Trump’s online footsoldiers are hitting snooze
And trust me, the America 250 speakers were turned all the way up
Donald Trump loves a musical concubine.
He’s been trotting out Lee Greenwood to sing his singular (as in only) hit “God Bless the USA” at every one of his events for as long as I can remember. It very much seems to be Lee Greenwood’s only job. Last night, at Trump’s rally to kick off the America 250 celebration after all the other musicians bailed, was no exception.
I have literally never heard this man sing anything else. We got the live version of Trump’s walkout song nightly at the RNC in 2024. He performed at both of Trump’s inaugurations, last year’s Army birthday celebration, and a tele-rally for Lindsey Graham earlier this month. The two even promoted and sold a co-branded bible together.
I’d really love to know the details of their arrangement and what the plan is for his release from captivity. At 83 years old, some of the high notes in his classic tune are becoming hard to find. But who could ever possibly replace the great Lee Greenwood? Naturally, I have some theories, pros, and cons.
1: Christopher Macchio, “America’s Tenor” — “Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!”
His 90s highlight tape (?), promo reel (?) on his website is honestly electric, despite the fact that it features more walking around than singing. His usage rate has skyrocketed since 2024 — got multiple songs in at the Butler tribute rally, a prime slot at Trump’s final MSG campaign rally, and natty anthem duty at the inauguration.
Pros: Long Island Italian, committed to theatricality and drama, definitely has the pipes, can scratch Trump’s incurable operatic itch in the mother tongue, clearly wants the job, available
Con: No political or social media clout to his name, no standout personal work, 890 monthly listeners on Spotify, maybe too available
2: Master Gunnery Sgt. Alan Prather — guitar soloist, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band
This guy is on an all-time run right now, and surely a very influential fan in the Oval Office has something to do with it. I tapped in when he sang a mean cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave” during Justin Gaethje’s UFC walkout. Sgt. Prather was also in the spotlight for Trump’s Rededicate 250 show back in May and, you guessed it, featured last night.
Pros: Has to be wherever he’s assigned so can’t turn Trump down, vast stylistic range, randomly has so much aura, bonus points for instrument
Cons: Maybe can’t sing in other languages? We don’t know. Also seemingly a regular person, which Trump is not known to love.
I’m sure you’re like “Grace … why are you telling us this?” I want you to know just how far my brain wandered while Trump gave the most lackluster speech I’ve ever heard him give at what was supposed to be his “biggest rally ever.” My attention was not held — and judging by the inactivity on my MAGA feeds, theirs wasn’t either.
FREEDOM TWO FLOP-TY
“A very big hello to America” is quite an opener for the nation’s weeks-long birthday party when there were only 3,970 viewers on the official White House livestream on YouTube. Don’t worry, by the time Trump finished speaking — under 30 mins might be a new record in brevity — there were 7,500 of us. Where is everyone, I wondered.
I rounded up the overnight numbers from some of Trump’s most reliable content arms — everything from livestreams to clips. The numbers made me question whether MAGA faithful either didn’t know this was on their government-issued TV schedules or if everyone had something better to do.
Streams
Morning-after total viewership from Trump’s friendliest streaming channels:
Right Side Broadcasting Network (RBSN): 174,584 — 12k watching live last night
Freedom 250: 50,574
The White House: 76,376
Fox News: 265,348
Oddity here: the full livestream playback is “unlisted,” aka unsearchable, on Fox News’ YouTube page. They usually publish in full to their feed. Curious.
Real America’s Voice (RAV): 4,101
They did a little better on Rumble across their channel (17.9k) and Steve Bannon’s (18k)
One America News Network (OANN): 1,532 — they paywalled the stream!
WH Accounts
White House livestream on X: 158,300
White House posts on X: only one speech clip (300k impressions), no posts hit 1M
All other posts were still images, speech text, or flyover shots
Rapid Response posts on X: 10 posts from the night, only one hit 250k, most others fizzled out between 70-90k
For the sake of comparison: two posts immediately following the rally coverage have more than double the views and way higher engagement: a screenshot of a Truth Social post about Venezuela (614k) and a quote tweet calling Jim Acosta “one of the dumbest individuals to have ever existed” (671k)
White House posts on IG: six posts from the night, five of them are about the flyover, zero clips of the speech
Trump’s IG handles: nothing on @potus or @realdonaldtrump
Mouthpieces
Paid a visit to the six most reliable MAGA clippers out there. Overall: brutal.
Eric Daugherty | 1.1M followers: five clips of Trump, best performer is a clip of the president dancing after (134k), rest stalled out at 60-75k
Nick Sortor | 1.5M followers: had the benefit of being there so captured good content on the ground of the walk out and reflecting pool, one clip of speech went nowhere (58k)
Gunther Eagleman | 1.7M followers: averaged about 50k on four posts
Greg Price | 525k followers: only posted one single clip (of the band), spent the rest of the night posting old soundbites of recent NYC primary winners
Mario Nawfal | 3.6M followers: posted nine clips, but barely cracking 100 likes per post (some didn’t)
Frontlines TPUSA | 110k followers: four clips from the crowd got an abysmal 30.5k … total impressions
These are deeply alarming numbers for an administration that relies on content footsoldiers to farm engagement on their behalf. Not one clip from a half hour speech broke through. That has as much to do with the messaging being washed as it does with his loyal messengers not even bothering to share and spread it. Danger zone.
FRESH FROM THE CONTENT MINES
Your weekly roundup of all the content and trends you wish you could stay on top of, if only you had the time. Luckily I do. This is essential reading for anyone who vaguely touches politics, media, culture, or the creator economy. Let’s start here: World Cup fan Freddy 🇩🇪 whose American experience everyone fell in love with? CIA plant accusations!!!!
