White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried something new on Monday.
Instead of just addressing credentialed journalists in the storied White House briefing room, she held a separate “influencer briefing” for 10 people.
“Tens of 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,” she said during her seven-minute-long introductory remarks. “All journalists, outlets and voices have a seat at the table now, and you being here today for this briefing proves that.”
But as the new briefings continued through the week, it became clear that a very specific group was being given the special access.
Of the 25 influencers identified by NBC News who attended the briefings, all but one have a history of explicit support for President Donald Trump’s administration, and some had direct connections to Trump — through either previously working in his administration, or maintaining a personal connection with his family or members of his Cabinet.
“Where’s the list conservative leaning voices the Biden administration invited to the White House for similar engagements? The fact of the matter is, the legacy media is furious that information flow is not exclusive to them anymore,” Kaelan Door, the White House deputy communications director, said in a statement. “We will ALWAYS find ways to meet people where they are, no hit piece will dissuade us.”
Indeed, the Trump White House isn’t the first or only to engage with influencers. Joe Biden did so as president as well, at one point inviting more than 100 content creators to discuss a range of issues.
But the current administration has more explicitly embraced pro-Trump media, pushing aside some traditional media outlets to exert more control over who gets access to the president.
“The legacy media has had access to all open press events for decades, now new media gets access too,” a White House official added, noting that the influencer briefings were also livestreamed.
Trump’s tribe
In the first briefing, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, who has nearly 1 million followers across various platforms, was welcomed as one of the influencers. After complimenting Trump for his “commitment to transparency,” Spicer asked questions about Trump’s legislative priorities and why Trump continues to sit for interviews with mainstream outlets and publications.
In the second briefing on Tuesday, two of the eight influencers welcomed had clear ties to Trump’s current and former administration. Link Lauren, who has over 1 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, served as a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his presidential campaign. In the briefing, she threw a softball, asking Leavitt what advice she has for young working parents like herself.
In the same briefing, former Treasury Department official William Upton appeared in his new role as political editor at the conservative publication The National Pulse, asking a question about the status of the Trump administration’s rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine.
In the third briefing, on Wednesday, one of the nine influencers present was 18-year-old Bo Loudon. The son of Trump surrogate Gina Loudon and former Republican Missouri state Sen. John Loudon, Bo Loudon has called himself Barron Trump’s “best friend” and appeared in numerous photos with both Barron Trump and the president. Loudon praised Leavitt during the influencer confab, calling her “an inspiration to Gen Z,” before asking what her “biggest highlight” was “during these first 100 historic days.”
Also present were Newsmax host David J. Harris, who was recognized by Trump at a Black History Month reception in February for being by his side “from Day 1,” and former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who authored the book “The Swamp: Washington’s Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It” after he was fired from Fox News following allegations that he sent lewd photographs to three female colleagues. Bolling has denied the allegations.
Jack Posobiec, a longtime Trump supporter who has promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, also attended Wednesday’s briefing. He has reportedly been invited on and attended trips with members of Trump’s Cabinet, according to a post Posobiec made himself and a report by The Washington Post.
Fringe meme-makers
Alongside the well-connected crowd was a slew of other right-wing influencers and personalities.
On Monday, influencers Grant Godwin and Rogan O’Handley, who run the highly followed conservative meme accounts @the_typical_liberal and @DC_Draino, asked about the Jeffrey Epstein files and a campaign to implement laws that would allow concealed gun carrying in all 50 states.
On Tuesday, Brendan Dilley, known for leading a pro-Trump meme team that created a controversial video shared by Trump in May 2024 that mentioned the “creation of a unified Reich,” played a game of “Truth or Trolling” with Leavitt.
On Wednesday, Dom Lucre, a highly followed conspiracy theorist on X who was briefly banned from the platform after he shared child sexual abuse material, asked Leavitt about the possibility of an investigation into Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over election integrity. Leavitt welcomed the question and called it “refreshing.”
‘Opposite of authentic’
Jackson Gosnell appeared at Monday’s briefing, and appears semi-regularly on right-leaning One America News. On TikTok, he’s built a following of over 150,000 followers through videos where he shares news in a more traditional newscasting style. In a phone interview, he said he was surprised at how favorable some of the other influencers were to the Trump administration in the briefings.
“Some people were very complimentary to the administration. I sort of took the approach of asking a question instead of, you know, more so giving a praise speech,” he said.
Gosnell, who asked a question about the current status of talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, said his invite came after he submitted an application via an online form shared by Leavitt on X. He said the White House reached out to him just a few days before the briefing and asked if he wanted to attend a special event with the press secretary.
Gosnell said questions were not screened before the press conference, and that at least in his experience, it was a very hands-off interaction; he said he was at the White House only for the duration of the press conference, and he didn’t receive guidance before or after on what should or shouldn’t be posted.
The influencer briefings have received a largely critical response online. Many on the left have criticized them for featuring creators with a right-wing tilt, and individuals who have a history of sharing controversial content. And on the right, influential figures like Laura Loomer have criticized them for leaving out hardcore MAGA influencers like herself.
One influential right-wing publicist, who asked not to be named to protect his clients, said that he’s recommended influencers he works with not attend the briefings.
“The entire reason the public turned to these influencers is because they wanted authenticity and the truth. These briefings are the opposite of authentic,” he wrote in a text message. “You can’t market yourself as edgy or a truth-teller when you’re sucking up to power in the most elite building on earth. These briefings will backfire on the influencers and podcasters attending them.
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