Amid the president’s mixed messages, some supporters go against health experts.
Outside groups tied to President Trump’s re-election bid have ramped up recent efforts to promote back-to-work protests, pushing anti-lockdown messaging — and even some conspiracy theories — that would appear to contradict the Trump administration’s own prescription for knocking down the novel coronavirus.
Some political experts have previously lauded the Trump campaign for building out an impressive digital operation and harnessing the power of Facebook on the back of the president’s 2016 run which generated a legion of loyal supporters. Since, the re-election team has assembled a sprawling network of conservative media influencers who share and spread pro-Trump content to their millions of followers.
And amid the throes of the global coronavirus pandemic, some pro-Trump influencers with ties to the president’s re-election team, who’ve already joined forces with outside political action groups such as Turning Points USA and ViralPAC, are bombarding millions of social media followers with messaging that undermines health experts by claiming the impact of the virus is being exaggerated, and the efforts to keep people indoors are not necessary.
This week, Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, who are co-chairs on the Trump campaign’s “Black Voices for Trump” advisory board, parted ways with Fox News, according to The Daily Beast, following days of making unfounded coronavirus claims and criticizing stay-at-home orders to their large social media audience. Fox News and Diamond and Silk did not return ABC News’ request for comment.
Days before the news of the split broke, the conservative commentary duo with over 36 million views on YouTube appeared on a Trump campaign digital show and compared stay-at-home orders to “socialism phase one” and warned viewers “if we’re not careful, we’re going to be slaves.”