White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried something new on Monday. Instead of just talking to the usual journalists in the fancy White House briefing room, she decided to have a separate “influencer briefing” for 10 people. “Tens of millions of Americans are now looking at social media and other independent news outlets for their info, and we’re totally cool with that,” she said during her short seven-minute intro. “Everyone, no matter who you are, has a spot at the table now, and you being here today totally proves that.”
But as the new briefings kept going throughout the week, it was pretty clear that only a certain group was getting this special treatment. According to NBC News, out of the 25 influencers who came to the briefings, almost all of them have been big supporters of President Donald Trump’s administration. Some even have direct ties to Trump—either they worked for him in the past or are friends with his family or his Cabinet members.
“Where are all the conservative voices that the Biden administration invited to the White House for something similar? Honestly, the traditional media is super mad that they’re not the only ones with the scoop anymore,” said Kaelan Dorr, the White House deputy communications director, in a statement. “We’re gonna keep finding ways to reach people where they’re at, no matter what any haters say.”
The Trump White House isn’t the only one to chat with influencers, though. President Joe Biden has also talked to over 100 content creators at one point to discuss a bunch of stuff. But the current administration seems to be leaning more towards pro-Trump media, kinda pushing aside some of the old-school media outlets to control who gets to talk to the president.
“The legacy media has been coming to all the open press events for years, now the new media is getting in on the action too,” said a White House official, adding that the influencer briefings were even live-streamed.
In the first briefing, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, who has almost 1 million followers on different platforms, was one of the influencers invited. After praising Trump for being “super transparent,” Spicer asked about Trump’s priorities and why he keeps talking to the mainstream media.
In the second briefing on Tuesday, two of the eight influencers had strong connections to Trump’s past and current crew. Link Lauren, a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his presidential campaign, threw an easy question to Leavitt about advice for young working parents. Former Treasury Department official William Upton, now a political editor at a conservative publication, asked about Trump’s rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine.
In the third briefing on Wednesday, one of the nine influencers was 18-year-old Bo Loudon, who calls himself Barron Trump’s “best friend” and has been seen in pics with both Barron and Trump. Loudon praised Leavitt during the chat, calling her “an inspiration to Gen Z,” before asking about her “biggest highlight” during the first 100 days.
There were also other familiar faces like Newsmax host David J. Harris and former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who had some controversy before leaving Fox News. Jack Posobiec, a longtime Trump supporter known for pushing the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, was also there on Wednesday.
Along with these big names, there were a bunch of other right-wing influencers in the mix. On Monday, Grant Godwin and Rogan O’Handley, who run conservative meme accounts, asked about Jeffrey Epstein and gun laws. On Tuesday, Brenden Dilley, who leads a pro-Trump meme team, played “Truth or Trolling” with Leavitt. And on Wednesday, Dom Lucre, a conspiracy theorist briefly banned from a platform for sharing bad stuff, asked about investigating Obama and Clinton over election stuff.
Overall, these influencer briefings have gotten a lot of criticism online. People on the left are mad that the influencers lean to the right and share iffy content. And on the right, some big names like Laura Loomer feel left out of the fun.
One right-wing publicist even said he’s told influencers he works with to skip the briefings. “People followed these influencers because they wanted realness and truth. These briefings are the opposite of that,” he said, warning that influencers cozying up to power won’t do them any favors in the long run.
