Donald Trump hosts a “social media summit” at the White House for right-wing and far-right influencers responsible for pushing propaganda to their audiences. Some later become central to pushing the narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
President Trump is calling it a “social media summit,” but the White House did not extend invites to representatives from Facebook or Twitter. Instead, the White House has invited its political allies to the event.
In addition to inviting leaders from traditional conservative think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation and Claremont Institute, the White House has requested the presence of far-right internet personalities and trolls, some of whom have pushed conspiracy theories, lies and misinformation.
CNN
The White House declined all requests to release a list of the 200 or so attendees ahead of the event, but here’s a limited guest list based on photos and social media posts from people who were there. Note: Not all of the people listed are political media figures or have nefarious intentions.
Ali Akbar / Ali Alexander is an activist, event organizer, and friend of Roger Stone who becomes notorious for the Stop The Steal movement and his involvement in the 2021 Capitol attack. At the time of this writing, he’s on the run from the FBI.
Benny Johnson is a journalist-turned-activist who works for Turning Point USA, The Daily Caller, and Newsmax. Newsmax is owned by a longtime Trump friend. He used to work for Buzzfeed but was fired for multiple cases of plagiarism. He’s also involved in Conservatives on Telegram.
Bill Mitchell is a right-wing influencer and CEO and host of a “MAGA podcast network” called YourVoice. He often pushes QAnon conspiracy theories.
Brent Bozell is the founder of Media Research Center, a GOP propaganda publisher disguised as a content analysis organization. He is (or was) a high-ranking member of the Council for National Policy. Two other MRC representatives, Ed Molchany and Christian Robey, are also present.
Charlie Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA (and its sister, Turning Point Action). On the outside, TPUSA looks like a genuine organization helping college students form right-wing political groups on campuses. Behind the scenes, the organization does stuff like pay people to post conspiracy theories on social media.
Christian Ziegler is the vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Diamond and Silk are right-wing influencers who claim that Trump is the best president for Black voters. They were given a show on Fox News in 2018. In 2020, they move to Newsmax after being dropped by Fox.
James O’Keefe is a con artist and the head of Project Veritas, a spy group and propaganda machine that churns out multiple fake stories about voter fraud in 2020. His special skill is paying people to repeat lies to the media and federal agents that he invents himself. Read more.
Jessica Anderson is the executive director of Heritage Action for America, which is part of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. Over 60 former Heritage employees were given positions in the Trump administration, and the organization is deeply involved in influencing the outcome of the 2020 election. In 2021, Heritage hires Mike Pence.
Jim Hoft is the owner of The Gateway Pundit, a far-right website known for publishing fake news and conspiracy theories. Hoft and the website are banned from Twitter in 2021 for propelling disinformation about the 2020 election.
Josh Hawley is a Republican Senator who caught Trump’s attention by advocating to repeal Section 230. Hawley becomes a darling of the right-wing media apparatus and a hero to Trump supporters after he loses donors and a publishing deal for his support of the insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. People who warned us about Trump in 2016 say that Hawley is auditioning to walk in Trump’s shoes in the 2024 election.
Joy Villa is a singer-songwriter who sparked national attention by wearing a pro-Trump dress on a Hollywood red carpet.
Lila Grace Rose is an anti-abortion activist who has worked with James O’Keefe at Project Veritas.
Liz Cheney is a Republican House member who was a Trump loyalist until the Capitol attack. She has been a supporter of Trump conspiracies dating back to the Obama birth certificate conspiracy.
Logan Cook a.k.a. Carpe Donktum is an online troll and right-wing meme artist who won an InfoWars contest. Not much else is known about him.
Marsha Blackburn is a Republican Senator who blocks election integrity legislation in 2020.
Matt Gaetz is a Republican House member who helps push election fraud conspiracies and other propaganda on Fox News and social media. He launches attacks on Republicans who don’t side with Trump after the Capitol attack in 2021.
Ryan Fournier is a Republican strategist who praises his own advocacy for Trump. He co-founded Students For Trump and works with Turning Point Action and X Strategies. Newsmax named him one of the “30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30.” He recently launched his own news website, The RFAngle.
Tim Pool is a YouTube personality, formerly a journalist, who pushes non-stop right-wing propaganda while claiming to be a centrist. Leading up to the 2020 election, he repeatedly claims that Trump will win in a landslide, possibly winning 49 of the 50 states.
Will Chamberlain is a lawyer and the publisher and editor-in-chief of conservative news outlet Human Events, which was purchased by Chamberlain and a partner only four months before this event. The company had a long, respectable history in Washington, D.C. before being acquired by Chamberlain and used to promote obvious conspiracies.
Zac Moffatt is the chief executive of Targeted Victory, a Republican-leaning digital strategy and marketing firm.
Steven Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Brad Parscale, and representatives from PragerU are also in attendance.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/tech/white-house-social-media-summit/index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20210111031937if_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/11/who-was-who-trumps-social-media-summit/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEpkAozzWng
Photo: YouTube
