At the TikTok-sponsored Power 30 party, conservative content creators leaned into their newfound patrons and danced for hours to top 40 hits in Make America Great Again hats with TikTok-branded earmuffs draped over them. At another TikTok-sponsored party at the Capital One arena Saturday night, conservative creators received company merchandise, such as a koozie with a graphic of Trump dancing or earmuffs in the company’s lighter pink and blue colors. (Behind the scenes, TikTok appeared to be in turmoil. The app went offline Saturday night ahead of the suspected ban, but returned Sunday and printed a notice assuring its users that Trump would save the app once he took office. )
“One of the best parts of my job is actually spending time with our YouTube creators because they really set the culture,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in a statement after the company’s Sunday creator event. “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, Trump campaign advisor Alex Bruesewitz, an architect of this award-winning influencer and online-focused strategy, received an award honoring his digital contributions. Years before joining Trump’s team, Bruesewitz ran X Strategies, a political media agency, and worked with young, online political candidates like Matt Gaetz. In 2022 he published Winning the Social Media War: How Conservatives Can Fight Back, Reclaim the Narrative, and Turn the Tides Against the Lefta book instructing Republicans on how to use social media for electoral gain.
“Social media has created an entirely new battlefront for us,” Bruesewitz wrote in 2022. “We have to fight back, we will make them listen, and we will reopen the market.”
Bruesewitz saw the potential podcasts needed to bring Trump’s message to voters who hadn’t already heard it. The podcasts played a big role in Trump’s election, providing him with massive audiences of what Bruesewitz described as “medium and low propensity male voters” in an interview with WIRED after the election. It was these voters, who Bruesewitz says don’t usually use mainstream media, that ensured victory.
Others agreed: Shapiro told WIRED on Sunday that podcasts “gave a window into the authenticity of the candidates.”
And according to Pearson, this year’s conservative influencer 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 from the Turning Point USA Ambassador Program, attended the event.
Since 2019, Turning Point has recruited and trained at least 400 conservative influencers in what is essentially an incubator. Some of the most popular influencers on the right came out of Turning Point’s program, including Alex Clark, Benny Johnson, and Candace Owens. The training typically takes place at summits held around the country where Turning Point leadership, such as Charlie Kirk and Tyler Bowyer, teach attendees how to post. Once an influencer is enrolled in Turning Point’s influencer program, the organization’s public relations team actively introduces them to producers on 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 audiences.