The Unseen Architects: How Right-Wing Influencers Are Hand-Delivering the Visual Ammunition for Trump's Urban Takeover Strategy. It sounds like something out of a political thriller, but the reality unfolding in American cities suggests a highly coordinated effort where digital content creators are becoming indispensable partners to the current administration's agenda.
When the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, recently visited Portland, Oregon, to confer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel on Tuesday, she wasn't traveling light. Accompanying her entourage, beyond the usual security detail, were three prominent figures from the right-wing digital sphere: Benny Johnson, Nick Sortor, and David Medina. These individuals trailed the official motorcade, their cameras actively recording, generating material destined to rapidly disseminate across social media platforms and subsequently find a prime-time berth on conservative news networks.
For the Trump administration, these content creators serve a function far beyond mere amplification of official talking points; they are actively involved in manufacturing the visual evidence required to justify specific policy actions. The administration has a clear need for compelling, on-the-ground proof suggesting that municipalities governed by Democrats, such as Portland and Chicago, are descending into unmanageable chaos and violence. These influencers step in to supply precisely that, often becoming central figures in the very spectacles they are documenting. This practice of embedding influencers has become a cornerstone of the administration's media playbook—a veritable content factory designed to forge public consensus by flooding digital spaces with state-sanctioned footage and patriotic dramatization.
This deeply intertwined, mutually beneficial relationship was starkly evident over the past week in both Portland and Chicago, where the administration’s narrative emphasizing 'law and order' directly intersected with the imagery being crafted by these digital operatives to support it.
But here's where it gets controversial... Last Thursday, Nick Sortor found himself detained by Portland police, booked on charges of disorderly conduct stemming from an alleged altercation outside an ICE facility. Then, on Wednesday, an attorney purportedly representing Sortor issued a stern warning, threatening legal action against the Portland Police Department and asserting that the arrest was nothing more than a calculated maneuver intended to 'stifle conservative media voices.' Ultimately, the Multnomah County District Attorney decided not to press charges against Sortor. Simultaneously, Katie Daviscourt, a former staffer for Turning Point USA now contributing to the conservative blog The Post Millennial, claimed she sustained a direct blow to the face from an individual identified as an Antifa protester near the same location. Photographs she subsequently shared on X, showing her with a visible black eye, have since achieved massive circulation online. While both Sortor and Daviscourt frame their presence as that of journalists documenting civil unrest, their involvement has paradoxically transformed them into living exhibits supporting the very chaos they claim to be reporting on.
This transformation appears to be precisely what the Trump administration values most in the output of these creators. Indeed, both Sortor and Daviscourt were subsequently invited to the White House this past Wednesday for a high-level roundtable discussion specifically focused on the alleged violence perpetrated by Antifa. To be perfectly clear for those new to the subject, Antifa is not a centralized organization; rather, it represents an antifascist ideology that lacks any formal, hierarchical group structure.
During that meeting, Trump commented on the situation, stating, “They have attacked journalists who are reporting on their criminal activities,” referring to Antifa, alongside “agitators and anarchists.” He specifically noted, “At least three of these brave journalists have personally experienced attacks from Antifa.”
The third right-wing influencer Trump was likely referencing as a victim of alleged Antifa aggression was Andy Ngo, another blogger for The Post Millennial and a well-known figure in right-wing circles, who was also present at the Wednesday meeting. Ngo has dedicated years to attending protests nationwide, meticulously filming events and consistently framing the right-wing interpretation of Antifa as a significant domestic terrorist threat. Furthermore, Ngo has persistently targeted Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University and the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Following a barrage of social media activity originating from several right-wing influencers, including Ngo, Bray is reportedly now seeking to leave the United States due to receiving credible death threats.
Samuel Woolley, a researcher specializing in digital propaganda at the University of Pittsburgh, posits that this deliberate blurring of the lines between official government messaging and content generated by influencers serves a calculated strategic function. “Politicians and government figures frequently utilize influencers as a mechanism to lend credibility either to the narratives they are disseminating or to the specific actions they are undertaking,” Woolley explains. “In many instances, influencers are now deployed to cultivate the appearance of widespread support for particular viewpoints, thereby manufacturing a consensus around those very ideas.”
And this is the part most people miss... The self-reinforcing feedback loop established between these influencers and the Trump administration is perhaps best illustrated by the activity on Benny Johnson’s X account. Johnson, a right-wing creator and former Turning Point USA contributor, shared footage from his Portland excursion with Secretary Noem. This included a clip showing the Secretary engaged in prayer at the commencement of a meeting, and another segment where he appeared to be questioning an individual presumed to be an undocumented immigrant in the rear of a government vehicle. These clips are then immediately reposted and amplified by other conservative creators, often finding their way onto cable news broadcasts shortly thereafter. In this specific instance, Johnson was interviewed on Newsmax on Wednesday regarding his experiences in Portland.
Johnson recounted his visit on Newsmax, stating, “Kristi Noem was required to tour the premises accompanied by men in body armor because of how violent the left has become in this area. Every single time we arrived or departed, we had to have left-wing demonstrators forcibly removed from the roadways.” He added, “They were shouting at us, and they spat on the vehicles.”
These specific creators were among the select few media figures granted access to tour the Portland ICE facility. The Oregonian reported on Wednesday that its own journalists were denied entry to the facility, despite numerous conservative news organizations and content creators receiving clearance. The Oregonian had initially requested access on September 25th. Eight days later, a Fox News reporter, Bill Melugin, was able to film a segment from the facility’s rooftop. Reporters from the local paper attempted access again on October 6th, receiving no response. This occurred just three days after Katie Daviscourt had toured the building.
Woolley summarizes the potency of this strategy: “They can be employed as a direct channel for pushing fabricated narratives or for injecting specific propaganda messages.” He concludes that these right-wing creators are “incredibly potent.”
The Trump administration has effectively engineered a seamless content cycle: initial on-the-ground presence inspires the creation of digital content, and that content, in turn, justifies subsequent policy actions, creating a continuous loop where the government perpetually performs its own validation in real time. The sequence is clear: first, the physical deployment; second, the content generation; and then, the cycle repeats indefinitely.
Final Thought for Discussion: If government officials are actively collaborating with partisan content creators to generate 'evidence' of chaos, does this fundamentally undermine the public's trust in both the media and the government's stated reasons for intervention? Where do you draw the line between legitimate reporting and state-sponsored propaganda when the reporter is also the spectacle? Share your thoughts below!
