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A disgraced ultra-conservative banjo player ousted from his Grammy-winning band; a far-right conspiracy theorist with alleged ties to Russia; a TikTok creator known as “Maga Malfoy” for his resemblance to the Harry Potter character; and an extremist social media “influencer” once banned from Twitter for posting a video depicting sexual abuse of a child.
These are just some of the “new media” personalities courted by the White House to take part in a series of alternative briefings championed by Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
An extraordinary gallery of Trump-promoting characters has paraded through the West Wing in recent days, answering Leavitt’s call for “independent journalists” and “influencers” to attend her press gatherings.
Some of their fawning, softball or otherwise baffling questions have provoked derision and concern, while the topics, predictably, have covered a wide range of propaganda, conspiracy and other extremist talking points. Here are some of the highlights:
Winston Marshall
Since quitting Mumford & Sons, the double Grammy winning folk rock band he co-founded, four years ago following his controversial endorsement of a conservative journalist’s book, guitarist and banjoist Marshall has found his place in the rightwing ecosystem.
The 37-year-old British son of GB News co-owner and hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall now hosts his own podcast, The Winston Marshall Show, in which he discusses politics with like-minded guests for his 14,000 subscribers.
Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
He showed up in the West Wing on Tuesday in a sharp black suit to first congratulate “Madame Leavitt” for inviting him, then try to gauge her position on the “quarter of a million” Britons he insisted had been penalized in the UK for social media posts or perceived speech infractions.
“Would the Trump administration consider political asylum for British citizens in such a situation?” he asked.
Leavitt, amid guffaws in the room, said the question was “a very good one” and she would “see if it’s something the administration would entertain”.
Tim Pool
The host of several conservative podcasts was linked last year to a US content creation company the justice department said was paid almost $10m by Russian state media operatives to publish videos promoting Moscow’s interests and agenda.
Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
He appeared in the new media seat at a briefing last week, dressed in a black woolly hat and hoodie, to castigate “legacy media” for promoting what he said were a succession of anti-Trump “hoaxes”, including the story of Kilmar Ábrego García, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.
His question, such as it was, was another attack on the mainstream media: “I’m wondering if you can comment on their unprofessional behavior as well as elaborate if there’s any plans to expand access to new companies?”
“We want to welcome all viewpoints into this room,” Leavitt replied, declining Pool’s invitation.
Link Lauren
Bleached blond, and with a striking resemblance to the Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy, Lauren is a previously unknown musician and content creator who served as a social media adviser to Robert F Kennedy Jr during the new health secretary’s failed presidential campaign last year.
His recent wild claims include informing his 875,000 TikTok followers that the Biden administration was a “cesspool of topless trans people on the White House lawn”, and was responsible for countless suicides.
Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
One of the leading sycophants at Leavitt’s alternative briefing, he asked the press secretary:
“You’re a very high-profile young mother who seems to juggle and balance it all beautifully. What advice do you have to young parents out there who are starting their careers having kids, building families and trying to find that balance so desperately?”
Leavitt had no advice to offer, but was keen to point out that “there are so many new moms and dads on our senior staff, but also across the entire administration”.
Dominick McGee
Under the pseudonym Dom Lucre, election denier McGee was booted briefly from X (then Twitter) in 2023 for posting a video depicting child sexual abuse, but allowed back on at the insistence of the platform’s owner, Elon Musk.
Since then, the self-styled Black Maga influencer has disseminated numerous conspiracy theories on social media, including amplifying Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election he lost was fraudulent, and promoting the QAnon fiction that the so-called deep state was conspiring to usurp the president.
Photograph: Dom Lucre Twitter
His question during his brief appearance at the new media briefing was thus:
“Is there any possibility for names such as Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to ever possibly get investigated for … any of the wrongdoings they might have done?”
Leavitt said it was “refreshing” to hear McGee’s question. “The legacy media would never ask [it],” she said.
Arynne Wexler
Billing herself as “just a crazy nonlib girl in a crazylib world”, Maga newcomer Wexler claims to have grown up “as one of few conservatives on the outskirts of the very blue New York City”.
“The left doesn’t know what to do with me,” she opines in a self-aggrandizing biography that expresses her fixation on “smashing the status quo and redefining what conservative commentary can be”.
Photograph: Jason Davis/Getty Images for DailyWire+
Her first attempt at “stirring things up in the realm of political commentary”, having been granted the honor of the opening question at Leavitt’s alternative briefing, was a racially dubious statement praising the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“I can attest to the deportations in Florida, my Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that,” she enthused.
Her subsequent question demanded to know what action would be taken against “trans men … masquerading as women in girls’ sport”. Leavitt replied: “Obey the law or you will be prosecuted”.
Rogan O’Handley
Better known by his alter ego DC Draino, O’Handley is a former entertainment attorney with a long history as a commentator on the political right. He was among 15 rightwing influencers given early access in February to what the White House said was key new evidence in the case of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but which many observers said “fell way short” of the explosive revelations they promised.
Photograph: Jason Davis/Getty Images
With more than 7m followers across several social media platforms, O’Handley was warmly welcomed by Leavitt to the new media seat during a briefing that included Trump’s border enforcer, Tom Homan.
He used his opportunity to deliver a lengthy monologue endorsing Trump’s policy of deporting scores of migrants without due process, and excoriated judges who had issued orders trying to stop it.
“In Trump’s first 99 days, we’ve seen a coordinated assault on the rule of law by radical judges,” he said. “These judges are providing more due process to violent MS-13 and Tren de Aragua illegal aliens than they did for American citizens who peacefully protested on January 6.”
Would Trump consider suspending the writ of habeas corpus for such migrants? O’Handley wondered.
“The administration is open to all legal and constitutional remedies,” Leavitt said, adding that she “agreed with the premise” of his question.
