Journalists Love Substack And Trump Loves MAGA Influencers
Substack hosted its first WHCD after party in DC with journalists and creators, while the White House embraced MAGA influencers full on in new media briefing.
💬 Our quick CONVERSATION STARTERS:
Substack takes over the “Nerd Prom” — aka the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The growth of Substack in the journalism and media space has been phenomenal
Marco Rubio and the State Department are fully embracing Substack and creators
A very telling couple of weeks for the future of the media industry and the role of content creators and influencers in journalism and politics… and social media.
First, the “Nerd Prom” — aka the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
US President Donald Trump did not attend… And his White House Press Secretary didn’t either.
But there were new comers to the WHCD, what used to be one of Washington DC biggest celebrations: Substackers.
Substack co-founder
and the platform’s Head of News and Politics hosted a WHCD afterparty* at The Line Hotel in the Nation’s Capital. This despite “Valentine was informed last year in no uncertain terms by the Executive Director of the White House Correspondents’ Association Steve Thomma that Substack would never have a table at the dinner,” as reported by , formerly with Puck and Politico, in her . This was back in March 2024, during the Joe Biden presidency and apparently the White House reasoning was: “independent journalists are not journalists, you are not news.”* after reading this newsletter, a friend noted that Substack’s was in fact not an afterparty, but it was really counter programming for people who weren’t at the actual WHCD, and then it evolved into an after party. Substack’s invitation actually stated “during the WHCA dinner.”
In speaking with Substack CEO and co-founder
, Hamish said about why they had a Substack’s New Media Party.“Political discourse is very important to culture, and the best political discourse is happening on Substack.
It used to be that we would turn to large media institutions to help us understand the world, but that system has been broken, not because it's full of evil people trying to run conspiracy theories on the world or cooperate with the deep state. That's just a coincidence. Just a total coincidence.
Instead, it's broken because the business models that support those institutions are about 100 years out of date. They were born in the 1900s, not in 2025.
And then social media has kind of taken over. But social media has given everyone a voice and made it super easy to publish. But the resulting culture from social media isn't exactly better. In fact, it might even be worse because the power is still concentrated.
And then, when the concentrated power is expressed, it's through the systems that reward the types of behaviors and contents that don't have much to do with seeking truth or understanding, but have a lot to do with keeping people addicted to doom scroll feeds. And that produces a kind of culture that makes us all suspicious of each other.
Substack is presenting a different way forward that takes the best from those traditional media institutions and the best from social media, which is the reach and the democratization, the discovery and the discussion, and then blending them into this one platform where there's a model that can preserve ownership and independence for the publishers and uphold freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which were big themes for this weekend in Washington.”
Chris and Hamish also addressed some of the criticisms towards Substack, including the absence of gatekeepers or standards, disinformation, the seemingly prevalence of left-leaning content.
They also addressed X and Elon Musk blocking links — including Substack links — after Musk most recent post about the subject.
Chris commented:
“Part of the result of that is that if you're systematically pushing people out of long form, out of having sort of like long-term relationships with people that you trust… you do want to have something where you're actually engaging with ideas, where you're actually can get into it and have some depth, have some quality.
I think that's an important piece of the puzzle too.”
In their conversation, the two co-founders, highlighted how vibrant content on the platform is today.
They mentioned
and , both being at the party at The Line Hotel. They also mentioned and Jessica Reed Kraus.Indeed, journalists and news creators have been loving Substack in large numbers.
In addition to Palmeri, Spicer, and Lorenz, we’ve seen others very active on the platform, including
, , , , , , , . Some of them even left their legacy media outlets — or new media outlets — all together.Here’s a quick recap about the Substack party from
.The growth of Substack in the journalism and media space has been phenomenal.
The Substack party was even on the front page of The Washington Post’s Style Section, as reported by
.The Washington Post published an interview with Hamish. He explained:
“Media is changing. The whole system is changing. It’s not just some old institutions going out of business or struggling, or that people spend a lot of time on social media now. The whole system is changing — whether you like it or not, it’s just real that the old institutions represented by what’s going on at the White House correspondents’ dinner are not in the same health as they once were. They’re based on a model that made sense 100 years ago. It doesn’t make sense for 2025. There’s a vast universe of independent voices building something new and you’re seeing that in Substack. This party represents a gathering of those people and a representation of that kind of spirit.”
He was also asked, “How do you coexist with the mainstream press?”
“We’re all part of a giant media ecosystem. The traditional legacy media is still a sizable part of it. Some of the institutions are going to make the jump from the old world to the new world. … Some of them will be around, and they’ll forever be an important part of the media ecosystem. But Substack expands the media ecosystem, expands what’s possible for who can participate, who can have a voice, who can be heard, who can be influential in how the discourse takes place. So I don’t see legacy media as being in competition with Substack.”
Back in November last year, Hamish was interviewed by The New York Times. He said:
“There’s a desperate need for a quality platform with trusted voices, where honest-to-God political discussion, debate, disagreement can happen without it either disappearing into the ether or taking place on a platform where there’s constant knife fights and flame wars.”
Also, in addition to journalists — and also news creators/journalists like
, who was tapped by Substack as an advisor after winning Substack’s creators’ challenge, and — others are looking at Substack as an effective communications tools.Here’s a few recent highlights about the growth of Substack:
- explained about their decision to join the platform.
