For decades, Republicans railed against what they saw as a liberal media establishment shaping American politics from the left.

Nearly a year into US President Donald Trump’s second term, that narrative is flipping. A new constellation of influencers, billionaire moguls and social-media platforms — many embracing or amplifying White House themes — is pulling the nation’s information ecosystem to the right.

Right-wing influencers and conservative media personalities, often working in lockstep with Trump officials, have become a potent force in a widening campaign of retribution against perceived enemies of the Trump administration.

Empowered by ownership and technology shifts in the media and bolstered by financial incentives, these figures help discredit Trump’s rivals and amplify his administration’s talking points and false claims, blurring boundaries between official messaging and private-sector news and opinion.

This account is based on a review of more than 300 hours of podcasts and TV shows, thousands of social media posts and interviews with 48 people – including influencers, elected officials, political strategists and media owners — and an examination of court filings.

As Trump deploys National Guard troops into US cities, influencers embedded with figures such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have widely shared content echoing the administration’s portrayal of Democratic-led cities as engulfed in chaos, even as law enforcement data shows violent crime declining in most urban areas. A spokesperson for Noem declined to address the discrepancy.

Inside the White House, the president invited right-wing media personalities to join senior officials in the State Dining Room, soliciting their input and criticizing traditional news outlets — all on live television.

Other episodes underscore this symbiotic relationship. In April, more than a dozen national security officials were dismissed amid an influencer-led campaign.

In August, a Black Democratic lawmaker received a surge of racist threats after the Trump administration used an official government account to repost a false allegation made by another right-wing influencer.

“We’re seeing how the confluence of social media influencers is being amplified by forces in the government,” said University of Maryland professor Sarah Oates, who has studied Russian propaganda for 30 years. “There’s an argument to be made that they’re not influencers, they’re propagandists.”

Right-wing influencers and media outlets say they are ideological allies of Trump, not propagandists, sharing the belief that he is rescuing the country from decline. They and the administration accuse traditional media of covering him unfairly.

“It’s a reaction to the nearly decade-long smear campaign of President Trump and his family and MAGA in this country by the mainstream media,” said Laura Loomer, who describes herself as both a Trump loyalist and an independent journalist.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that many Americans no longer trust the mainstream media “because they frequently lie and distort the truth to advance their own ideological agenda.”

“The Trump administration is proud to meet Americans where they’re at and engage with a variety of new media platforms – that often receive more views and engagement than traditional media – to share the truth,” she said. “Americans want unfiltered content, not biased opinions masquerading as news – and Reuters is proving why with this bogus ‘analysis.’”

Trump’s loyal media figures give him an advantage as he navigates political crises and consolidates authority.

By shaping narratives in real time — and at times echoing the White House’s false claims — the president’s aligned media figures can blunt unfavorable coverage and fortify Trump’s base at a scale perhaps unmatched by any previous president.

After this week’s state elections, conservative and right-wing influencers largely echoed the president’s line that Republican losses were the result of flawed candidates and external factors such as the government shutdown — while avoiding criticism of Trump himself.

That comes amid a broader shift among Trump-friendly media executives and owners.

At the start of the year, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced a rollback of content moderation policies that had led to the removal of some pro-Trump influencers from Facebook and Instagram.

Since 2022, Elon Musk — Tesla CEO, Trump donor and the world’s richest person — has taken a similar approach on X, formerly known as Twitter. Once a dominant hub for news and commentary, X has shifted right after Musk retooled the platform and amplified favored accounts, giving conservative voices greater reach.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s third-richest person, has reshaped the traditionally liberal-leaning opinion section of a move Bezos described in February as a “significant shift” to a focus on “personal liberties and free markets.”

A spokesperson said that the new editorial page is nonpartisan, and that “it is historically within an owner’s provenance to decide the direction of the editorial page.”

In September, Trump said media mogul Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan and Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison – who are longtime Trump allies – could be among the investors in the U.S. spinoff of TikTok, one of the world’s most popular apps.

In August, Ellison’s son David took control of Paramount and its CBS unit. In October, he appointed Bari Weiss – an opinion journalist known for anti-woke commentary – as editor of CBS News.

While Reuters has reported Oracle is expected to be a TikTok investor, it could not verify roles for the Murdochs or Fox.

A spokesperson for both declined to comment. Spokespeople for CBS, Oracle, TikTok, David Ellison and Weiss did not respond to requests for comment.

Right-wing influencers and popular conservative media figures are strikingly loyal to the president, according to a Reuters analysis of more than 300 hours of podcasts and TV shows, and thousands of social media posts by 22 top figures.

