Conservative activist Brandon Straka who was sentenced to probation after Jan 6th holds a performance at CPAC Texas, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a red Make America Great Again hat in a mock jail cell.Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via AP
MAGA influencer Brandon Straka is still on probation for a criminal charge related to his participation in the mob at the US Capitol on January 6. But on Sunday, he will be back in DC, where he’s slated to appear on the National Mall at the “Rescue the Republic” event, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Russell Brand, a handful of anti-vax doctors, evangelical preachers, plus journalist Matt Taibbi.
The hodgepodge speaker lineup reflects the mishmash of the event’s agenda. The website declares that the United States “is under attack by a conglomerate of industrial complexes,” and calls on Americans to “join the resistance.” It’s the production of the Libertarian Party; a group that fought vaccine mandates during the pandemic; and activists opposed to sending military aid to Ukraine. Gabbard and Kennedy are now officially also surrogates for the Trump campaign.
Straka’s primary issue seems to be himself. A gay former New York City hairdresser, he came to fame in 2018 after making a video declaring his intention to “walk away” from the Democratic Party. The video went viral, with some help from Russian propaganda outlets, and his movement was born. He accumulated hundreds of thousands of social media followers, and even spoke at a 2019 Trump rally. In 2020, Straka joined up with the “Stop the Steal” movement that sought to cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election results, and that year, his #WalkAway foundation raised nearly $2 million.
As part of that campaign, Straka was on deck to speak at a side rally outside the US Capitol on January 6, but the event was cancelled after Trump spoke at the Ellipse and urged the crowd to march on the US Capitol. Straka joined the crowd and made a video of himself among the mob just outside the Capitol doors.
About three weeks later, he was arrested. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge after cooperating with the government’s investigation.
As part of his plea agreement, Straka admitted under oath that he had yelled “Go! Go! Go!” to encourage other protesters to go inside the Capitol while police tried to hold them back. He also admitted to chiming in with the crowd yelling, “Take it! Take it!” to a group of rioters as they seized a shield from a Capitol police officer. Straka was sentenced to three months’ house arrest and three years’ probation.
The arrest prompted Facebook to shut down his accounts, and payment processers refused to work with him. His fundraising dried up. In the summer of 2023, he appeared before a “field hearing” on the “weaponization” of government at the Capitol convened by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), where he complained about having lost his TSA PreCheck and being treated like a terrorist at the airport.
Straka has spent the past three years desperately trying to rehabilitate his image and reassemble his following by appearing at B-list political events like the “Rescue the Republic.” Last month, he made a new video celebrating the six-year anniversary of his original. Despite a plug from Trump on his social media platform Truth Social, the YouTube video has racked up only about 60,000 views.
The self-proclaimed influencer’s lack of meaningful influence doesn’t seem to have stopped a few rich donors from keeping his organization afloat since his arrest. For instance, IRS records show that between November 2021 and October 2023, his foundation received $220,000 from the Bell Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Kathleen Bell Flynn, heir to the Taco Bell fortune.
On Wednesday, Straka sent out a press release announcing “a critical fundraising initiative aimed at disseminating his influential new video.” The new money will essentially support a spam campaign that will harness “cutting-edge geo-targeting technology to send text messages and place streaming audio ads and internet ads directly to targeted demographics using mobile phones, tablets, and computers.” Straka said that “an extraordinary donor” has stepped up to match donations up to $100,000, provided he can raise that much by October 15.
