President Trump reshared an artificial intelligence-generated video on Truth Social depicting himself, labeled ‘King Trump’, flying a plane and dumping feces on protestors at a No Kings rally earlier this month.
One of the rally attendees shown in the foreground is Harry Sisson, a 23-year-old Democratic influencer with millions of social media followers. Sisson said when he first watched it, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
“I had to watch it a couple of times to process what we all just collectively witnessed as a nation,” Sisson said. “The only emotion I can really describe was just pure disbelief, because I’m like, ‘Well, okay, that’s me and the president’s video,’ but also like, this is the guy leading the country and he’s posting this on social media.”
Sisson said he thinks Trump should be held to a higher standard than internet trolls who post similar videos.
“ I’ve just kind of started treating him like he is an internet troll, because I think at heart, that’s truly who Donald Trump has always been,” Sisson said.
Sisson says he was born to American parents in Singapore, making him an American citizen, but there have been calls from people on the right to deport him. He moved to the U.S. at age 14 and started making political videos when he was a 17-year-old high school student.
He was already working in local politics when COVID-19 broke out, and Sisson said he saw young people posting about politics during the pandemic. Inspired, he started making content of his own with the goal of influencing the national conversation in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Now a college graduate, Sisson has made creating political content is his full-time job. After the death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Sisson appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” with right-wing activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec.
Sisson said he used to believe the best course of action with someone like Posobiec was to not engage. But now, Sisson said his goal is to debunk a right-wing influencers’ claims in front of people watching at home.
“Maybe they’re just getting into politics. Maybe they’re into politics, but they’ve only listened to right-wingers,” Sisson said. “I want to plant the seed that, ‘Hey, you know, you can care about people, you can support good policy.’”
More and more young people are getting their news from partisan influencers like Sisson or Posobiec than from traditional, unbiased media sources. Sisson said he makes his beliefs clear, whether they align with other Democrats or not. For example, he said, he shared criticisms of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on political strategist Jessica Tarlov’s podcast “Raging Moderates.”
“I think my role really should be to just call balls and strikes,” Sisson said. “I don’t really make it a secret that I’m a Democrat, but I also never get online and say something that I just like truly don’t believe for the purpose of defending Democrats.”
Sisson said he thinks Democrats need to toughen up and meet conservative influencers where they are. For example, he said, if he disagreed with someone over health care policy, he wouldn’t resort to calling them names or lashing out. But, before Kirk died, Sisson called him a “sick, racist piece of trash.”
He said the example of Kirk is different, pointing to comments Kirk made on a 2023 episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show.” Kirk said, about numerous Black women, “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.” And, in a post on X, Kirk likened New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks.
“I could just sit there and say, ‘Well, this is really gross, and this is unbecoming of the United States. But I think people are sick of hearing that, Sisson said. “We’ve got to like give it back to them in the way they give it to us. All these MAGA influencers have said things 10 times worse about me.”
Sisson said he sees his role as a content creator as that of a pitbull for the Democratic Party.
“A lot of politicians are not comfortable getting up there and saying something like I said about Charlie Kirk or maybe even about Donald Trump,” he said. “If they’re not, then I think it’s on the role of the creators to get out there, show our teeth a little bit, and punch them right back if they’re going to punch us.”
Back in March, women came forward alleging that Sisson lured them into sending nude photos. He said those were consensual relationships he had at age 21. Sisson made a video in response, saying he had made a mistake and acted immaturely.
Some conservative activists offered support. Robby Soave, host of The Hill’s “Rising” podcast, talked with progressive political activist Marianne Williamson about the situation. Williamsen called the allegations a smear campaign, and Soave said it was the reason a number of young men have gravitated away from the Democratic Party.
Sisson said he heard similar things from young conservatives he talked with. Some, he said, told him that they never wanted to vote for the Democratic Party because of the rhetoric around Sisson’s actions.
“There are a lot of reasons as to why young men are leaving the party, and I don’t think in order to win them back, the party should ever compromise on our values,” Sisson said. “We shouldn’t start targeting women, for example, just to appeal to the MAGA bros.”
Disenchantment with the Democratic Party is rooted in reality for a lot of people, Sisson said. He said he’s heard that young people are concerned about housing affordability and that the American dream is unattainable. And Trump is the one telling them that he’s the person who can solve their problems.
“They hear the Democrats talking about nuanced policy, about ‘how we’re gonna do this X, Y, and Z to get it done, and we’re working for you,’” Sisson said, “but Donald Trump is going on your favorite streamer’s podcast.”
Still, Sisson said he thinks there’s an opportunity online for Democrats to win voters back.
I don’t think we should get on social media and start posting AI videos, dropping feces on the American people, even if we disagree with those people,” he said, “but I do think that we can get on social media and have a really effective message.”
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Karyn Miller-Medzon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Grace Griffin produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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