In July, after a Justice Department review found no new evidence of wrongdoing in the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal, many of them expressed outrage – but largely spared Trump from criticism.

Newsmax TV host Rob Schmitt, who discussed Epstein extensively on his show, told Reuters his fellow conservative media figures backed away from the Epstein story for fear of angering the White House.

“If the White House comms team wanted this story to be gone, there’s a lot of people who would feel that pressure,” Schmitt said. “A lot of conservative media obviously are very tethered to the president,” he said, referring to White House access.

A Newsmax spokesperson said of its Epstein coverage: “Newsmax has never coordinated with the White House on this matter.”

Direct line to ‘halls of power’

Republican leaders have castigated the media for generations as liberal. Barry Goldwater mocked the “eastern liberal press” during his 1964 presidential campaign. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attacked the “liberal elite media” in the 1990s.

Trump branded them as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”

In recent years, figures like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson have helped create a conservative media ecosystem – spanning podcasts, social platforms and streaming – that continues to portray the older media not just as biased but part of an entrenched liberal elite. Neither Shapiro nor Carlson responded to requests for comment.

Whitney Phillips, a University of Oregon professor who has written six books on information manipulation, said the media was never the far-left monolith conservatives claimed it to be.

That argument is even less accurate today, she said, as conservatives hold sway over both government and major media platforms.

“There's just more of a direct line between MAGA media, right-wing media and the halls of power,” she said. “They have the ear of policymakers. The depth and density of those connections is new.”

The coalition of conservative voices was on display five days after the assassination of right-wing influencer and activist Charlie Kirk, when his podcast was guest-hosted by Vice President JD Vance from the White House complex.

On the show, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller vowed “to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country” – a strategy laid out in “the last message Charlie sent me,” he said.

Trump has been putting traditional news providers on the back foot. He has squeezed some of the biggest TV networks, securing multimillion-dollar legal settlements from ABC News and CBS, after alleging in lawsuits that ABC defamed him and CBS deceptively edited a Kamala Harris interview when she was the Democratic candidate for president.

Before settling, the networks called the accusations meritless.

Two of the biggest platforms used by influencers — YouTube and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram — also settled with Trump after his return to office. Each had suspended him from their platforms following the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and reinstated him in 2023.

He sued both over access, and this year they each paid at least $24 million to settle those cases.

A YouTube spokesperson said the company admitted no wrongdoing and agreed to no changes. Meta declined to comment.

Trump’s efforts to tame the media have met pushback.

In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to require Pentagon-based journalists to sign a policy stating they could be deemed security risks and lose their press credentials if they seek classified or certain unclassified information from department employees.

At least 30 news organizations, including Reuters, refused to sign, citing threats to press freedom.

The group also included conservative outlets Newsmax and Fox News. All were subsequently expelled from their Pentagon offices.

At least a half dozen right-wing outlets, however, agreed to the Pentagon’s new reporting guidelines, including LindellTV, run by pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, who has promoted election conspiracy theories.

Lindell said that when traditional media refused to comply with the new Pentagon rules, his network sensed a business opportunity. “We embrace going in there and you guys leaving,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesperson described the development as the beginning of a new era between the military and select media organizations.

“New media outlets and independent journalists have created the formula to circumvent the lies of the mainstream media and get real news directly to the American people,” the spokesperson said.

Threats to Black lawmakers

The administration’s symbiosis with media figures has triggered harassment and threats.

On August 15, Connecticut lawmaker Corey Paris posted a warning on social media: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were conducting raids in his district.

Within hours, the right-wing account Libs of TikTok seized on his post, falsely accusing the Democrat of disclosing the agents’ location in real time.

“He’s helping illegals evade arrest and impeding ICE. Charge him,” the account told its 4.5 million followers on X, tagging the ICE and Department of Homeland Security X accounts.

ICE’s official X account then reposted the Libs of TikTok post and tagged the Justice Department, which investigates and prosecutes federal crimes.

The accusation took off in right-wing media circles, though Paris never cited the specific locations of any agents. Vitriolic posts against Paris, who is Black, appeared on the pro-Trump website Gateway Pundit.

“Rope. Tree,” said one, a reference to lynchings. “Deport this POS back to Africa on a raft with one banana,” said another.

A stranger showed up at his home and howled through the intercom, Paris said in an interview. On August 17, an anonymous caller threatened to send other Trump supporters to his home and hack his phone, repeatedly lacing his rant with a racial slur.

“Dumb fucking, n-----!” the man shouted, according to a recording reviewed by Reuters. “You understand me, you little Connecticut n-----? Negro, you hear? … This content is being replicated and duplicated all across Christian networks. All across Trump supporters, MAGA supporters, and right-wing newspapers.”

