The top tier of the MAGA influencer ecosystem is a clownshow.
Tucker Carlson is warring with Ben Shapiro over just how much antisemitism right-wing audiences should be willing to tolerate. Candace Owens is being sued (and, she claims without evidence, targeted for death) over her debunked conspiracy theory that the first lady of France is secretly a transgender woman. Laura Loomer, a self-described “proud Islamophobe” who once handcuffed herself to the doors of Twitter HQ to protest her banning by the service, is now a credentialed member of the Pentagon press corps and keeps getting Trump officials fired for insufficient loyalty. And Megyn Kelly has gone in just a few short years from anchoring a newsmagazine show for NBC to debating whether Jeffrey Epstein’s victims were young enough for him to be described as a pedophile.
But Benny Johnson stands out, even among this collection of cranks, grifters, propagandists, and sycophants. He is the Jesse Watters of the streaming set, someone who has parlayed having absolutely nothing to add to any conversation into a lucrative career as a shill for President Donald Trump.
Johnson has had perhaps the best 2025 of any streamer on the right. His YouTube videos have amassed more than 1 billion views in total this year — only Kelly compares among right-wing news and politics hosts, while Joe Rogan garnered 890 million views over the same period. Johnson's YouTube subscriber base grew by nearly 120%, with his 3.3 million new subscribers representing the largest total increase among the 400+ channels we track that are affiliated with right-leaning and left-leaning online shows. (Analysis of new YouTube subscribers and total channel views is based on data collected from Social Blade.)
All the while he hobnobbed with Trump administration power players and GOP elites, flying with Vice President JD Vance, broadcasting from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office during a joint session of Congress, and boasting of his contacts with White House officials.
Johnson’s rise demonstrates that what drives influence within the MAGAsphere is not diligent reporting or willingness to speak truth to power, but a willingness to loudly say whatever will make the president happy.
The streamer’s backstory is a testament to the complete lack of ethical standards within right-wing media. After getting his start at The Blaze, the right-wing outlet founded by Glenn Beck, Johnson made a foray into mainstream media in 2012 when he joined Buzzfeed News. Though he built a reputation there for viral content, he was fired after two years for serial plagiarism. That journalistic crime is often career-ending in mainstream outlets — but Johnson was swiftly welcomed back to the right-wing ecosystem, with subsequent jobs at National Review, Independent Journal Review (where he again faced plagiarism allegations), The Daily Caller, Turning Point USA, and Newsmax.
Johnson went independent in 2023, focusing on his personal podcast, streaming, and social media platforms. The following year, the Justice Department charged two individuals with covertly channeling $8.7 million from a Russian state-controlled propaganda outlet to the production companies of three U.S.-based right-wing YouTube stars in return for videos prosecutors said supported the Russian government’s goals. One of those beneficiaries of the Kremlin propaganda plot was Johnson, who described himself as an unwitting “victim” of the scheme. He was not charged with wrongdoing.
If Johnson’s conduct was not criminal, it does suggest that he was either stupid or venal enough to take millions of dollars without wondering where it came from. But a year later, it turns out no one on the right cares: He retains a fast-growing viewership and what appears to be a voice at the highest levels of Trump’s regime.
On The Benny Show, no Trump turd goes unpolished
Trump’s right-wing media coalition, united by his cult of personality and their shared hatred of the left, powered his return to the White House. But fissures soon emerged, as commentators split with the president — and each other — over his handling of issues like the Russia-Ukraine war, tariffs, U.S. strikes on Iran, immigration enforcement and reforms, and, most of all, the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Johnson tends to stay out of such squabbles. While he has some policy preferences — he hates food stamps, claims that “every single thing you hate about your life right now” could be “fixed by mass deportations,” and wants to “destroy” Social Security, for example — Trump is his top priority.
Any time Trump needs someone to move his bullshit, he can count on Johnson to show up with a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and a smile. There’s no lie too absurd for him to parrot, no corruption he won’t defend, if it will help the president achieve his aims.
