00:00Right-wing influencers are fanning out across America, spreading misinformation and provoking
00:04confrontations.
00:05No longer just commenting on politics online, they're now partnering with the government
00:09to drive politics, and in some cases even becoming government officials themselves.
00:14So how did we go from mommy bloggers to the president's propagandists?
00:18Let's trace the rise of political influencers in America.
00:21This is Trendlines.
00:25They come from digital platforms, not the government or traditional media, and they
00:28use their audience's loyalty to fuel political narratives, all while profiting off of the outrage.
00:34They aren't just online personalities anymore.
00:36They're part of how power actually works in Washington and beyond.
00:39To understand how we got here, we need to rewind.
00:42Let's go to the timeline.
00:43Long before social media, a few Americans were already shaping politics by going around institutions
00:49and speaking straight to the public.
00:50Possibly the first political influencer in American history is Thomas Paine, whose 1776
00:55pamphlet Common Sense goes viral by 18th century standards and pushes public opinion toward
01:01independence from Britain.
01:02In 1831, abolitionist William Boyd Garrison prints his own newspaper.
01:06No party, no publisher, and no compromising.
01:08His writing helps radicalize the abolitionist movement and forces slavery into the national
01:12conversation.
01:13In the 1930s, there's Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest with a radio show pulling
01:17in tens of millions.
01:19He starts out populist and anti-Wall Street, then slides hard into right-wing, anti-Semitic
01:23politics.
01:24God hates the hypocrites!
01:26No party affiliation, just big personality and anger.
01:29Which feels very familiar.
01:31Let's fast forward to 1988.
01:32Laying the blueprint for today's political podcasters, Rush Limbaugh goes national, pulling
01:37in millions of radio listeners and ad dollars by attacking liberals and mocking the press.
01:41His formula works, spawning an entire right-wing AM radio ecosystem.
01:45Obama and the Democrats, is that not sick?
01:48In August of 1999, LiveJournal and Blogger make online publishing user-friendly and dramatically
01:53lower the barrier to getting your personal ramblings out to the world.
01:56A few writers do start building real, repeat audiences, especially in niche topics like
02:01tech and gadgets.
02:02This is the moment people start to realize they can get attention at scale because an audience
02:06is out there.
02:07No one's getting paid, but soon, that's going to change.
02:11In March 2003, as the U.S. invades Iraq, blogs like The Daily Costs and Talking Points
02:15Memo build huge audiences by questioning Bush administration claims.
02:19For the first time, outsider voices compete with the mainstream news media, which at the
02:23time largely went along with the official government story.
02:26In 2007, YouTube starts sharing ad revenue with creators.
02:29Attention finally pays.
02:31Posting videos stops being just for fun and becomes a job for many.
02:34Your audiences can now be monetized directly.
02:37Instagram launches in 2010, shifting influence from text to image.
02:41The influencer now has a recognizable face.
02:43Personal aesthetics replace blogging and tweeting for building audience and trust.
02:47By now, the term influencer has entered mainstream business language.
02:51But it's more mommy blogs and lifestyle signaling, and not politics.
02:55Yet.
02:55Then, in 2012, 18-year-old Charlie Kirk starts Turning Point USA.
03:00Built explicitly for social platforms, its campus-based influencer pipeline eventually
03:04trains college students to crank out content for Facebook and YouTube, turning campus politics
03:09into viral debates.
03:10In the days before the election, creators like Mike Sierinovich and Jack Bosobiec amplify
03:15the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely alleged the Clintons were tied to a child
03:19trafficking ring.
03:20The conspiracy explodes across socials.
03:22Eventually, a man who said he believed the theory brings a rifle to Comet Ping Pong in
03:27Washington, D.C. to investigate it.
03:29He fires one shot before being arrested.
03:31In 2017, the Twitter presidency begins.
03:34Trump posts everything on the platform.
03:36Policy, trolling, breaking news.
03:39Even the transgender military ban appears first on Twitter, forcing newsrooms to treat a president's
03:44personal feed as a primary source.
03:45The politician becomes the feed, and the feed itself becomes a story.
03:50This is the moment that right-wing influencer ecosystems really start consolidating around
03:54personality-driven content.
