Foreign countries are paying online influencers in the MAGA world, but new reporting revealed it’s no longer only about elections.
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Politico Playbook reported Monday that the influencer campaign has now taken a turn where foreign money is flowing into MAGA influencers who, in turn, have their own online lobbying campaign targeting Cabinet officials.
After previously caring little, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fl.) wants to do something about it and Democrats are eagerly joining her effort.
“Being an influencer right now is kind of like the Wild West,” Luna said, speaking to Politico Playbook. “There’s a lot of things laws haven’t caught up to.”
The report cited bipartisan support from Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz (Fla.) and Vicente Gonzalez (Texas) and Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).
Luna said that the Foreign Propaganda Registration Act would be an amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act that would mandate influencers disclose when they’re being paid by a foreign government to promote political commentary to their followers.
Luna had a briefing that cited foreign influence efforts and she spoke with government agencies that heard about payments coming “on the back end” of the influencer world.
“I have a number of those people,” Luna said when asked whether she knew there were specific influencers scoring foreign cash. “I’m not going to put anyone on blast. That’s not my job.”
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“Some of your biggest profile names … a large portion of them, in some way, shape or form, have been approached at one point to push a certain position that’s probably tied to a foreign country,” Luna added.
She said she’s seen contracts that go into the millions of dollars.
Luna also said that she thinks Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will be open to the idea, but if he isn’t, she said she’d simply do a “discharge petition” and move it forward anyway. In the past several months, Republicans have sidestepped the leadership on bipartisan legislation that Johnson refused to push by using a discharge petition. It requires that 218 lawmakers sign on to support a bill or resolution to be pushed out of committee and voted on by the full House.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to use because members’ signatures are public and can carry political consequences. Though in the last two years, all of the discharge petitions have been in part due to public pressure.
“The fight ballooned in recent months inside MAGA, where the sprawling influencer ecosystem that fueled Trump’s political rise faces growing accusations within its own ranks that foreign governments and other well-funded interests are trying to manipulate it,” said Playbook. “Allegations have been leveled against influencers targeting JD Vance, Tucker Carlson and recently that Laura Loomer’s trip to Ukraine was funded by the country — which she vehemently denied.”
In April, Alex Bruesewitz, who is in Trump’s inner circle and is also closest to the MAGA influencer world, has been advocating that influencers stamp out such foreign campaigns.
“Bruesewitz has begun flagging suspected paid pressure campaigns as high up as Cabinet officials, warning them who may be behind efforts to influence their agencies,” Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the effort.
“If you get paid to promote a swimsuit, you have to say ‘paid partnership.’ If you get paid to tell the president to pull tariffs off of India, you don’t have to disclose,” Bruesewitz told Playbook. “The American public deserves to know what content that is going out on the accounts of their favorite social media personalities is bought and paid for by foreign interests.”
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