Here's who's running Trump's digital offensive

Last week, over 20 government departments and offices simultaneously created Bluesky accounts, with the express goal of owning the libs, according to reporting by Wired. You might have missed it, since they were instantly shut out so universally that a day later, the official White House account became the second-most-blocked account on the entire platform, right behind Vice President JD Vance. If it’s any consolation to the vice president, at least Rare Vances are quite popular on Sora.

But I noticed something in Wired’s report on Tuesday that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. The article quoted a man named Billy McLaughlin, citing him as the “former White House director of digital content.” I hadn’t heard that McLaughlin, who reportedly ran the White House’s Instagram account as of a few months ago, had left his post. Quoting him for the article suggests he still has some kind of role in the Trump administration’s social media apparatus, but there doesn’t seem to be any public information on what that is.

Which is typical of the Trump 2.0 White House’s literal-fuck-you approach to transparency. Just a few weeks into the administration, they blocked the AP’s access to press events, and have kept them out as a court battle continues, as they grant access to influencer and Russian dark money connoisseur Tim Pool. Meanwhile, along with his totally badass new title, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has demanded all journalists in the Pentagon follow new rules that are so restrictive even Fox News and Newsmax refused to agree. So now there are just no journalists in the Pentagon. Even when reporters do get access to White House staff, officials like Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt are now just responding to multiple questions with “your mom” jokes.

So what don’t they want the public to know? It seems like near the top of the list is who’s running their real media strategy — their now-literal shitposts and their copyright-infringing rage bait. When the White House started an official TikTok account last month (and mercifully got roasted in the comments), they declined to identify anyone operating the account. Secrecy genuinely seems to be a high priority for them, and it’s easy to see why, since these posts don’t exactly stand up well when scrutinized offline.

So here’s a little who’s who of the people in charge of social media for the Trump White House, as well as how online they are.

This is the closest official, publicly appointed person to the White House’s social media team, so we’ll start here. Before he joined President Donald Trump’s first campaign in 2016, Cheung was in charge of press response for the Ultimate Fighting Championship — we’ve written before about how that organization is Trumpism’s guiding light. Cheung has spent years insulting critics of Trump online and offline. Highlights include calling Ron DeSantis a cuck and Joe Biden a bitch on X, but he’s used more elaborate language too, saying of Nikki Haley, "Everything she's ever achieved will be thrown into a dumpster fire that she lit herself.”

What sets Cheung apart from the rest of the people on this list is that he’s not all that online. A New Yorker profile during the election describes him as savvy, professional, and friendly when it comes to dealing with the press. In an incredibly New Yorker turn of phrase, they described him as “Janus-faced.” As for less erudite summaries, Trump calls him “my sumo wrestler,” and he once dressed up as a James Bond henchman.

McLaughlin first got serious attention in 2019 for a Washington Post op-ed titled, “I’m gay and work for the NRA. Big deal.” He started as the group’s social media manager and stayed in their press department for years, joining the Trump administration in January after a stint with the Israel Campus Coalition. He’s now officially left the team, which seems to have happened in August — a few weeks later, another early hire, Alex Pfeiffer, also left the White House.

The Daily Beast credited McLaughlin for the White House’s first use of AI-generated memes. As mentioned above, he reportedly personally ran the White House Instagram account, and it’s a good platform for him (derogatory). Though he’s sold himself as a memelord to the mainstream press for years, writing an article about it for Fox News, McLaughlin's sensibilities seem too millennial for the front lines of the meme war. In 2025, he’s replying to Rosie O’Donnell and writing “PERIODT 💅” on X — he left before he could write about ICE attack dogs being heccing good puppers.

McLaughlin described Dorr as his replacement to Fox News, but his official position hasn’t changed since he was hired in January. Before that, Dorr worked for Gettr, a generic-brand Truth Social app whose most engaged userbase was Brazilian Bolsominions. According to researcher Samuel Sinyangwe, he runs the White House X account, but that isn’t his only gig.

The New York Post reported earlier this month that Dorr works personally on “the creative process” of meme strategy with Trump and Dan Scavino, the man who ran Trump’s Twitter account during his first term, now his deputy chief of staff. Dorr’s online sensibility seems to be more modern than McLaughlin’s, making POV jokes and using Minecraft Trump as his old X header image. He doesn’t seem very experienced with traditional press, though. One of the few interviews I can find with him is for Bitcoin Magazine, which really made me think of that old Clickhole mumbling video.

Now we’re getting to the real sickos — people who clearly have some influence, but seemingly no official position. Fuetterer, a 23-year-old who now goes by Jack Advent, ran Trump’s official TikTok account during his campaign, and was the primary person responsible for producing the videos. Before the campaign, according to the Daily Mail, he worked for Logan Paul and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump was impressed by Fuetterer and his ability to make TikToks that actually fit with the platform’s style, nicknaming him “TikTok Jack.” The TikToks are pretty well done, as these things go, and it seems to have kept him in the administration’s good graces. No one has officially stated that he’s running the new White House TikTok account, but he spoke about it positively, recommending that Trump install his son Barron as part of the company’s change in ownership.

This one is the most online, the least official — and, arguably, the most influential. We mentioned Bruesewitz back in August, as one of the people who single-handedly set the agenda for the “woke Cracker Barrel” furor on X. Posting has been the backbone of his entire career, since he was first noticed after Trump retweeted him in 2015. Since then, he made a big name for himself as a fiercely pro-Trump influencer, who’s gotten disinvited from Republican events for criticizing members of Congress who he calls “disloyal.”

Bruesewitz reportedly runs multiple rapid response X accounts for the Trump team. Beyond that, he seems to be a genuinely insightful analyst. He’s credited with organizing the Trump campaign’s big podcast press tour, including personally liaising between Trump and Adin Ross.

Officially, he works for a pro-Trump PAC and runs X Strategies, a consulting firm that’s been grooming influencers into potential political candidates. He’s credited for helping Marjorie Taylor Greene and Anna Paulina Luna get elected, and a local Wisconsin newspaper mentioned he’s a “potential candidate for Congress” himself.

P.S. here’s a good liked post.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***