Ever wonder how the online MAGA media machine stays so perfectly in sync? How these right-wing influencers always happen to post the same, exact pro-Trump, pro-Musk talking points at the same time?
Turns out, they’re coordinating messages in one, big group chat. At least that’s according to former MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair.
Yes, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is now torching the online right and exposing some of their biggest secrets on her TikTok account.
She tells Mehdi that “there’s multiple chats they operate in,” which often include Trump administration officials and Trump children. Specifically, she reveals that during her time as a MAGA influencer, she was “offered a hefty sum of money to promote Ric Grenell for secretary of state.” (Grenell has previously denied being part of any such effort.)
Since leaving MAGA, St. Clair has been targeted by members of the administration, other MAGA influencers, and even Elon Musk. She even reveals that since shifting her own political positions and abandoning her previous hard-right beliefs, she has been pressured to stay silent and has “turned down enough money that it is the GDP of a small nation.”
But how, exactly, did St. Clair escape the MAGA cult? And is her conversion sincere or is she just another ex-conservative trying to grift off of new liberal audiences?
In this wide-ranging interview, Mehdi and Ashley St. Clair discuss:
Her ascent in MAGA politics and the dangerous, hateful rhetoric she amplified
What made her leave MAGA and Trump
How support for Israel has divided MAGA and her own view of the “genocide”
Her relationship with Elon Musk and what attracted her to the tech billionaire
Her lawsuit against xAI, after it produced sexually explicit deepfakes of her
The threats she and her family have received since leaving MAGA
Whether she and other ex-MAGA figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene can really be trusted.
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