Only Candace Owens could prompt MAGA to acknowledge Russian disinformation

Far-right podcaster Candace Owens made a surprise trip to Russia this week, where she spoke on a panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a Davos-style event meant to build relationships between Russia and other world powers. Owens, who initially claimed that she was only taking a family vacation, used her trip to tweet at length about the country’s beauty, safety, and friendliness to Christians. “The Christian expression and heritage here is unmatched,” she tweeted, alongside photos of Russian Orthodox churches. “Unsurprisingly, they are lying to us about Russia.” 

“I’m starting to understand why the talking heads panic and shout and lie about ‘Russian collusion’ when they learn an American with a platform is traveling here,” Owens added in another tweet. “It’s Plato’s allegory of the cave. It is genuinely shocking how clean, beautiful and ordered this city is. It is so far removed from media depictions.” 

The baldly propagandistic nature of Owens’ trip generated condemnation from an unusual quarter: other MAGA figures, who suddenly found themselves unusually concerned about Kremlin-backed disinformation. 

Glenn Beck, for instance, tweeted that Owens’ trip is “proof that Russia and Alexander Dugin’s massive propaganda operation is working.” (Dugin is a political philosopher and ultra-nationalist figure who is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” due to his reported influence on the president.) A MAGA podcaster named Matt Tardio responded in agreement: “I’ve respected Glenn Beck for years on his honest reporting. Finally, people are waking up. Russian disinformation has been fooling influential people in the west with one goal, to destroy us from within.” 

“Candace continues lying openly to her audience and they still clap like brainless seals,” declared Jessica Reed Kraus, the MAGA gossip blogger who writes the House Inhabit substack. “Russia is cool guys!” she added, mocking Owens’ fans.

In truth, most of the MAGA media world had very little to say about Owens’ trip. The few people on the right who condemned it notably have longstanding feuds with her, part of a massive, omnidirectional set of beefs and internecine fights that have been dividing the movement for most of Trump’s second presidency. Beck, for instance, has defended Erika Kirk, the widow of slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, against attacks from Owens. Other critics of Owens’ travel included her ex-boss Ben Shapiro, who referred to her trip as a “magical propaganda tour.” The two have been enemies for years after Shapiro fired Owens from the Daily Wire in 2024 for her rabidly antisemitic statements.

Laura Loomer, who’s been bitterly feuding with Owens for months, went further. 

“I don’t think conservatives realize how much Russian propaganda we have been fed over the last few years as ‘independent journalism,’” she tweeted during Owens’ visit. “It’s starting to become very clear to me how many people who claimed to be defenders of the West were just saying that to suck in a pro-West audience so they could slowly brainwash them with foreign propaganda until they could convince their viewers to work against the West. Those ‘interviews’ we all defended were not actually interviews. They were psychological operations meant to weaponize political factions in America for the purpose of pushing foreign interests.”

The left, Loomer added in another tweet, “wasn’t entirely wrong when they called some people Russian puppets. Just like the right isn’t wrong when they call some people agents of the Chinese communists and Islamists. Now I’m just wondering how long some of these people I’ve known for years have been activated as foreign agents and who their handlers are.” 

The MAGA movement as a whole has a mixed record on recognizing that disinformation or propaganda exist. Loomer, for instance, often dismissed reports that the Russian government attempted to interfere in U.S. elections as a “hoax.” And Beck had very little to say publicly about the Tenet Media scandal, in which numerous prominent right-wing influencers took money from a company that was secretly receiving financial backing from two people with ties to Russian state media. Lauren Chen, Tenet’s co-founder, had been a freelance contributor to Beck’s BlazeTV, although her contract was terminated after the indictment was released. 

Russia uses the SPIEF as a display of economic might and soft power, mixing speeches from Vladimir Putin with ballet performances. Owens’ participation was first reported on X by national security analyst Ryan Mauro. Amid Russia’s continued attack on Ukraine, Western countries largely shun the event, but the Taliban did make an appearance this year. In a break with recent tradition, a U.S. official also attended: Rodney Mims Cook Jr, the Chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, who’s overseeing the construction of Trump’s new White House ballroom. Cook presented images of the ballroom during the panel, where he spoke alongside actor Steven Seagal, a Putin ally.

Owens, a dedicated rage-baiter, clearly understood her visit would generate controversy. “This has been the most triggering trip for the mainstream media,” she declared in an RT interview. “And it has been laughable to see the headlines they are coming up with.”  

“Great news!” she tweeted on Friday morning, celebrating that she’s be attending a second day of the conference. “Thanks to the wall-to-wall western media meltdown about my trip to Russia, their entire nation became aware of my presence here. I have now been cordially invited to hear President Putin speak today at SPIEF. This is why we say there is no such thing as bad press.” 

Owens also sought to leverage the presence of a U.S. official at SPIEF to defend herself from her erstwhile allies’ attacks: “Isn’t it kind of weird how Trump sent an entire delegation, (including the architect building his ‘ballroom’) and yet Zionists never accused any of them of being Russian spies? It’s almost as if the people who refuse to peddle their talking points, get smeared.” 

(Owens often blames Jews or “Zionists” for unconnected world events—for instance blaming the Orthodox Jewish Chabad Lubavitch movement for U.S. involvement in Iran.)

Mitchell Jackson, a publicist for Owens and a slate of other controversial figures, told me that “Candace is not being paid to attend” SPIEF, adding, “Boeing, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley having previously hosted panels at this event, and everyone from Rex Tillerson to Jon Huntsman has spoken at this event.” 

In 2018, Huntsman actually chose to cancel his address, and Tillerson’s appearance was before the United States enforced major economic sanctions against Russia. Today, the State Department advises Americans not to go to the country for any reason.