Trump's former campaign manager running multimillion dollar pro-Israel influencer campaign: Report
A social media campaign attacking US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran was run by the president’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, according to a report published on Tuesday by Time Magazine.
The campaign was conducted as part of a broader contract for Parscale’s firm, Clock Tower X, signed with global ad agency Havas on behalf of Israel.
Officially, the deal was to combat antisemitism, but Time reported the real motivation was to prevent young conservatives from becoming critical of Israel.
Parscale leveraged his position as chief strategy officer at the conservative and Christian-focused media conglomerate Salem Media Group to target young conservatives. He also used social media firms he owns or created, including Campaign Nucleus and Influenceable, to recruit conservative influencers.
In private group chats, influencers were guided on the language to use for posts on social media sites such as X, Instagram, and TikTok that would be beneficial to Israel.
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The influencers were compensated based on the impressions and engagement their content generated, Time said.
Time said previous campaigns conducted by Influenceable gave influencers a base payment of $2,250, plus $1 for every 1,000 views, and up to a cap of two million views. Under that system, some influencers could earn as much as $4,250 per post.
Working against Trump
One of the pro-Israel conservatives associated with Parscale's campaign was Eyal Yakoby, who has 300,000 followers on X and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and The Washington Post.
Yakoby, an avid supporter of Israel, says he is combating antisemitism. He has also attacked politicians such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, claiming without evidence that he has links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yakoby told Time that he was never paid to promote views he did not agree with.
Parscale vowed that his campaign would produce at least 50 million digital impressions per month and change how OpenAI, ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other AI tools characterised Israel and the war. Israel paid Clock Tower X $1.5 million per month.
Parscale’s work with Israel was publicly declared under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Intercept reported in May 2026 that Parscale's firm was hired by Israel for $6m in September 2025 and then signed a $15 million contract with Havas.
While the campaign is not new, the Time report is notable because it underscores how a former Trump ally was working against the US president’s ceasefire deal. US officials noticed similar rhetoric on social media criticising the deal, the magazine reported.
Judging the success of Parscale’s campaign is another matter. Israel has been shedding support in the US across all demographics since its genocide in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson and even Steve Bannon have publicly slammed Israel for pushing the US into Middle East wars.
Meanwhile, conservative comedians like Dave Smith have earned widespread followings for their criticism of US intervention in the Middle East and Israel’s genocide in the besieged enclave.
A poll released last month from Quinnipiac University said sixty percent of American voters think US military action against Iran was "not worth it”.
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