Key Instigators in GOP's Disinformation Campaigns

Many people do not realize how deeply entrenched we are in digital information warfare. In the last 8 years, the GOP has launched a coordinated disinformation campaign with incredible, horrifying success. They have waged an all-out war against the Fourth Estate with their "fake news" disinformation campaign that has proliferated the spread of their lies. They do this despite the fact that our free press is vital for a functioning democracy. Our founding fathers knew this and acknowledged this check and balance by protecting our free press in the Constitution.

Tyler Brown, former Director of Digital Strategy at the Republican National Committee (RNC), built the party’s digital infrastructure from a six-person staff to one of the largest and most effective operations in Republican politics. They have a literal "war room" and are structured and organized.

Brad Parscale, Trump Social Media Strategist, started working for Trump in 2016. In 2020, he had a public blowup with Trump when he failed to help Trump get elected. He then had a private falling out with his old boss after the Capitol riot. "His personal life unraveled, culminating in a standoff with police at his Florida home after his wife reported he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself. One of the responding officers reported he saw bruising on the arms of Parscale’s wife. Parscale complied with a court order to turn in his firearms and was not charged in connection with the incident." - New York Times

It seems Parscale had a momentary lapse in immorality and decided to quit politics. "Privately, he expressed regret for associating with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In a text to a former campaign colleague, he wrote he felt “guilty for helping him win” in 2016, according to the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack." - Associated Press, May 2024.  

Soon enough, it appears greed and power lust took back over. Despite knowing he aided an insurrectionist traitor, Parscale joined Trump's 2024 campaign. He has made millions spreading the GOP's disinformation campaigns and is now plotting to unleash AI techniques to further their sinister mission.

And then we have Bannon. In an article titled Steve Bannon hawks disinformation to support Trump as legal troubles mount, The Hill detailed an exhaustive research study that proved Trump's former White House Strategist unleashed a landslide of disinformation. The research looked at data from 36,603 episodes produced by 79 prominent political podcasters, including Bannon's "War Room" podcast and found that close to 20 percent of all episodes of Bannon’s show were unsubstantiated or false. Bannon was instrumental in spreading the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The study was published by the Brookings Institute.

Bannon is currently sitting in federal prison, along with several other Trump associates, serving a four-month federal prison term for comtempt of court in the January 6th investigation. In December, he will go to trail after being charged with scheming to con donors out of around $25 million to build a border wall with Mexico. Truly, the root of all evil is greed.

Fox News will be featured in an upcoming post about disinformation. They deserve an blog post all their own.

Many every day citizens, information activists, have been attempting to fight the spread of disinformation on their own. I believe there are thousands of patriots who would be willing to continue to fight disinformation in a more structured environment if they had the proper training and leadership. The only way to move forward is to be more organized and diligent than the GOP. In my own experience with information activism, I have often wondered, where is our pro-democracy war room?

Will you join me? Share this information widely. Fight the constant stream of disinformation being manufactured by GOP communication teams and spread truth. This will be especially important in the weeks to come, regardless of who wins the election.