Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) wants to break the back of foreign actors who use US influencers as fronts, and she is willing to go around House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to get it done.
In an interview with Politico Playbook, Luna, who has been a thorn in Johnson's side, claims she has seen contracts "in the millions" that could rock MAGAworld if they were exposed.
The Florida Republican is rolling out the Foreign Propaganda Registration Act, an amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act that would require influencers to disclose when they're being paid by a foreign government to push political messaging, according to the proposal first shared with Playbook.
"Being an influencer right now is kind of like the wild west," Luna told Playbook. "There's a lot of things laws haven't caught up to."
Luna received briefings on foreign influence efforts, spoke with multiple government agencies about the issue and heard about payments occurring "on the back end" from people inside the influencer world.
When asked whether she was aware of specific influencers receiving foreign money, Luna said: "I have a number of those people. I'm not going to put anyone on blast. That's not my job."
The practice reaches deep into the influencer ecosystem. "Some of your biggest profile names… a large portion of them, in some way, shape, or form, have been approached at one point to push a certain position that's probably tied to a foreign country," Luna said.
Luna is confident Johnson will support the measure. If not, she has a familiar recourse: she previously used a discharge petition to try to bypass House leadership and force action on a congressional stock-trading ban, and a person familiar with her thinking said she could turn to the tactic again.
According to the report, "The fight ballooned in recent months inside MAGA, where the sprawling influencer ecosystem that fueled Trump’s political rise faces growing accusations within its own ranks that foreign governments and other well-funded interests are trying to manipulate it. Allegations have been leveled against influencers targeting JD Vance, Tucker Carlson and recently that Laura Loomer’s trip to Ukraine was funded by the country — which she vehemently denied."
