White House is now holding press briefings specifically for MAGA influencers. It’s going just how you’d expect
‘So what direction do you advise me to go into?’ one MAGA media personality asked during the first ‘official influencer’ briefing that Karoline Leavitt held this week
For the second day in a row on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing exclusively for members of what she called the “new media,” claiming she was fulfilling a promise she made at the start of the Trump administration to speak to “all media outlets.”
Of course, as she laid bare at the start of Monday’s presser, these sessions are mostly a way to take softball questions and applause lines from a host of MAGA sycophants who are absolutely ecstatic to be given the opportunity to sit in the White House and play reporter.
“This is our first official influencer briefing,” Leavitt said at the start of Monday’s event. “Millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news, and we are embracing that change, not ignoring it.”
As has been the case with the “new media” seat she added to the standard White House briefings and rotating press pool, which has been disproportionately but not exclusively filled by right-wing media personalities, Leavitt packed the “influencer” room with provocateurs and YouTubers who are extremely sympathetic to the president.
During Monday’s briefing, for instance, the press secretary was directly asked to give the room marching orders.
“I’m kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I’m not the headline news girl. I’m the nuts-and-bolts, I’m the policy-type nerd; so what direction do you advise me to go into?” American First Policy Institute ambassador Kambree Nelson wondered. “Like the White House files that y’all send out every single day? Because that’s what people are used to. When they wanna ask me questions, they wanna know the nuts and bolts of everything.”
Leavitt, meanwhile, reacted by telling Nelson – who boasts 625,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and was once convinced the moon had disappeared – that she wished “there were people in the legacy media that were like you” and “cared about the facts” of Trump’s accomplishments.
“The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news at night,” Leavitt added. “We are doing our absolute best to message that. Which is, again, why we’re welcoming independent voices like yours with followings on social media.”
That was merely the tip of the iceberg.
MAGA influencer Arynne Wexler actually got the first question during Monday’s briefing, and she wanted to kick things off by praising the White House for rounding up migrants in her home state.
“Thanks so much, Karoline, both for having us and for granting me the first question here. And I can attest to the deportations in Florida, my Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that,” she declared before asking Leavitt what the administration planned to do to “those who continue to defy the executive orders” regarding trans athletes.
Right-wing pundit Rogan O’Handley, otherwise known as DC Draino, was perhaps the only one on Monday who came even semi-close to asking a tough question. One of the handpicked influencers who received the “Epstein Files” binders from Attorney General Pam Bondi in February, which ended up containing no real new information about deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, O’Handley wanted to know when the FBI and DOJ would be releasing more documents on the disgraced financier.
“And also, when might we start seeing some arrests from the client list?” DC Draino wondered.
Describing the attorney general as a “bulldog”, Leavitt claimed Bondi is “working on this diligently” but that she didn’t have a specific timeline she could share on any additional release, which has been a point of contention with much of the MAGA base – especially considering how much Bondi overhyped the initial document dump.
In the end, O’Handley accepted the press secretary’s response and did not attempt to follow up, even though he received no assurances from Leavitt other than Bondi always “keeps” her promises.
At the end of Monday’s briefing, which also included former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer asking Leavitt why legacy media wasn’t outright being excluded from the White House, the room erupted in applause as Leavitt wrapped up the meeting. “Thank you, I’m going to walk off now,” she said as the influencers clapped and cheered.
Returning for Round 2 on Tuesday, Leavitt turned to right-wing TikToker Debra Lea, who commented about the “100 incredible days” of the Trump administration before wondering what policies Trump will roll out in the next couple of months “in order to secure the 2026 midterms for the Republican Party and keep his approval ratings historically high.”
In the meantime, MAGA podcaster Brenden Dilley wanted to know if the press secretary would play a game of “Trump trolling or Trump truthing” when it came to the president’s repeated proposals to annex Greenland, run for a third term in 2028, and make Canada the 51st state.
“Sure, let’s do it. I love it,” Leavitt excitedly responded, letting Dilley know that Trump was “truthing” when it came to both Canada and Greenland but “trolling” on the running in 2028. “Although the hats are flying off the shelves,” she added, referencing the Trump Organization’s latest merchandise drop.
For the most part, both briefings were essentially a large-scale version of the questions many of the other “new media” members have asked during the standard pressers Leavitt has held in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Which is to say, they are essentially public displays of fealty from willing propagandists.
Earlier this month, for instance, a “reporter” from the media outlet run by election-denying MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell gushed about how the 78-year-old president looked “healthier than ever before” before asking Leavitt: “Will you guys also consider releasing the president’s fitness plan?”
And it was just last week that Tim Pool, the pro-Trump podcaster who unwittingly took vast sums of money from a Kremlin influence operation, teed up an opportunity for Leavitt to fume about the mainstream media.
“Many of the news organizations that are represented in this room have marched in lockstep on false narratives such as the ‘Very Fine People’ hoax, the Covington smear, and now what’s being called the Maryland Man hoax, where an MS-13 gang member adjudicated by two different judges, I believe, is just simply being referred to as ‘a Maryland Man’ over and over again,” Pool asked. “I’m wondering if you can comment on the unprofessional behavior.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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