03:55Monetization through ads, subscriptions and merchandise, and constant distribution through
04:00social platforms, rather than legacy media.
04:03For example, Laura Loomer.
04:05She storms a House hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, shouting about anti-conservative bias.
04:10It goes viral, not just because of the protests, but because Representative Billy Long, a former
04:15auctioneer, literally auction calls over her until she's escorted from the room.
04:19Five and a quarter, five and a half.
04:21I yield back.
04:22Just a month before, Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify all boot InfoWars off their platforms.
04:28The fringe conspiracy brand has grown into a huge mass political influence machine, and
04:33it's making Silicon Valley queasy.
04:34Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders does the unthinkable, skips cable news, and sits
04:39down with the biggest podcast on earth.
04:41Democrats panic about legitimizing Rogan, who has dabbled in vaccine skepticism.
04:46But the message is clear.
04:47Podcasts are powerful enough to scare the party establishment.
04:51In March of 2020, COVID hits, and campaigns move fully online.
04:55Biden, a classic retail politician, loses his advantage.
04:58So his team scrambles to adapt to the new reality where shaking hands and kissing babies
05:02is no longer a thing.
05:04By the way, who remembers Biden's Animal Crossing island?
05:07During his 16-hour Twitch marathon on election night, progressive streamer Hassan Piker peaked
05:12at about 230,000 viewers, hinting at a shift in the way younger generations consume political
05:17news.
05:18In late 2020, influencers pushed disproven claims that the election was stolen.
05:22So why do fraud narratives spread so easily in creator ecosystems?
05:26Maybe it's because influencers feel authentic.
05:28They speak directly to loyal audiences who trust them more than traditional media.
05:32And that momentum carries us straight into January 6th.
05:36Right-wing creators like Baked Alaska livestream themselves breaching the Capitol in real time.
05:41The insurrection unfolded through social feeds before news networks caught up.
05:44We voted for Trump!
05:46We want Trump!
05:46We want Trump!
05:48In early 2021, the Biden administration revamps the Office of Digital Strategy and starts
05:53briefing influencers directly, coordinating creator campaigns to promote domestic policy
05:57initiatives like vaccines and student debt relief.
05:59This is the first formal integration of influencers into the White House infrastructure.
06:04While Democrats quietly connected with creators, the right was packing a stadium show.
06:08In December, Turning Point's AmericaFest, a four-day conservative conference complete with
06:13pyrotechnics and sponsorships.
06:15Right-wing influencers like Charlie Kirk are entertainment products.
06:18This is the moment the GOP eclipses the Democrats when it comes to influencers.
06:23Turning Point USA and PragerU train, pay, book, and plug influencers right into their party
06:28ecosystem.
06:29Democrats never build a true counterpart.
06:31After buying Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk rolls out creator monetization tied to
06:36engagement, basically incentivizing outrage.
06:39Accounts posting more and more inflammatory political content begin earning money directly from
06:44platform chaos.
06:45After October 7, 2023, TikTok becomes one of the main battlegrounds for Israel-Palestine
06:51narratives.
06:51Through explainers, clips, and hot takes, millions of young users are getting the war through
06:55their FYP.
06:56From pro-Palestinian influencers like Hassan Piker and Bazan Alda, politicians including
07:01Marco Rubio claim the platform is brainwashing Americans to favor the Palestinian cause.
07:05But TikTok denies bias in its algorithm.
07:08A month later, the FEC updates its rules for the digital age, ignoring influencers entirely.
07:13They're not required to disclose paid political posts.
07:16So heading into an election year, it's basically the Wild West.
07:20On September 4, 2024, the DOJ alleges Russian operatives secretly funded a Tennessee-based
07:25media company to push pro-Kremlin messaging about Ukraine.
07:28Reporting by Reuters and others identified the outlet as Tenet Media, which allegedly paid
07:33creators including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, who say they didn't know the
07:37funding trace back to Russia.
07:38The following month, Trump hosts the Nelk Boys for an episode of their podcast on Trump
07:42Force One, Donald's private jet.
07:43This was orchestrated by advisor Alex Brusiewicz, political consultant and top advisor to Trump,
07:48widely credited as the architect of the campaign's podcast strategy.
