Clickbait mogul's ascension to Congress said to be 'harbinger' of GOP's future
A right-wing media baron offers a possible hint of the future of the Republican Party's eventual post-Donald Trump future.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), a 30-year-old who created one of Facebook’s most popular MAGA news sites, was sworn in last week as the GOP's youngest lawmaker and a staunch Trump loyalist. Extremism researcher Jared Holt examined his political rise in a new column for MSNBC.
"Gill comes to Congress as a former Wall Street employee turned clickbait mogul, transformed in no small part by his relationship to longtime conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza," Holt wrote. "Gill married D’Souza’s daughter, Danielle, in 2017 and entered the political media landscape alongside his father-in-law in 2022. That year, Gill launched a hyperpartisan conservative news blog called DC Enquirer, [and] Gill told his wife on her podcast that he started the site to create the kind of 'consistent pro-Trump, pro-Republican news outlet' he felt was missing from the right-wing media landscape."
The website was an instant smash, beating the Washington Post's engagement – likes, reactions, comments and shares – just 36 days after publishing its first article thanks to a network of Facebook accounts owned by its parent company, which is listed as The Boswell Project LLC, and Trump has shared the site's content on Truth Social nearly 150 times.
"Gill’s access to D’Souza’s right-wing media empire was an undeniably decisive factor in his electoral success, which managed to surmount the millions of dollars that Republican donors spent hoping to undermine his campaign," Holt wrote. "Gill used D’Souza’s social media accounts, many of which have millions of followers, to announce his campaign in 2023 and made many campaign appearances on popular pro-Trump programs hosted by the likes of Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Jenna Ellis and Charlie Kirk. It also likely helped his campaign’s fundraising efforts, which brought the vast majority of its cash from donors outside of the 26th District."
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Some of his campaign's largest donations came from Gill's family and his in-laws, as well as a film producer who worked with D'Souza, who was forced to issue multiple apologies for his since-withdrawn and highly inaccurate election denial movie "2000 Mules," and the freshman lawmaker has tied his political fortunes tightly to the once and future president.
"His campaign appeared to take nearly all of its cues from Trump, even quoting the president-elect on its issues page," Holt wrote. "In the brief section devoted to energy policy, one bullet point simply read 'Drill Baby Drill.' Gill has rarely articulated political positions that deviate from Trump or that are specific to the district he was elected to represent."
The newly elected congressman shares far-right talking points and misinformation on immigration and diversity issues, and he lauded the acquittal of New York City subway vigilante Daniel Penny in the killing of Jordan Neely, and Holt said those views and his stated intention to avoid bipartisanship in Congress encapsulate the new breed of GOP lawmakers.
"Gill’s success in politics is a harbinger for the next generation of Republican politicians ready to replace current GOP members as they vacate their positions: flush with powerful backers, savvy to social media and eager to deliver on the internet-poisoned daydreams of today’s conservative movement," Holt wrote.