Semafor’s
more active on Substack and even “luring” Substackers like off Substack to write on Semafor.Fox News headlining: “Big-name anchors going independent, making money in the Substack era.”
The New York Times writing about the exodus of media personalities to Substack: “This new TV diaspora has one central proposition: The future of news is casual. Sometimes very casual. Anchors can lose their seats and still hold on to their star power, so long as they give modern audiences what they want.”
And to further solidify Substack’s “takeover” in Washington, they even started with ads, in the busy Union Station, a few steps away from the US Capitol, as this post on Notes shows.
Second, Trump’s first 100 days bring MAGA influencers to the White House
Not only Sean Spicer was at Substack’s WHCD afterparty, he was also at the first-ever White House “new media” briefing — dubbed the influencer briefing.
In opening this new briefing format in a livestream from the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just a few steps from the West Wing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
“As I promised in my first briefing as press secretary back in January, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution,”
Tens of millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news and we are embracing that change not ignoring it.
It's well past time that the White House press operation reflected the media habits of the American people in 2025 not 1925. Thanks to President Trump, a select group of DC-based journalists no longer have a monopoly over press access here at the White House. All journalists outlets and voices have a seat at the table now and you being here today for this briefing proves that the president has done so much in such little time.
We appreciate all that you do on social media to push what the president is saying but also sometimes question it. We relish independent journalism and I hope you all have seen the president, myself, and anybody in this administration, we are unafraid to take questions.
This has truly been the most transparent and accessible presidency in American history.”
In addition to Sean Spicer, Trump’s first press secretary (January 20, 2017 – July 21, 2017) and now a news creator himself, being at these new briefings — 3 total were hosted by Leavitt last week — a long list of MAGA creators were invited by the administration:
Arynne Wexler, a conservative influencer with about 400,000 followers across X, TikTok and Instagram
Kambree Nelson of the American First Policy Institute
Rogan O’Handley aka “DC Draino”
Grant Godwin aka the The Typical Liberal
Chad Prather, host of The Chad Prather Show and Dear America podcasts
Conservative influencer Debra Lea
Brenden Dilley, host of The Dilley Show
Social media political commentator Link Lauren
Patrice Lee Onwuka, co-host of O’Connor & Co. on WMAL and Economic Policy Director at the Independent Women's Forum
Will Upton at The National Pulse
TikTok creator Jackson Gosnell
Podcaster Jack Posobiec
Dom Lucre, a right-wing influencer that X banned and re-instated
Author and podcast host David J Harris Jr
Television personality Eric Bolling
Political news creator Linda Catalina
Content creator CJ Pearson, co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council
18 year old pro-Trump influencer Bo Loudon
News creator Eyal Yakoby
Many have criticized the way the administration has embraced this new format:
“The sessions have unfolded less like an auxiliary press briefing and more like a gathering of pro-Trump propagandists and conspiracy theorists licking Leavitt’s boots and parroting Trump’s favorite talking points,” wrote Lydia O’Connor in the HuffPost.
The Atlantic called it “A White House briefing straight from North Korea” in a piece by Helen Lewis.
“These sessions are mostly a way to take softball questions and applause lines from a host of MAGA sycophants who are absolutely ecstatic to be given the opportunity to sit in the White House and play reporter,” wrote Justin Baragona in The Independent.
Brad Polumbo pointed out in the Trump-leaning Washington Examiner: “In principle, this is a fantastic idea. Millions of people now get their news online, from YouTube to TikTok to Instagram, and engaging directly with creators in these spaces will help the Trump administration reach younger audiences and further break up the legacy media monopoly on White House access. In practice, however, these influencer briefings are turning into sycophantic chat sessions that discredit the idea of ‘new media’ as a serious form of independent journalism.”
“Good luck with that,” titled The Washington Post in an article written by Erik Wemple. “Now they’re giving a White House platform to a fresh group of folks. Many of them forged their sense of truth and accuracy on social media, believe in any number of internet conspiracies, and have their very own and very particular expectations for the Trump administration. No way that could backfire.”
Third, even Secretary Marco Rubio is now embracing Substack and creators
You heard it. The US Department of State has become the first US agency to launch its own Substack, starting with two pieces “penned” by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Substack CEO commented: “Well this is an interesting development.”
According to the State Department, these are their priorities on Substack:
Trump Administration Priorities: We will keep you informed about U.S. foreign policy priorities and how they guide our work every day.
Policy Explainers: Many of the issues we work on are complex and sometimes sensitive. This is a space to explain policies with the depth and clarity they deserve.
Department Voices: We’ll highlight the voices of senior officials, diplomats, and experts within the Department, offering their insights on global issues and U.S. policies.
In the meantime, the State Department continues to embrace creators and influencers, something that also happened in the previous Biden administration for example during the NATO Summit in Washington.
“The Trump administration has made it a priority to elevate platforms (like mine and many others) that would never have even been on the radar of the last administration,” wrote
about her experience as a creator visiting State Department. “They are (wisely) harnessing the power of social media.”
The astrology vastly supports the emergence of independent journalism, specifically this month so I’m not surprised to read this but I’m equally thrilled to see it coming together.
I mention it here, particularly on May 10. I used language pertaining to money, which Mercury rules, but Mercury also deals with information and those conversations could easily involve the heads of corporate media instead of just financial support.
Info Wars have many frontlines and support comes from all places: propaganda and monetary donations alike.
https://jennydeeastrology.substack.com/p/may-2025-astrology-collapse-forecast