🔗 Share this article Bannon, Carlson and... Liz Truss? Exploring the Former PM's Audition for the Maga Movement Liz Truss, began the inaugural episode of her video series with a promise to reveal "malicious actors" working to bring down the UK, United States and European nations. She explained she would lay bare how an "worldwide alliance of progressives operate to weaken the democratic process and the electorate's mandate." "We're going to look at the Maga phenomenon and observe how it can be achieved in Britain," Truss declared. "We'll be talking to the leading lights of the Trumpist political sphere." Before the program's debut, there was one particularly enthusiastic supporter. "This represents the dawn of a type of political shift," stated veteran reporter John Solomon. His conservative Just the News will carry the former prime minister's new broadcasts. Establishing Ties in the Conservative Media Landscape British fellow travellers, including a counselor supportive of Reform, played a role in her set up the Liz Truss Show. The production is competent, though simple. The show has attracted 10,000 subscribers in her initial seven days and her debut had 67,000 views in that timeframe. It is a modest start, but in making common cause with the journalist, the former PM is being thrust into a well-developed political media sphere generating and disseminating pro-Trump narratives. Central preoccupations involve accusations of information control by the established press and a desire to eradicate a shadowy government apparatus – which the ex-PM holds responsible for the rapid conclusion of her disastrous time in office. "Just the News is not famous outside of the pro-Trump media sphere, but it does have gravitas there, mostly due to John Solomon, who offers opinions on conservative outlets like Steve Bannon's War Room and has even interviewed Donald Trump," noted Professor Alex Hinton, who has extensively researched the Make America Great Again phenomenon. A Contentious Ally The former PM's foray to import Maga media to Britain has aligned her more closely to controversial figures such as John Solomon. He founded the platform in the wake of criticism after he was accused of pushing misleading narratives about Joe Biden's anticorruption effort in the Eastern European nation, as well as contentious articles about one-time diplomat to Ukraine. These allegations were amplified throughout the pro-Trump media, with the journalist featuring as a regular guest on the widely-watched Fox News show. The former president personally promoted his stories. The journalist published the allegations regarding Ukraine in a number of opinion pieces for the political newspaper The Hill, where he was re-designated as an opinion writer after colleagues complained over his articles. His claims were pivotal in the then-president's request for the officials in Kyiv to look into Hunter Biden and his father in 2019. Those demands resulted in articles of impeachment targeting Donald Trump. The Senate later voted to acquit the commander-in-chief. Shortly after he exited the publication in late 2019, the news organization announced it was performing a review of his reporting concerning the Ukraine issue. It found Solomon had cited questionable informants and said he "failed to identify important details about main Ukrainian informants, including the reality that they had been charged or were the subject of inquiries." Entering the Ecosystem His TV and radio guest spots are a sign of the right-wing media network the former prime minister is joining. He discussed his support for Truss's project on a program he presents on the right-wing channel, a conservative television outlet that is home to the conservative firebrand ex-Trump strategist Bannon and on which commentator Tucker Carlson also features. The ex-PM has already interviewed Steve Bannon on an early episode. In linking up with the journalist and his outlet, she has become a niche participant in a much wider network of pro-Trump platforms that often share and promote one another's material. The journalist's podcast and Real America's Voice show have repeatedly hosted personalities such as commentator Mike Benz, a conservative commentator whose disparagement of USAID was referenced by Elon Musk as grounds for dismantling the foreign aid agency. A Global Media Play Even though Truss's stilted style and professional woes have drawn derision in Britain, certain American analysts do not dismiss her bid to reinvent herself as a local version of the Make America Great Again press. "It is necessary to treat people like Truss with seriousness, although you may not want to accept their words at face value," said Rob Flaherty, who served in the Obama White House. "You saw how in the last election cycle Donald Trump utilized that alternative press to spread his narrative. Without a doubt that network exports and influences conversation abroad. It seems relatively clear to me that the circumstances in the UK are similar to what enabled this alternative media ecosystem to prosper here." Professor Alan Finlayson, said the online conservative ecosystem was already having an impact in the UK. "Online platforms knows no borders," he said. "There is a certain environment within which ideas travel – sometimes appearing in harsh versions and occasionally in softer tones – but which is interlinked." Professor Hinton said the rise of the digital conservative movement in the UK recently meant the "potential to have a growing impact is significant." Cross-Atlantic Aspirations "Both Truss and Nigel Farage in the recent past were featured at the CPAC, where I saw they deployed pro-Trump themes before the {king of Maga|