07:52And just days later, Trump goes on Rogan, and Kamala Harris doesn't.
07:57It's the biggest podcast in the country.
07:59Millions listen in, mostly young men, and nothing was fact-checked.
08:03After winning the election, Trump brings Dana White, CEO of UFC and Manisfair Influencer
08:08on stage during his victory speech, validating them as kingmakers.
08:11Nobody deserves this more than him, and nobody deserves this more than his family does.
08:16Just days after the election, Pew Research drops a study that finds that 37% of adults
08:22under 30 now say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.
08:26Influencer livestreams covering election night, like that of Dan Bongino, outperform cable news
08:31among under 35s.
08:33Bongino's podcast might as well have been auditions for the incoming Trump administration,
08:37because he'd become the deputy FBI director only a few months later.
08:40Chorus, the closest attempt at a turning-point-style operation by the Democrats, emerges right after
08:45the 2024 election and is torn to shreds when it's reported creators are being paid without
08:50disclosure.
08:51The difference here is cultural.
08:53On the left, undisclosed influence is disqualifying.
08:55On the right, it's no big deal.
08:57Meta announces that it will end its third-party fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram,
09:02and threads in the United States.
09:03If you recall, during Trump's first term, Meta poured millions into fact-checking and
09:08got dragged nonstop by claims of anti-conservative bias.
09:11So they cut their losses, angering Democrats while currying favor with the GOP.
09:16In March of 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cosplays as an influencer in films
09:21inside El Salvador's Seacott Prison.
09:23With cinematic shots, direct-to-camera messaging, she delivers policy for the feed rather than
09:28the press.
09:29You come to our country illegally.
09:30This is one of the consequences you could face.
09:32But this is a feature, not a bug, for the content-obsessed Trump administration.
09:36Trump's entire cabinet is filled with podcasters and former cable TV hosts.
09:40Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth introduces strict new limitations on Pentagon press access,
09:45leading to the removal of the traditional Pentagon press corps, like the Washington Post and
09:49Bloomberg.
09:50They're replaced by new, hand-picked, and mostly politically aligned influencers, who
09:54now solely cover the Pentagon.
09:56Influencer Nick Sorter films at Portland ICE facility protests.
09:59Things escalate when he is allegedly assaulted by protesters and subsequently arrested by Portland
10:04police on a chart of second-degree disorderly conduct.
10:06The charges were later dropped.
10:08The Trump administration uses Nick Sorter's footage to justify sending National Guard members
10:12to the ICE facility in Portland.
10:14Plans to bring in additional guardians are halted the same day by an emergency court order.
10:18Influencer Nick Shirley posts viral videos alleging Somali daycare fraud in Minnesota.
10:22The videos are boosted by Elon Musk and J.D. Vance on social media and cited by the Trump administration
10:27to justify the subsequent surge of ICE raids in the state.
10:30A few days into 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is scooped up by the military and
10:35flown out of the country.
10:36With the Pentagon press corps sidelined, influencers rush in to break the news and shape the story
10:41in real time.
10:42Instead of focusing on the operation or its global fallout, people like Turning Point USA's
10:46Monica Page focuses on an old 2020 Joe Biden tweet that said Trump admires thugs and dictators.
10:51In January, Benny Johnson arrives in California, followed by Nick Shirley.
10:55Once again, Shirley claims to be investigating Somali-run childcare centers in California.
11:00See the pattern?
11:01Trump-aligned influencers show up in blue cities, float unproven fraud claims tied to immigrants
11:06to drum up outrage online.
11:08Then Trump floods the area with ICE.
11:09As one senior White House official told Wired, California and New York are next.
11:14Just as the internet has redefined what it means to run a business or become a celebrity,
11:18it's also reshaping our politics.
11:20Creators from across the political spectrum have amassed a new kind of power away from
11:24traditional gatekeepers like the mainstream press.
11:26Since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, that shift has only accelerated
11:30with creators scoring Pentagon press credentials and sit-down interviews which were once reserved
11:35for the legacy media.
11:36The question is no longer whether political influencers matter, but whether our institutions
11:40are ready for what could come next.
11:42,
11:43,
11:43,
11:43You
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