breitbart will be once he’s there.
Prior to the election, Bannon said he would return to the company – but that was before Trump’s victory and his White House appointment. Under ethics rules, Bannon has 30 days from taking office in January to declare his financial ties to Breitbart, external.
Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesman who resigned after the Fields incident, says in his view the site’s function won’t change when Trump becomes president.
“It will be the propaganda arm of the administration,” he says.
“Their mandate is to create conflict, controversy and divisiveness – as well as propping up President Trump,” he says.
But conservative journalist Cathy Young, who clashed with Breitbart after denouncing what she saw as the site’s whitewashing of the extremist alt-right, argues that those might take a back seat to a more pragmatic political style.
“My guess would be that Bannon will be less of a champion of the alt-right than a political pit bull who will use whatever weapon he can to pursue the victory of the person he’s promoting.”
For his part, Farage has offered to act as a conduit between the US and the UK – a proposal that Downing Street quickly rebuffed.
Breitbart did not respond to requests to comment for this story, and several reporters and staff members also did not respond to questions.
Carusone, from Media Matters, thinks that calling Breitbart “propaganda” slightly misstates its role, and says its real function in a Trump White House could be to shore up support on the far right.
“There’s been a consensus in some parts of the media that Trump is softening on some of his policies,” he says. “Part of the role of Breitbart will be to give a wink and a nod to Trump’s most fervent supporters to let them know he’s still on their side.”
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