MAGA Influencers Take Their Victory Lap, With Big Tech Picking Up the Tab

At the Power 30 party sponsored by TikTok, conservative content creators turned to their newfound patrons, dancing to Top 40 hits for hours in Make America Great Again hats topped with TikTok-labeled ear muffs. At another TikTok-sponsored party at Capital One Arena on Saturday night, conservative creators embraced the company’s merchandise, like a graphic of Trump dancing in highlighter pink and blue or a Koozie with ear muffs. (behind the scenes, tiktok There appeared to be turbulence. The app went offline on Saturday night before the presumptive ban, but Returned on Sunday and pushed out a notification assuring its users that Trump would preserve the app after taking office.)

“One of the best parts of my job is spending time with our YouTube creators, because they really set the culture,” YouTube CEO Neil Mohan said in a statement after the company’s creator event on Sunday. “They’re experimenting with new ideas in the media landscape, and it’s been amazing to have a front-row seat this past year.”

At Sunday’s Influencer Awards party, one of the architects of this winning influencer and online-focused strategy, Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruswicz, received an award for his digital contributions. A few years before joining Trump’s team, Brucewicz ran X Strategies, a political media agency working with young, online political candidates like Matt Gaetz. In 2022, he revealed Winning the Social Media War: How Conservatives Can Fight Back, Reclaim the Narrative, and Turn the Tide Against the LeftA book that guides Republicans on how to use social media for electoral gains.

“Social media has created a whole new battlefield for us,” Bruswij wrote in 2022. “We have to fight, we will make them listen and we will reopen the market.”

Bruesewitz potential podcasts were to bring Trump’s message to voters who hadn’t already heard it. Podcasts played a major role in Trump’s election, giving him a large audience of what Bruswitz describes as “moderate and low-trend male voters.” In an interview with WIRED after the election. These voters, who Bruschweig said don’t typically consume mainstream media, ensured the win.

Others agreed: Shapiro told Wired on Sunday that the podcasts “gave a window into the candidates’ authenticity.”

And according to Pearson, this year’s conservative dominant takeover is just the beginning.

Over the summer, Pearson hosted an event with the Heritage Foundation to train more than two dozen conservative creatives on how to communicate their politics to voters online. Savannah Chrisley, Sean Mike Kelly, and Emily Saves America, some of whom came out of the Turning Point USA Ambassador Program, attended the event.

Since 2019, Turning Point has recruited and trained At least 400 conservatives are dominant Which is basically an incubator. Some of the most popular influencers on the right have come out of Turning Point’s program, including Alex Clark, Benny Johnson and Candace Owens. The training usually takes place at summits held around the country where Turning Point leadership like Charlie Kirk and Tyler Bower, Teach participants how to post. Once an influencer is entered into Turning Point’s influencer program, the organization’s PR team Actively pitch them to producers at networks like Fox News. They are invited to special events where speakers (including Trump and Tucker Carlson) give speeches and allow creators to network and collaborate to grow their audience.