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The ascent of right wing political influencers in American society, and their primacy in conservative pop culture, has underpinned much of the second Trump administration. WIRED Senior Editor Makena Kelly tracks the origins of this seismic shift in the media landscape—and how we arrived where we are today.
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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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