As U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushes forward with his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, efforts are growing to stop food stamps from being used to buy soda, but soda lobbyists have paid online “conservative” personalities to sway public opinion on their behalf.
[RELATED: A GOP Bill Could Stop People Using Food Stamps for Junk Food…]
Over the weekend, popular online supporters of President Donald Trump, including independent media personalities Ian Miles Cheong and Eric Daugherty, began posting statements advocating for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—commonly called food stamps—recipients to be allowed to continue using taxpayer funds to purchase soda.
“A new war on soda has begun, targeting purchases made through SNAP. I don’t believe it’s the government’s role to decide what people should or shouldn’t eat,” said Cheong on X.
“Restricting soda through SNAP is an unnecessary move by the government to control consumption, overstepping its authority and infringing on individual liberty,” he added.
He even compared a potential ban on welfare recipients using taxpayer money to buy soda with the federal government’s efforts to market the COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective, despite evidence to the contrary.
The statements from Cheong, who lives in Malaysia, and other influencers raised eyebrows for many because not only do they appear at odds with previous posts supporting the MAHA agenda and a crackdown on junk food, but the comments from different influencers all appeared suspiciously similar and addressed nearly identical points.
Both Cheong and Daugherty’s posts invoked President Trump’s love of Diet Coke, implied that stopping the use of taxpayer funds to purchase soda is an infringement on personal freedom, and brought up a previous failed attempt in New York to curtail soda consumption.
Independent journalist Nick Sortor decided to look into the reason behind these strangely similar posts.
He found evidence suggesting that the influencers suddenly opposed to curtailing food stamp soda purchases took money from Influenceable—a company that mediates between lobbying firms and social media influencers—to influence their Trump-supporting followers against the discussed policy change.
“These influencers were given a couple templates to use by Influenceable, with one of those templates SPECIFICALLY telling them to mention Trump’s Diet Coke habit This was done to invoke an EMOTIONAL response from loyal Trump supporters, making them feel as if banning soda from SNAP would be anti-Trump,” said Sortor in a lengthy X thread exposing his findings.
“Influencers were texted by Influenceable telling them to “help push back against government overreach,” and told they’d be paid between several hundred and even $1,000+ for EACH POST, attempting to turn MAGA folks against RFK Jr and MAHA,” he added.
Sortor posted screenshots of four prominent accounts’ posts on the food stamps soda prohibition, along with what appear to be images of a text and a longer message from Influenceable outlining the specific points each post should address.
He pointed out that none of the influencers who accepted funds from Influenceable disclosed that they were paid to make the statements.
According to Sortor, Influenceable previously paid left-wing influencers to speak out against the film The Sound of Freedom, detailing the horrifying reality of child trafficking.
Following Sortor’s investigation, two of the influencers he specifically called out admitted to making the posts in response to Influenceable and took their posts down, thereby forfeiting their payments.
“I made a post and deleted it within the first hour. I withdrew from the campaign entirely and removed my post. I haven’t received a single penny from “Big Soda” or anyone else for this,” said the account know a Clown World.
Daugherty also admitted his fault and promised that it would not happen again.
“Yeah, that was dumb of me. Massive egg on my face. In all seriousness, it won’t happen again,” said Daugherty.
Prominent activist Riley Gaines, who has supported Maine Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) in her fight to get men out of women’s sports, also appeared to confirm Sortor’s findings, claiming that she was contacted to make a paid post against an end to taxpayer-funded soda purchases but refused to participate.
“They offered to pay me to post..a big fat heck no,” said Gaines.
Kennedy himself even weighed in on the controversy, thanking Gaines for her integrity.
“Thank you for your integrity, Riley. It’s troubling that some companies now think they have a right to demand taxpayer money to poison our children,” said Kennedy.
While some of the influencers have taken down their posts or refused to participate at all, Cheong’s post remains on his X page.
Currently, the purchase of sugary drinks accounts for a staggering 10 percent of all food stamp purchases, and preventing the use of food stamps to purchase soda could save taxpayers billions while making Americans healthier.
