A powerful influencer who pushes conspiracies about Democratic election fraud and illegal immigration has been doing so while illegally donating to Republican campaigns from overseas.
Ruman Naumovski, a Macedonian national, runs Defiant L’s, a right-wing meme account with 1.6 million followers that Elon Musk has called “one of the best accounts on X,” as well as Resist the Mainstream, a far-right news page with nearly half a million followers.
His content has been promoted by GOP lawmakers including Mike Lee, Nancy Mace, Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, and Dan Crenshaw. He’s also received public praise from Musk, who has shared Naumovski’s posts multiple times with his 227 million followers.
His content ranges from promoting false claims about illegal immigrants receiving health care to videos of Democrats such as Gov. Gavin Newsom being “obliterated” by MAGA-friendly figures.
But while Naumovski has been pumping out right-wing propaganda, he’s been doing it all from his bedroom in Macedonia, where he lives, Rolling Stone reported. In fact, Naumovski has never set foot in the United States.
That didn’t stop him from donating about $3,000 to Ron Watkins’ 2022 congressional campaign in Arizona, according to Federal Election Commission records. Watkins, a prominent right-wing conspiracist, counted Naumovski as his largest individual donor that quarter, according to OpenSecrets.
The donations were addressed from a Florida office owned by Naumovski, where the marketing firm that runs Resist the Mainstream operates, public records show.
Naumovski told Rolling Stone that he made the donations under the false impression that you didn’t need a green card to donate to an American campaign.
Watkins, who lost the Republican primary, later returned the contributions, telling the outlet he did not “personally remember details about specific donations.”
But shortly after Watkins received the donations, he encouraged voters to join Resist the Mainstream’s Telegram channel multiple times, according to a screenshot obtained by Media Matters.
A 2023 report from the think tank found several other QAnon-linked influencers similarly promoted Resist the Mainstream’s content, with some later alleging that Naumovski proposed they post his content for payment.
Years later, Naumovski and other foreign interest groups are increasingly edging into the mainstream of American politics as MAGA continues to align with them.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, for example, has interacted with Resist the Mainstream at least five times this year, Rolling Stone reported—recently tagging FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino in one reshare.
And just last month, South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace—a frequent resharer of Naumovski’s content—replied to a post from the account that read: “What’s the first thought that comes to mind when you see Ilhan Omar?” “Censure,” she wrote.