A Connecticut State Police spokesperson said threats against Paris are under investigation. The operator of the X account Libs of TikTok — which is unrelated to the TikTok platform — did not respond to a request for comment.

ICE and Gateway Pundit also did not respond.

A Justice Department spokesperson said it "will not hesitate to investigate allegations of obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

In an interview, Paris said: “I’m concerned for our nation that the federal government can escalate misinformation to this level without calling out how wrong it is.”

‘MAGA hat stays on’

A Reuters analysis of posts, shows and podcasts by 22 right-wing influencers and conservative personalities revealed steadfast loyalty to Trump — a sharp break from the friction between political leaders and the press that has defined US politics since the days of President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.

Reuters chose the influencers and media figures based on audience reach and access to the White House.

The Epstein case offers an example. Epstein died in 2019, five weeks after his arrest on charges of trafficking teenage girls for sex.

Influencers fanned hopes that records from the Epstein investigation would be unsealed, exposing them.

The term “Epstein files” became shorthand for distrust in institutions – feelings that drove some Americans to rally behind Trump’s promise to clean up the government.

In late February, a group of influencers met Trump and senior officials at the White House to discuss the Epstein matter.

Under pressure from conservative influencers, the Justice Department reassigned hundreds of FBI agents and analysts from other pending criminal investigations to review tens of thousands of documents related to Epstein, current and former agents said.

So when the Justice Department said in early July that the review found no credible evidence to support Epstein conspiracy theories, the MAGA world was shaken.

Some leading Trump influencers expressed surprise and disappointment, noting that the president’s team had campaigned on the Epstein files. For a moment, it looked like Trump risked losing support over his refusal to release more information.

Still, the Reuters analysis of podcasts, TV shows and social media posts from 22 leading right-wing and conservative media figures in the three weeks after the July memo found they largely blamed senior Trump officials, not the president.

Only one of the 22 figures, self-avowed white nationalist Nick Fuentes, consistently faulted Trump. About half a dozen others briefly criticized him, but their disapproval lasted only a day or two before they resumed blaming others.

Instead, most MAGA influencers directed their fury at Attorney General Pam Bondi. In February, Bondi said she was reviewing a list of Epstein clients. By July, her department said no such list existed.

Bondi later said she had been referring to other documents. The Justice Department and Fuentes did not respond to requests for comment.

The Epstein scandal has strained the relationship between Trump and his coterie of influencers but not broken it. This was illustrated in posts by right-wing activist Jack Posobiec, a combative influencer with 3.2 million followers on X.

“I want answers on Epstein,” Posobiec wrote on X after the Justice Department’s findings were disclosed in July. “As many as possible. Not press releases. Answers.”

In the 2016 presidential election, Posobiec helped promote “Pizzagate” – a conspiracy theory that Democrats were running a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington D.C.

After Trump directed Justice Department officials to ask courts to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case — a move many legal scholars called performative, correctly predicting the request would be denied — Posobiec reaffirmed his loyalty to the president.

“The MAGA hat stays on,” Posobiec said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. Asked about his Epstein-related posts, Posobiec said in an email to Reuters: “It’s not about one creep on an island,” a reference to a private Caribbean retreat Epstein owned.

“It’s about the global power structure, blackmail, corruption, and the two-tiered justice system.” Posobiec did not respond to a request for comment.

In that constellation of influence orbiting Trump, few figures have emerged as consequential as Laura Loomer.

In April, Trump summoned her to the White House “to present him with my reports” of intelligence officials she deemed disloyal, she said in an interview. Soon after, more than a dozen national security officials were fired.

“I don’t just report the news,” Loomer told Reuters. “I create the news. In many ways, I am the news, right?”

Loomer, who hosts a podcast and is a staunch Trump supporter, said that she bristles at the term “influencer” and considers herself a shoe-leather journalist. By contrast, she said, influencers are self-serving: “These people don’t do shit for the movement and they’re not doing anything to break original stories. They’re just posting other people’s work and monetizing it.”

She said she rejects the traditional media’s view that it presents objective facts. “People write with their own biases, so let’s just admit it,” Loomer said. “I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, yeah, everything that I do is 100% fair.’ It’s truthful. But is it done through maybe a conservative lens? Yeah.”

Lucrative deals for influencers on the right

The right-wing media ecosystem’s growth was supercharged by a shift in audience habits — and trust.