Want a rationale to send troops into cities like Portland or Washington? Benny will declare to his audience that the former “has been conquered by antifa” and the latter has “entire neighborhoods” that “need to be bulldozed.”
The stiff tariffs you unilaterally implemented causing chaos in the markets? Benny will explain to his viewers that the economic “pain” is the result of “demonic possession,” and assure them that “losing money costs you absolutely nothing.”
Got a problem with a journalist getting accidentally added to the administration group chat in which your underqualified defense secretary is sharing attack plans? Benny will shift the blame to “a backdoor splinter cell group inside the CIA” and the reporter, who should be arrested.
Taking heat because the Qatari government gave you a jet described as a “flying palace” to replace Air Force One? Fret not — Benny says that is “totally permissible” and “normal.”
Need someone to carry water for your administration’s comically inept claim that President Barack Obama directed a “treasonous conspiracy”? Benny will host a discussion about whether Obama should face a “military tribunal.”
On the rare occasions when Johnson strays, he is quick to return to the MAGA fold. When the Justice Department and FBI triggered a right-wing media meltdown in July by debunking some of its cherished Epstein claims, Johnson initially joined in. But even then, he made clear that his complaint was not with Trump, claiming that his “love” for the president was “without question.”
And when Trump needed someone to clean up after new reporting detailed his own close relationship with the convicted sex offender later that month, Benny reverted to form, claiming that the reporting was “a hoax” and “the scandal is in who wrote the story.”
Johnson’s mutually beneficial relationship with the Trump GOP
Sometimes Republicans who might actually have principles consider acting on them and defying Trump in some way. All year long, when that has happened, Johnson has stepped in to keep them in line. And the Trump administration has rewarded him with access.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine extremism jeopardized his Senate confirmation in January, for example, Johnson warned recalcitrant Republicans that they were courting annihilation. “Senators must confirm RFK or face the absolute whirlwind of some very, very powerful forces of MAHA and MAGA that will absolutely torch them and will destroy their careers because you've proven to us what you actually believe and who you actually are,” he said.
When Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she would oppose Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon, citing in part the “allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking” that had dogged his nomination, Johnson said that he would make an example of the “vengeful witch.” Declaring a “jihad” against the senator, he said he would “physically travel to Alaska. Expect a massive, well-funded primary challenge for Lisa Murkowski.”
Johnson credited his own work with helping to keep Republicans from abandoning Hegseth amid the Signalgate scandal.
“Well, just like the — just like at the Pentagon, and you saw the same op run against Hegseth — and we think that RFK is going to obviously survive the same way that Hegseth did, and we're going to help him do it, obviously,” he explained in September. “We're going to make sure that we stiffen the backbone of anybody who would come against him.”
The Trump administration and GOP appreciate the existence of a toady with Johnson’s reach.
- In late October, Johnson accompanied JD Vance for the vice president’s appearance at a TPUSA event in Mississippi, flying with him on Air Force Two and getting “one on one time” to “sit and chill” with the vice president.
- In October, Johnson went on a ride-along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they raided a Walmart and visited a detention facility. He also toured Portland ICE facilities with Noem.
- Brendan Carr, the Trumpy chair of the Federal Communications Committee, issued his threat to ABC and its affiliates over Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes during a September appearance on Johnson’s show.
- Benny kicked off an August White House press briefing from the “new media” seat, at one point asking Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Will the president consider giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to ‘Big Balls?’’
- He received an invitation to stream about Trump’s March congressional address from Mike Johnson’s office, where he interviewed the speaker to celebrate passage of Trump’s signature economic bill.
Johnson also frequently mentions what his “little birdies” in the Trump administration — including the president himself — are telling him about events.
No one has lashed themselves to Trump and his administration more than Johnson. But as the president’s poll numbers circle the drain and his allies launch proxy fights over who will be the GOP’s standard-bearer in 2028, where does that leave Benny?
