The White House is hosting a summit for pro-Trump social media personalities, but some of the president's boosters are wondering why they weren't invited to the event.
Social media director Dan Scavino, a longtime aide to President Donald Trump, is taking the lead in organizing the summit and forming its agenda, two sources told The Daily Beast.
But White House staffers told the website they made the easy choice to exclude some of the president's more controversial supporters -- such as InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes -- who have been banned from Twitter and other social media platforms.
“What benefit would it be to anyone if Laura Loomer were in the same room with the president?” one senior Trump administration official told The Daily Beast. “Why on earth would we do that? We aren’t that stupid. Come on.”
Loomer and other pro-Trump figures have been ranting about their exclusion on Telegram, a Russian messaging app that is one of the only platforms they have left after getting banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for various infractions.
“It’s just absolutely disgusting how poorly this summit was planned and how blatant the act was to keep banned individuals out,” Loomer blared on Telegram. “I cannot believe that every single banned person was out of the summit.”
However, the invite list also features a number of controversial, sketchy or fringe characters.
At least two Trump superfans -- online video personality Bill Mitchell and singer Joy Villa -- who buy in to the QAnon conspiracy theory say they have been invited to the White House summit.
QAnon believers are fixated on asking Trump to confirm their conspiracy in person, the website reported, but Mitchell insisted he would resist the urge.
“Of course not,” Mitchell told The Daily Beast. “This is about social media bias, not Q.”
Trump-loving cartoonist Ben Garrison -- whose drawings feature a svelte, pompadoured president vanquishing various enemies -- was disinvited to the event after critics pointed out several plainly anti-Semitic comics he'd done in the past.
Garrison has denied being anti-Semitic, and blamed the controversy on "fake news."
The White House declined to comment on Garrison's invitation.