The women vying to make conservatism fashionable online

ANYTHING CAN look good with the right lighting. An influencer touches up her makeup while decrying the “radicalism of the left”. In an Instagram video viewed 27m times a young woman shows off her “outfit of the day”: a get-up for church, fashioned to conceal a gun. A 20-something poses in sunglasses with her coffee: iced vanilla latte with raw milk.

While these posts are coloured by Republican sensibilities, at first scroll they resemble something any regular influencer might upload. Beauty, fashion and lifestyle content keep social media algorithms ticking. It is both fun to watch and can be lucrative for the small share of influencers who attract most of the marketing spend. Many such creators shy away from politics. If anything, it is often those on the right who allege they have been shunned by their peers, passed over for brand deals or had their content suppressed after revealing whom they voted for. Newly empowered by Donald Trump, Republican influencers are wielding style and substance to set the record straight.

“The conservative movement never had correct presentation,” says Isabelle Redfield, who co-founded “The Conservateur”, an online magazine that angles itself as an alternative to Vogue. “They were always marketing to men.” Their Instagram posts include glossy guides on “How to Dress Like an It-Girl This Winter” and calls to “Thank a DOGE boy today!”. Many of their over 100,000 followers do not follow other political accounts, claims Caroline Downey, its editor. “But there’s something about us that is appealing at an instinctual level, and they enjoy honestly, our glamorisation of a lifestyle that we think is objectively good, true and beautiful.”

Since Robert F. Kennedy junior’s campaign to “Make America Healthy Again” made it to the cabinet, unpasteurised milk—once the prerogative of Californian hippies—has become trendy among conservatives. “Nobody batted an eyelash when, you know, the Gwyneth Paltrows of the world were talking about raw milk,” says Alex Clark, a wellness podcaster who promotes the stuff to over 400,000 Instagram followers, of the ensuing outrage.

Fashioning unreconstructed conservative ideas into something aesthetically appealing online has sometimes veered on caricature. In recent years “trad wives”—typically rural and religious stay-at-home mothers who film themselves cooking, cleaning and, on occasion, procuring their own raw milk from cows—have soared in popularity. But that is not the full picture.

Raquel Debono, an influencer based in New York, says she did not fit into such “categories”. She began posting on social media to show that “you could be like a normal girl in New York City who would be a normal influencer in every other sense”. In between uploading TikToks about it being “a good day to be MAGA”, Ms Debono, who is Canadian and said she could not vote in the election, chronicles everything from her outfits to her dating life. She hosts parties encouraging other young Republicans in the city to “Make America Hot Again”.

At one such event in Manhattan (dress code: “like you’re meeting your future husband or wife—because you might be”), Zoe, an attendee, says she lost friends after voting for Mr Trump but gained new ones here. She lists several influencers and podcasters she follows that “let women like us know that it’s OK to be conservative and to cling on to our values”. Mainstream media is something “we’re all learning is not trustworthy”, says Meredith, another guest. Social media, by contrast, offers access to independent creators with “hot takes or, like, nuanced stories”.

She is not alone. Nearly four in ten American adults under 30 get their news from news influencers, according to the Pew Research Centre. The White House welcomes podcasters and influencers to the briefing room. The president’s own 17-year-old grand-daughter, Kai Trump, has racked up millions of followers making vlogs about playing golf, drinking Starbucks and shopping for a homecoming dress. Her most popular uploads offer access to outdo the most well-sourced correspondent: “Watching a Rocket Launch at SpaceX with Elon Musk!” “My grandpa became the President again.”■