In the week after the presidential inauguration, more Americans turned to social media for news than to television or news sites — a first, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

A Pew Research Center survey published in October offers an explanation: Only about half of adults under 50 say they have at least some trust in national news media, and adults under 30 are now roughly as likely to trust information from social media as from national news organizations.

On cable TV, right-leaning Fox News remains dominant, averaging roughly 2.8 million primetime viewers in October, compared to 1 million for MSNBC, its left-leaning rival, according to Nielsen, which tracks television viewership.

On podcasts, pro-Trump programs account for about two-thirds of the top dozen politically-oriented shows, according to recent data from two market research firms, Podscribe and Edison Podcast Metrics.

The Edison Podcast Metrics data is based on a third-quarter survey of 5,000 U.S. weekly podcast consumers. The Podscribe data is based on YouTube, Spotify and Rumble views and audio-only downloads since September 1.

Right-wing media is “far bigger, and has far more influence and power, than most people realize,” said Howard Polskin, president of TheRighting, which reports on conservative media.

For the influencers who shape the news Americans consume, the work can be highly lucrative.

Regardless of politics, influencers typically earn income in several ways, sometimes working with specialized marketing firms. They get paid by advocacy or political campaigns to post content.

On podcasts and social media posts, they can make money from corporate sponsorships and commercials.

And they can earn small sums by persuading people to provide an email or phone number for later use in targeted campaigns by advocacy or political campaigns.

But top right-wing influencers typically command higher fees for sponsored posts than their left-wing counterparts, according to interviews with half a dozen political strategists, influencers and consultants.

Libs of TikTok LLC is an entity run by Chaya Raichik, who operates the influential X account of the same name. In last year’s election campaign, Libs of TikTok told a potential client it would charge at least $250,000 for unspecified communications and social media “consulting,” according to a draft contract reviewed by Reuters. The client turned down the offer, unwilling to pay for the services, a person briefed said.

Raichik did not respond to a request for comment.

Conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley, who goes by DC_Draino online and has 5.3 million followers across Instagram and X, was paid $164,000 for multiple Instagram posts in 2024 by

Smart & Safe Florida, the political committee sponsoring a push to legalize marijuana in the state, according to O’Handley and public filings. After the payment became public in January, O’Handley wrote on X: “I get paid to post ads like every other influencer and media outlet, and have never denied that. It’s called capitalism.”

O’Handley told Reuters he runs a media company that takes advertising money, and that he disclosed on each post that it was paid for by the group. “I would never take money for something I don't agree with,” he said.

Smart & Safe Florida did not respond to a request for comment.

Some influencers have allegedly earned even more. Ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, several prominent right-wing commentators were paid millions in an alleged scheme by Russia to influence American voters and inflame political divisions, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

One was paid $400,000 a month, a $100,000 signing bonus and a performance bonus to create “four weekly videos,” the indictment said. Another influencer was paid $100,000 per video. The commentators, who weren’t named in the indictment, didn’t know they were part of a Russian influence campaign, prosecutors said. Right-wing influencers Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool said they were unknowingly drawn into the scheme, each calling himself a victim. Pool told Reuters his lawyers were notified the probe was closed. Prosecutors haven’t dismissed the indictment, but the case has stalled, as both Russian defendants are still believed to be at large.

Johnson and Rubin did not respond to a request for comment.

In contrast, Democrats only began prioritizing outreach to left-leaning influencers last year, according to party officials and several creators. But liberal resistance to Trump’s second term is showing signs of boosting left-leaning influencers.

Ben Meiselas, a co-founder of MeidasTouch and host of its flagship podcast, dethroned prominent Trump supporter Joe Rogan from the top spot on the podcast charts in February and has remained there ever since, according to Podscribe’s monthly download data. He attributes his rise in part to a deliberate strategy that borrowed from the right’s digital playbook. “The right wing just flooded the zone with a lot of content, and a lot of distribution, and there really wasn't anything going on to counter” that on the left, he said in an interview.

A representative for Rogan did not respond to a request for comment.

Conservatives and right-wing influencers, Meiselas noted, gained dominance on social media by moving early to digital platforms, slicing content into short, shareable segments and amplifying perceived grievances. MeidasTouch mirrored that strategy, he said, combining pointed messaging with a tone that resonated personally with more empathetic audiences to build momentum. “That's the brave new world of this media landscape right now.”

Still, left-wing media face a structural challenge: They lack a unifying figure to rally around. Many conservative influencers have built their brands around Trump’s unique persona and messaging.

“There’s nothing like that on the left,” said left-wing influencer Russell Ellis, known online as the Jolly Good Ginger, who has six million followers across platforms. “On the right, they’ve married themselves to Trump, and that’s their brand.