DEEP DIVE
Top conservative influencers cheer Greenland takeover
As Donald Trump publicly toys with the idea of taking over Greenland by force or economic coercion, his political allies are rallying support for the move through the powerful machinery of right-wing media. Across YouTube, podcasts, and social streams, prominent conservative influencers are amplifying Trump’s claim that America should own the island. What began as a fringe idea during his first term has now become a serious talking point across the pro-Trump entertainment universe.
For example, on the PBD Podcast, one of Patrick Bet-David’s guests called Greenland “as essential to the United States as Taiwan is to China.” He added that with only 50,000 residents, the U.S. could simply pay each Greenlander $1 million to secure their vote for statehood.
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, in his nightly show monologue last week, dismissed concerns about the collapse of Western unity as a result of a Greenland takeover, saying, “Is it really bad that NATO is going away? No, it's a huge victory for the world and for the United States.”
MAGA cheerleader Benny Johnson, who unknowingly received funds from a pro-Russian influence operation in 2024, celebrated what he called “the number one way to get back at the Canadians,” declaring that “it must all be America, it's what our founders desired.”
Asmongold, a right-wing gaming streamer who also posts his streams on YouTube, initially laughed at the idea before embracing it as proof of American supremacy. “By the end of Trump’s third term, we’re gonna rename Earth the United States of America,” he joked, later adding that “the U.S. could take Greenland from Denmark, and there’s nothing they could do about it.”
The list goes on: Michael Knowles told viewers that “Danish leaders met at the White House to discuss just how and when they would hand over Greenland,” mocking what he outlined as European weakness. Tim Pool called liberal critics “hysterical,” insisting that “Denmark doesn’t care what the people of Greenland think” and that “The Left’s opposition to the acquisition is the stupidest thing.” Steve Turley framed the move as a masterstroke, calling it “the most important real estate deal in American history.” And Ryan Fournier, Jack Posobiec, Matt Walsh, and Laura Ingraham are all on board with seizing Greenland, too.
All of these voices are attempting to shape a MAGA feedback loop that has empowered Trump’s most extreme political moves for a decade. We’ve seen it time and time again: when powerful right-wing media personalities normalize and glorify an idea to their audiences, it quickly evolves from shoot-from-the-hip commentary into official Republican policy in Washington. This Greenland chorus is showing in real-time how the Trump-era media ecosystem can turn an outlandish suggestion into something far more real through repetition and a bit of algorithmic amplification.
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CHARTED
Driving the online conversation: Immigration & ICE
On social media, ICE and immigration enforcement are becoming algorithms’ favorite wedge issue in 2026, dominating feeds from Facebook to TikTok with billions of views and spinning the murder of Renee Good into two alternate realities.
According to data from Magnitude Media (formerly Resonate), online content about immigration and ICE continues to receive hundreds of millions of views each week. Since January 1st, 48,000 individual posts from over 4,200 accounts on YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Rumble have received 8.5 billion views and 600 million engagements.
While content from conservative-leaning accounts has received slightly more views (likely due to high view counts on X), liberal-leaning content about immigration and ICE has received more engagement in the form of comments, shares, and likes. For content specifically mentioning the murder of Renee Good, liberal-leaning content far outperformed content from right-wing influencers.
For more reading on this, Christian Paz at VOX also used Magnitude’s data for more charts and analysis in this piece on “how right-wing influencers are bending reality in Minneapolis,” and Ryan Broderick had a great look last week at how “we’re all just content for ICE.”
MIDTERMS WATCH
From ICE to Congress?
While immigration continues to dominate headlines and online debate, Congressional Republicans are hoping the issue will help them reclaim a key battleground House seat in Ohio. Madison Sheahan, who has been serving as the Deputy Director of I.C.E in the Trump administration, launched her campaign for Congress to take on Democrat Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th Congressional district. Watch her launch video below:
ROUND-UP
More things you should read or watch this week
Last week, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting read about how online political influencers are becoming the newest go-to lobbyists in DC, getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to push policy messaging, often without any disclosure or transparency. The latest example of that trend is a group of conservative X influencers, including former Trump campaign chief Brad Parscale, all sharing strikingly similar (and seemingly random) language about AI legislation.
A bunch of right-wing influencers, including Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, Clavicular, and Sneako went clubbing over the weekend in Miami, where they sang along to Ye’s “Heil Hitler.”
Speaking of influencers, pro-Democrat political creators are feuding over Michael Cohen, the former Trump fixer who became an anti-Trump voice during the President’s criminal proceedings. It turns out, people don’t change - Cohen has now flipped and is saying he felt “pressured and coerced” by Democrats to testify against Trump. His podcast was immediately dropped by Meidas Touch and other “Blue MAGA” personalities have apologized for platforming him. Who could have seen this coming?
Longtime Democratic strategist David Plouffe wrote a buzzy op-ed in the New York Times urging the Democratic Party to “overhaul its broken brand and stale agenda by elevating new faces and new leaders who promise to chart a course enough voters believe in.”
Gerontocracy watch: NBC News reports that “of the two dozen members of the Silent Generation now serving in the 119th Congress, more than half (13) have decided to run again in 2026.”
The man-child in the White House texted the Norwegian Prime Minister that he is going to take over Greenland in part because they did not give him the Nobel Peace Prize. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who happens to be one of the least popular politicians in America, gave a brief interview to Lauren Egan for her excellent newsletter at The Bulwark this week. The conversation outlines his thoughts on the midterm elections, among other topics.
“Manosphere” podcaster Joe Rogan continues to criticize the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Charlie Kirk memes are (still) taking over the internet.
Elon Musk is already dropping $10 million on the midterms, this time in support of a Republican businessman hoping to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate.
ONE LAST THING
A good meme
