Over the weekend, I headed to DC to meet with all the right-wing influencers and content creators who made President Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 possible. They were everywhere.
The 2024 election was the influencer election, and the inauguration was no different: There were dozens of parties and balls before and after the inauguration this weekend, as well as the big event itself. Theo Von sat in front of Jake and Logan Paul under the Capitol rotunda (well, until the podcaster’s chair collapsed). Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh and Brett Cooper walked the Turning Point USA red carpet and posed for selfies with fans. Jessic Reed Kraus, writer of the HouseInhabit newsletter, hung out with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Make America Healthy Again ball Monday night.
In August, I published a guide on the Republican and Democratic influencers shaping the 2024 election. The influencers and content creators still matter, and they will communicate and guide policy decisions for years to come.
Welcome to Trump 2.0, where these creators not only have the ears of their audience, but also the ears of the president. Here are some of the ones to watch out for over the next four years.
The podcasts and streamers
The 2024 election was the breakout cycle for podcasters in politics. Most of the shows Trump went on to cater to the manosphere, a loose network of creators pushing misogynistic, racist and pro-male ideology online. This includes people who Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz, the Paul brothers and Adin Rosswho shared their Trump interviews with millions upon millions of their fans. There is also another branch made up of creators who have branded themselves as the intellectual wing of the modern Republican Party, such as 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 reinforced Trump and his agenda with very little, if any, pushback. They are likely to be key to rallying support for the Trump administration’s decisions.
I spoke briefly with Shapiro Sunday night and asked what’s next for the GOP and podcasting. “The force continues to grow,” he said. “Legacy media is completely blown out. We’re focused on expanding, not just our brand, but there are so many other brands that need expansion, I think it’s going to be a very rich time for the podcast industry.”
The meme pages
DC Draino, the quintessential liberal, RagingAmericans and Snowflaketears are some of the biggest pro-MAGA meme pages on Instagram. Combined, these accounts have over 6 million followers. They serve as the conduit between GOP leadership priorities and platforms like X and Instagram.
Think of their accounts as news aggregators for people who might not otherwise use them.
The organizers
While Democrats also worked with influencers in the last election cycle, no PAC or campaign organized them as effectively as the right wing. Because of Turning Point USA and its leader, Charlie Kirkmany of the GOP’s most popular creators see each other at least a few times a year at the organization’s summits and trainings. According to interviews with some of the right’s top organizers, that infrastructure is only going to grow over the next four years. The organizers themselves have also become influencers to watch.
I wrote about an influencer party (and victory lap) held during 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 Council. He has played a key role in the party’s adoption of influencers and is planning further trainings with organizations such as the Heritage Foundation.