SODA JERKS

MAGA Influencers Caught Red-Handed Shilling for Big Soda

Conservative accounts have been accused of taking money to undermine the Trump admin on social media.

A string of MAGA influencers appear to have been caught taking money from Big Soda to undermine the government’s attempts to ban people from buying soda with food stamps.

Last week, a host of influential online pro-Trump personalities such as Ian Miles Cheong, comedian Chad Prather and MAGA meme account “Clown World” raised eyebrows on X when they all appeared to abruptly change their views on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to pass legislation which would ban food-stamp recipients from spending their money on soft drinks and junk food.

The sudden backlash to RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative seemed strange, as the movement has been building steam and is broadly popular across large swathes of the right,

“A new war on soda has begun, targeting purchases made through SNAP. I don’t believe it’s the government’s role to decide what people should or shouldn’t eat,” Miles Cheong wrote on March 20. “Promoting better health for Americans is a reasonable idea, but not when it involves curbing Diet Coke purchases.”

The Clown World account, which posts right-wing memes and talking points to over 3M followers, soon posted its own pro-soda messages with near-identical talking points. “The government wants to block soda purchases for Americans on SNAP,” they wrote. “Remember when NYC tried this and it completely backfired?”

Conservative commentator Eric Daughtry also posted a message which copied Clown World’s rhetoric almost word-for-word. “Some officials in D.C are working on trying to prevent Americans on SNAP from using those benefits to buy *any* soda”, he said. “Remember when New York City Democrats tried to prevent people from buying and consuming soda? It backfired big time.”

Furthermore, nearly every account involved in the tweeting spree invoked Donald Trump and his infamous “Diet Coke button” as a manipulation tactic, posting pictures of said button at the Oval Office and images of the president drinking Coke on a golf course.

Things came to a head on March 22, when conservative journalist Nick Sortor posted an expose of the offending posts side-by-side on X, alongside claims they had been paid to adopt a pro-soda stance by a social media PR company named Influenceable.

“Over the past 48 hours, several large supposedly MAGA-aligned ‘influencers’ posted almost identical talking points fed to them, convincing you MAHA was out of line for not wanting soda purchases with food stamps (SNAP),” Sortor wrote.

“Some even slimely [sic] invoked PRESIDENT TRUMP as an emotional manipulation tactic, referring to his Diet Coke button.

“Not a SINGLE ONE of them disclosed they were paid for these posts, which led readers to believe a general SODA BAN was in the works.”

Elsewhere in the thread Sortor posted a string of templates allegedly provided by Influenceable, which highlighted talking points and provided imagery of Trump with a Diet Coke for influencers to use.

“This campaign highlights the dangers of government overregulation, with a specific focus on current efforts to restrict soda purchases through food-aid programs” the template read.

“The narrative emphasizes how such regulation is an overreach that unfairly targets consumer choice, especially considering the president himself is a Diet Coke enthusiast” they added, alongside a list of bullet pointed talking points.

Shortly after posting the thread, Turning Point USA contributor Riley Gaines appeared to corroborate the claims, posting in a different thread discussing the issue: “They offered to pay me to post... a big fat heck no.”

Her remarks prompted a personal response from RFK Jr., who replied to her tweet and said: “Thank you for your integrity, Riley. It’s troubling that some companies now think they have a right to demand taxpayer money to poison our children.”

Sortor alleged that organizations such as Americans for Food and Beverage Choice and the American Beverage Association (ABA) worked with Influenceable to launch their campaign—However, the latter quickly moved to deny such allegations in a post on X.

“The suggestion we paid for coordinated influencer posting on SNAP restrictions is false,” the post read, while reiterating their commitment to the proposal.

Following the expose, a number of the accounts deleted their posts and issued statements after getting caught red-handed.

Daughtry deleted his posts and said: “That was dumb of me. Massive egg on my face. In all seriousness, it won’t happen again.”

Clown World meanwhile was more bullish, writing: “I made a post and deleted it within the first hour. I withdrew from the campaign entirely and removed my post. I haven’t received a single penny from ‘Big Soda’ or anyone else for this.”

They added: “Just to clarify, this was never a Big Soda campaign. It was strictly a campaign against government overreach.”

Chad Prather told The Bulwark “I did NOT take money for sharing that article,” but nevertheless deleted his tweets on the issue.

Launched in 2022, Influenceable was founded by brothers Camron and Liam Rafizadeh, conservative influencers with a history of creating pro-Republican social media content.

In 2023, they came under fire after a similar expose revealed a campaign to pay influencers to make posts defending Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and to promote the conservative-leaning movie, Sound of Freedom.

The Daily Beast has contacted Influenceable for comment.

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