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How Right Wing Influencers Infiltrated The Government
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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
00:29use 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,
00:54whose 1776 pamphlet Common Sense goes viral by 18th century standards
00:59and pushes public opinion toward independence 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 conversation.
01:13In the 1930s, there's Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest with a radio show pulling in tens of millions.
01:19He starts out populist and anti-Wall Street, then slides hard into right-wing, anti-Semitic politics.
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,
01:37pulling in 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
01:53and dramatically lower 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 tech and gadgets.
02:02This is the moment people start to realize they can get attention at scale because an audience is out there.
02:07No one's getting paid.
02:09But soon, that's going to change.
02:11In March 2003, as the US invades Iraq, blogs like The Daily Costs and Talking Points Memo
02:16build huge audiences by questioning Bush administration claims.
02:19For the first time, outsider voices compete with the mainstream news media,
02:23which at the time 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.
02:40The 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.
02:56Then, in 2012, 18-year-old Charlie Kirk starts Turning Point USA.
03:00Built explicitly for social platforms, its campus-based influencer pipeline eventually trains
03:05college students to crank out content for Facebook and YouTube, turning campus politics into viral debates.
03:10In the days before the election, creators like Mike Sierinovich and Jack Posobiec amplify
03:15the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely alleged the Clintons were tied to a child trafficking 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 Washington,
03:27D.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.
03:37Policy, trolling, breaking news.
03:39Even the transgender military ban appears first on Twitter,
03:42forcing newsrooms to treat a president's personal feed as a primary source.
03:46The 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.
03:56Monetization through ads, subscriptions and merchandise,
03:58and constant distribution through social platforms, rather than legacy media.
04:02For 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.
04:19I voted five, five and a quarter, five and a half.
04:21I yield back.
04:21Just 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,
04:32and it's making Silicon Valley queasy.
04:35Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders does the unthinkable,
04:38skips cable news, and sits down with the biggest podcast on earth.
04:41Democrats panic about legitimizing Rogan, who has dabbled in vaccine skepticism.
04:46But the message is clear. Podcasts 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,
05:01where shaking hands and kissing babies is 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 news.
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! We want Trump! We 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,
06:12complete with pyrotechnics 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 ecosystem.
06:29Democrats never build a true counterpart.
06:31After buying Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk rolls out creator monetization tied to engagement,
06:37basically incentivizing outrage. Accounts posting more and more inflammatory
06:41political content begin earning money directly from platform chaos.
06:45After October 7, 2023, TikTok becomes one of the main battlegrounds for Israel-Palestine narratives.
06:51Through explainers, clips, and hot takes, millions of young users are getting the war through their FYP.
06:56From pro-Palestinian influencers like Hassan Piker and Bazan Alda, politicians including Marco Rubio
07:01claim 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. Reporting by Reuters and others
07:30identified the outlet as Tenet Media, which allegedly paid creators including Tim Pool,
07:34Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, who say they didn't know the funding traced back to Russia.
07:38The following month, Trump hosts the Nelk Boys for an episode of their podcast on Trump Force One,
07:42Donald's private jet. This was orchestrated by advisor Alex Brusiewicz, political consultant
07:47and top advisor to Trump, widely 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. Millions listened in, mostly young men,
08:01and nothing was fact-checked.
08:03After winning the election, Trump brings Dana White, CEO of UFC and Manosphere 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 under 30 now
08:23say
08:23they regularly get news from influencers on social media. Influencer live streams covering election
08:28night, like that of Dan Bongino, outperform cable news among under 35s.
08:33Bongino's podcast might as well have been auditions for the incoming Trump administration,
08:36because 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,
08:45emerges right after the 2024 election and is torn to shreds when its reported craters are being paid
08:50without disclosure. The difference here is cultural. On the left, undisclosed influence
08:54is disqualifying. On the right, it's no big deal. Meta announces that it will end its third-party
08:59fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram, and threads in the United States. If you recall,
09:05during Trump's first term, Meta poured millions into fact-checking and got dragged non-stop by claims
09:10of anti-conservative bias. So 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. With cinematic shots, direct-to-camera messaging,
09:26she delivers policy for the feed rather than the press.
09:29You come to our country illegally. This is one of the consequences you could face.
09:32But this is a feature, not a bug, for the content-obsessed Trump administration. Trump's entire cabinet is
09:38filled with podcasters and former cable TV hosts. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth introduces
09:43strict new limitations on Pentagon press access, leading to the removal of the traditional
09:47Pentagon press corps, like the Washington Post and Bloomberg. They're replaced by new,
09:51hand-picked, and mostly politically aligned influencers, who now solely cover the Pentagon.
09:56Influencer Nick Sorter films at Portland ICE facility protests. Things escalate when he is
10:00allegedly assaulted by protesters and subsequently arrested by Portland police on a chart of second
10:05degree disorderly conduct. The charges were later dropped. The Trump administration uses Nick Sorter's
10:10footage to justify sending National Guard members to the ICE facility in Portland. Plans to bring in
10:15additional guardians are halted the same day by an emergency court order. Influencer Nick
10:19Shirley posts viral videos alleging Somali daycare fraud in Minnesota. The videos are boosted by Elon
10:24Musk and J.D. Vance on social media and cited by the Trump administration to justify the subsequent
10:29surge of ICE raids in the state. A few days into 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is scooped
10:34up by the military and flown out of the country. With the Pentagon press corps sidelined, influencers rush in to
10:39break the news and shape the story in real time. Instead of focusing on the operation or its global
10:44fallout, people like Turning Point USA's Monica Page focuses on an old 2020 Joe Biden tweet that said
10:50Trump admires thugs and dictators. In January, Benny Johnson arrives in California, followed by Nick
10:55Shirley. Once again, Shirley claims to be investigating Somali-run child care centers in California.
11:00See the pattern? Trump-aligned influencers show up in blue cities, float unproven fraud claims tied to
11:06immigrants to drum up outrage online. Then Trump floods the area with ICE. As one senior White
11:11House official told Wired, California and New York are next. Just as the internet has redefined what it
11:16means to run a business or become a celebrity, it's also reshaping our politics. Creators from across
11:21the political spectrum have amassed a new kind of power away from traditional gatekeepers like the
11:25mainstream press. Since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, that shift has only
11:30accelerated with creators scoring Pentagon press credentials and sit-down interviews which were once
11:34reserved for the legacy media. The question is no longer whether political influencers matter,
11:39but whether our institutions are ready for what could come next.
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