Over the weekend, I went to DC to meet with all the right-wing influencers and content creators who are pushing President Donald Trump to win 2024. They are everywhere. The 2024 election is an influencer election and the inauguration is no different: There are dozens of parties and balls before and after the inauguration this weekend, as well as the big event itself. Theo Von sat across from Jake and Logan Paul under the Capitol rotunda (well, until the podcaster’s chair collapsed). Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and Brett Cooper walk the Turning Point USA red carpet and take selfies with fans. Jessic Reed Kraus, writer of the HouseInhabit newsletter, hangs out with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Make America Healthy Again ball Monday night. In August, I published a guide to how Republicans and Democrats will influence the 2024 election. Influencers and content creators are still important, and they will communicate and guide policy decisions for years to come. Welcome to Trump 2.0, where these creators have the ear not only of the audience but also of the president. Here are some to watch over the next four years. This is an edition of the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter. Read the previous newsletter here. Podcasters and Streamers The 2024 election is a breakout cycle for podcasters in politics. Most of Trump’s events are relayed to the manosphere, a loose network of creators who push misogynistic, racist, and pro-male ideologies online. This includes people like Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz, the Paul brothers, and Adin Ross, who shared Trump interviews with millions and millions of fans. There is a second branch as well, made up of creators who have considered themselves the intellectual wing of the modern Republican party, like Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, and Lex Fridman. Fridman’s YouTube podcast reaches millions of viewers every week. Shapiro’s show is one of the most popular on Spotify. These podcasters have expanded on Trump and his agenda with little, if any, pushback. They will be key to rallying support for the Trump administration’s decisions. I spoke briefly with Shapiro on Sunday, asking him what he would do for the GOP and podcasting. “His power is growing,” he said. “Legacy media is breaking up. We’re focused on expanding, not just our brand, but there are many other brands that need expansion, I think it’s going to be a very rich time for the podcast industry. Snowflaketears are some of the biggest pro-MAGA meme pages in Combined, these accounts have more than 6 million followers. They act as a channel between the GOP leadership and the platform like X that’s right. Because Turning Point USA and its leader, Charlie Kirk, many of the most popular creators can see each other at least several times in the organization’s summit and training has also been an influencer to watch I wrote about the influencer party (and victory lap) held over Inauguration weekend hosted by CJ Pearson and Raquel Debono. Pearson, a conservative creator with more than 500,000 X followers, chairs the Republican National Committee’s youth advisory board. He played a key role in the adoption of party influencers and planned additional training with organizations like Yayasan Warisan.
Who are the MAGA Influencers You Need to Know Now?
