'The irony': Trump social media guru whines as 'hysterical' influencers turn on president
The online “troll” credited with manufacturing support for Donald Trump is upset that the right-wing discourse on social media surrounding the agreement to end the war in Iran appears to be manufactured — and not by him.
Alex Bruesewitz, a 29-year-old social media strategist who now works for one of the president’s political action committees, went on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in late June to try to mend fences with the breakaway MAGA faction angered by the war with Iran — while suggesting that critics of the plan to end the war are part of “coordinated influence campaigns.”
“I believe there definitely is a coordinated effort to put pressure on the president and the administration to continue the conflict in Iran,” Bruesewitz told Carlson. “And I believe there is even potentially foreign influence involved.”
Bruesewitz also used Carlson’s platform and an appearance the same day on a podcast hosted by David Freiheit to defend the administration’s disastrous handling of the release of files related to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. As with criticism of the plan to wind down the war with Iran, Bruesewitz suggested that right-wing anger directed at the administration over the Epstein files has been manipulated in some way.
“I think giving control of the government process to a handful of hysterics on social media is bad,” Bruesewitz told Carlson. “I think it was bad for Epstein — with the Epstein files. I think it’s bad right now for all of the hawks who are continuing to press the administration to continue the war.”
Bruesewitz lamented to Frei that there are “a lot of low-IQ, hysterical takes on social media that pollute discourse,” while complaining to Carlson that “there’s a lot of money from special interest groups, from foreign countries that have poured into [the] internet ecosystem, and I don’t think it’s been healthy for our democracy, for our country.”
Left unsaid on either podcast was that Bruesewitz’s firm, X Strategies, receives $25,000 a month from Never Surrender, a political action committee affiliated with the president, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Neither of the right-wing podcasters highlighted the fact that Bruesewitz has a history of running the same kind of coordinated influence campaigns that he now appears to be decrying.
As Trump’s social media advisor during the 2024 campaign, Bruesewitz reportedly encouraged JD Vance, then the vice presidential running mate, to promote the baseless and racist claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were eating pets. Bruesewitz told Freiheit last week that he got involved in political consulting as a conservative kid in Wisconsin “through trolling.”
“Eleven years later I’m still trolling in some capacity,” he added.
Shortly after Vance pushed the claim about Haitians eating pets on X, Trump infamously jumped on the racist conspiracy theory.
“They’re eating the dogs; the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said during his debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2024.
Bruesewitz had a “war room” of influencers at the ready to amplify Trump’s messaging during the debate, as previously reported by Raw Story.
Before the debate had even started, Chaya Raichik — owner of the Libs of TikTok account and one of the influencers assembled by Bruesewitz — posted a link to a story purporting to substantiate the claim by citing a call to police reporting about Haitian migrants carrying geese. The post, which was viewed 3 million times, concluded: “The media has been telling us this is all a lie.”
During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania later that month, Trump told supporters “you have to get them the hell out,” and soon pledged to rescind temporary protected status for Haitian migrants.
Last summer, the Trump Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending temporary protected status for roughly 520,000 Haitians living in the United States. And in late June — one day before Bruesewitz appeared on Carlson’s show to complain about “a handful of hysterics” exercising control over government — the Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding the Trump administration’s authority to deport Haitians.
Bruesewitz is also credited with arranging for Trump to appear on a slate of podcasts during the final month of the 2024 campaign, helping the president boost his performance with young, male voters.
Bruesewitz’s apparent effort on Trump’s behalf to mend fences with Carlson suggests the president and his allies recognize they’ve lost control over the discourse on right-wing social media, and are seeking to reassert influence.
Bruesewitz explained to Freiheit that he decided to intervene in the MAGA schism over the Iran war because he’s seeing it tear Trump’s political coalition apart.
“And I’ve watched it splinter this once unbeatable juggernaut,” Bruesewitz said. “We used to have this unified movement on social media that was used to focus on the real mission at hand that was saving our country from the communists and the radical left lunatics that want to destroy it.”
Bruesewitz’s appearance on Carlson’s show came only days after the popular conservative commentator announced he will not support the Republican Party, as it fights to maintain control of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former congresswoman who hired Bruesewitz to work on her 2020 campaign, followed Carlson’s lead.
Bruesewitz and Carlson did not discuss Carlson's withdrawal of support for the GOP, but Bruesewitz told Carlson he was “slightly disappointed with Marjorie’s recent pivot.”
To Freiheit, Bruesewitz swatted away concerns that the defections could hurt Republican candidates during the midterms.
“At the end of the day you’re either going to ride with Trump and us for the next two years, or you’re going to let the radical left lunatics take back control,” he said.
Vance has also attempted to mend fences with MAGA’s non-interventionist wing through an appearance last month on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” while counter-signaling Israeli officials following the announcement the U.S. had reached an agreement with Iran to end the war.
Bruesewitz could not be reached for comment for this story, but he told Freiheit: “I’m supporting the Trump administration. JD Vance is the president’s vice president, and he is promoting the president’s [memorandum of understanding]. Period. Full stop. So, I am supporting the president’s MOU.”
The White House did not provide an on-the-record response to Raw Story’s questions about Bruesewitz’s media tour, and emails to Never Surrender, the Trump political action committee that is paying Bruesewitz’s firm, went unreturned.
During his appearances on Carlson and Freiheit’s podcasts, Bruesewitz singled out a pro-Israel influencer named Eyal Yakoby, who campaigned for Trump during the 2024 election, while suggesting Yakoby is part of a broader influence operation.
“Many of those same accounts who have spent the last many months criticizing Tucker and Megyn all turn against the vice president and the president’s MOU almost in a coordinated effort,” Bruesewitz told Freiheit. “So, of course that raises some suspicion.”
Eyal Yakoby, now a pro-Israel influencer, speaks in support of Donald Trump at the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Summit in Las Vegas in 2024- YouTube www.youtube.com
Bruesewitz said Yakoby has made about 1,200 posts that are critical of Carlson.
“He’s certainly been paid for some of his tweets,” Bruesewitz told Carlson, adding that he didn’t have evidence that Yakoby has been paid specifically for posts that criticize Carlson or the memorandum of understanding to end the war with Iran.
To Freiheit, Bruesewitz asked whether it was Yakoby’s “full-time job” to post about Carlson.
Yakoby acknowledged to Raw Story that he has received payments from marketing agencies, which he declined to identify, for some of his social media posts. But he said he hasn’t received compensation from any entity for posts criticizing Carlson or raising questions about the MOU.
“Every single thing that Alex has accused me and others of, he is literally guilty of,” Yakoby told Raw Story. “That’s the irony of it.”
During his appearance on Carlson’s show, Bruesewitz repeatedly alleged that “foreign influence” is behind online posts pressuring Trump to prolong the war with Iran, while citing information previously reported by the Intercept that Trump’s former campaign manager has been paid by the Israeli government to push pro-Israel views through conservative media. But Bruesewitz acknowledged to Carlson that he has no evidence that Yakoby is involved in that campaign.
“I think what’s funny about the whole thing is he says very carefully that he doesn’t know if I’m receiving money from a foreign entity,” Yakoby told Raw Story. “I’ve told him directly three times that I’ve never received money from any government, domestic or foreign. That’s why he’s a coward when he asks that question: He doesn’t want to get sued for defamation.”
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Tom Barrack described Donald Trump as "one of my closest friends for forty years" during his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention.Courtesy C-Span