Elon Musk Makes His First Political Hire—in Promise of Chaos to Come (2024)

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed a company run by the daughter of Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush-money case, over faulty allegations of political bias.

Loren Merchan, the president of Authentic Campaigns, a political consulting group that has worked with Democrats, became a focal point of Trump’s attacks against New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. The justice is expected to dole out the former president’s sentence for his hush-money trial on September 18.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the House Judiciary demanded that Authentic Campaigns provide any evidence regarding whether Loren Merchan’s company worked for Trump’s “political adversaries,” and whether she might’ve financially benefited from Trump’s trial and subsequent conviction.

House Republicans have been attempting to get their hands on documents from Authentic Campaigns for the past month, which they hope will prove Trump’s claims that Merchan’s company worked with Trump’s enemies, and therefore her father could be dismissed from the case for bias.

Mike Nellis, the founder of Authentic Campaigns, publicly shared his company’s response to Republicans’ first request for information earlier this month, criticizing the committee for wrongly “villainizing” his colleague.

“Authentic had no role, involvement, or influence whatsoever in those judicial proceedings,” Nellis wrote, claiming that his company had no contracts with Biden for President, Harris for President, or the Democratic National Committee since January 1, 2023.

Authentic Campaigns’ list of clients includes both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaigns, according to its website. In 2019, Harris’s campaign doled out $7.5 million to the firm for digital advertising and creative consulting, and more than $2.1 million in 2020, per CNN. Authentic has also touted Representative Adam Schiff as one of its biggest clients.

Nellis called Trump’s claims that Loren Merchan had raised tens of millions off of Trump’s trial “unequivocally false.” He also lambasted the committee for “using valuable time and taxpayer dollars to perpetuate a false right-wing conspiracy theory,” calling it a “disgraceful misuse of power.”

What started as a long-shot bid to oust Justice Merchan during Trump’s trial has become a quest by his staunchest defenders, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, to see his conviction vacated. Trump claimed that Merchan was “totally compromised” because of his daughter’s work for Democrats, and escalated his rhetoric by naming her directly.

Trump’s personal attacks against Merchan’s daughter led to a political firestorm, causing crazed MAGA fanatics to harass and even send death threats to Loren and her colleagues, according to Nellis.

After Merchan placed a gag order on Trump, prohibiting him from making rampant, baseless accusations against the judge, courtroom staff, and family members, Fox News took up the task of claiming Loren’s work was grounds for her father’s dismissal from Trump’s trial.

Disinformation is already sinking its heavy hand into the 2024 election.

Several MAGA influencers with sizable followings have been revealed to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors. One account, @Luna_2K24, accrued nearly 30,000 followers by posting suggestive selfies, including one of a woman in a white bikini captioned “Would You Support Trump Being The President forever?”

But despite garnering the attention of some of the far right’s biggest bulldogs, including MAGA lobbyist Marty Irby, Luna isn’t real. Instead, the woman photographed is German fashion influencer Debbie Nederlof, who told CNN that she was shocked to find that her image was pushing pro-Trump propaganda.

“To be honest, ‘what the f**k?’ was my reaction. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States. With Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I—from a small place in Germany—care about U.S. politics?” Nederlof told CNN.

The X account, @Luna_2K24, was deleted by the time of publication.

At least 17 other European women—from the Netherlands to Russia—have had images of their faces and bodies stolen and artificially altered for use as digital assets to push pro-Trump messaging online, according to a CNN investigation in collaboration with the Centre for Information Resilience that assessed 56 MAGA accounts.

Many of the accounts reshare each others’ content with blatantly Trumpian hashtags, including #MAGAPatriots, #MAGA2024, and #IFBAP (I Follow Back All Patriots). The images they share feature beautiful young women with artificially altered clothing in order to make otherwise unbranded clothing sport Trump slogans. Some of the accounts’ captions also feature English language errors, which CNN reported could be indicative of “foreign interference.”

Trump himself has also been caught elevating fake images for the benefit of his campaign. Earlier this month, Trump posted a fabricated image of notoriously litigious pop star Taylor Swift clad in red, white, and blue, posing like Uncle Sam before an American flag emblazoned with the text: “Taylor wants YOU to vote for Donald Trump.”

“I accept!” Trump captioned the image.

Trump has also shared A.I.-generated content of himself and X owner Elon Musk dancing together.

When pressed on his apparent affinity for the doctored images, Trump brushed off any responsibility, telling Fox Business correspondent Gary Trimble that he simply “didn’t generate them.”

J.D. Vance’s press secretary might be even stranger and more frightening than Vance himself.

According to an investigation by The Guardian, the senior aide has a number of connections to far-right think tanks and extremist Christian nationalist groups. Parker Magid was recently promoted to Vance’s press secretary after serving as deputy press secretary since March 2023. Since graduating college in 2021, according to his LinkedIn, Magid has created a troubling “new right” network in a short amount of time.

Before joining Vance’s office, Magid worked for Beck & Stone, a brand consultancy group whose clients include secret societies, “counter-revolutionary” magazines, and think tanks. The firm also has close connections to the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank that is also filled with Vance allies.

Beck & Stone is led by Austin Stone and Andrew Beck. Beck identifies as a “civilizationist,” a rebrand of Christian nationalism.* Earlier this year, Beck wrote in the Claremont Institute’s online publication that “those who want Christian civilization should prioritize re-Christianizing America, not re-nationalizing Christianity.”

Recently, Beck & Stone has done work for the far-right organization the Society for American Civic Renewal. Beck claims to have “created the brand identity, designed the mark, and crafted the website” for the men-only club, which, according to a Guardian analysis of internal SACR documents, wants to replace the government with an authoritarian “aligned regime” to achieve “civilizational renewal.” Beck also claims to be a member.

Magid, along with Beck and Stone, also attended a private fundraising event for then Senate candidate Blake Masters in November 2021. Masters, like Vance, is a Peter Thiel–backed far-right political candidate who keeps losing elections, most recently failing to win the Arizona Republican primary for a House of Representatives seat.

If you need any more proof that Trump’s pick of Vance for vice president shows a frightening vision for a more extremist, Christian nationalist country, just take a look at the company he keeps.

* This article was updated to clarify that Andrew Beck was not a co-founder of the Claremont Institute.