The Digital Pulpit – Scott Presler and the Gospel of Trumpism

Scott Ryan Presler, born May 15, 1988, in Jacksonville, Florida, embodies a new type of American activist – disciplined, media-savvy, and firmly rooted in Donald Trump’s orbit. He grew up in Virginia, the son of a Marine officer, studied criminal justice at George Mason University, and found his place early on where patriotism, religion, and the pursuit of power intersect. This investigation about Scott Presler is the second part. On October 28 we already published the article “The Organizer – Scott Presler, the ‘Kirk Whisperer,’ and How He Reprograms the MAGA Movement” - under the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/der-organisator-scott-presler-der-kirk-fluesterer-und-wie-er-die-maga-bewegung-neu-programmiert/

His career began as an election assistant for the Republican Party of Virginia. Later he worked for ACT for America, an organization that gained nationwide attention in 2017 with the “March Against Sharia.” Even then his talent was evident – to bind people not through arguments but through belonging. Since the 2016 election Presler has openly stood on Trump’s side. He organized meetings, actions, speeches, and support networks and thus became a symbolic figure of that Republican base that has become estranged from Washington.

On April 21, 2024, Scott Presler appeared at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina. There he tried to recruit supporters to help get independent candidate Cornel West on the ballot – with the declared goal of drawing votes away from Joe Biden and strengthening Trump. The action came during a phase in which Presler worked closely with Turning Point Action, the organization founded by Charlie Kirk, which had provided around five million dollars for Republican voter initiatives. Presler was involved in this campaign to mobilize voters in strategically important swing states.

After the 2020 presidential election, the results of which he questioned, Presler joined the “Stop the Steal” movement. He spoke of irregularities without providing evidence and thus contributed to the climate of distrust that still shapes the political tone of the United States today. In the following years he shifted his focus to voter registration. His initiative “Early Vote Action” claims to have registered millions of new Republicans – numbers that are difficult to verify but are seen within the Trump movement as proof of his effectiveness.

Scott Presler congratulates Trump on November 20, 2024, in Bucks County, again complains about uncounted mail-in ballots, and otherwise seems to be in another hemisphere.

Already in the spring of 2024, Presler appeared in Pennsylvania at an event of the Republicans of Bucks County – in a veterans’ home in Doylestown, with hot dogs and rock music. While a local handyman played cover versions, Presler took the microphone, tied his waist-length hair into a ponytail, and began to speak. “I say this with caution,” he shouted into the room, “but Joe Biden ‘won’ Pennsylvania in 2020 by 80,000 votes.” He made quotation marks in the air. “There is no second chance in this country. If we only vote on one day in 2024, Joe Biden will be president again.” For his listeners this was not a conspiracy theory but a mobilization strategy. Presler called on them to vote early, to register friends and neighbors, to secure every vote – not out of distrust of the system but to control it in their own favor.

Behind Presler there is no loose network of volunteers but a far-reaching system of political activists, digital platforms, and religious-nationalist groups. Particularly close ties exist with Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the far-right Charlie Kirk, who was shot in September 2025, and which provides the ideological foundation of the MAGA movement. Charlie Kirk adopted many of the slogans and rhetorical patterns from Scott Presler, who had shaped them early in the movement and turned them into a recognizable style. Through Kirk’s platforms, above all Turning Point USA, Presler’s keywords spread further – from the idea of a “second founding moment” to the emotional charge of moral rebirth that now runs through all MAGA communication.

Scott Presler flew to Phoenix, Arizona, for the funeral event of Charlie Kirk. Before that, he had attended the vigil for Charlie Kirk. He said he had lost a friend and planned to register new voters in the battleground state of Arizona.

Online he presents himself as a tireless patriot who fights for what he calls “true American values.” His posts follow a simple pattern: the movement as a victim of a corrupt elite, the media as part of a hostile apparatus, faith as a moral shield. It is a style that stirs emotion and morally devalues opposition. The political opponent no longer appears as a fellow citizen but as a danger.

In his speeches and videos Presler uses language that merges religious and national symbolism. He speaks of “Mission,” “Action,” and “Deliverance” – as if politics were a story of salvation. Terms like “Save America” or “Fight for Freedom” are not slogans for him but articles of faith. Patriotism becomes duty, loyalty becomes virtue. His appearances resemble sermons, the gathering of his followers a mass. This thinking is not new, but Presler masters its mechanics. He works with the same methods that right-wing movements use everywhere: community instead of argument, emotion instead of analysis, enemy image instead of complexity. That creates cohesion but not democracy. His world is divided into good and evil, into believers and the corrupt, into winners and traitors.

The religious dimension of his rhetoric is striking. Court rulings are interpreted as divine confirmation, political victories as the work of heaven. Democracy is considered divinely intended as long as it is useful, and as corrupt as soon as it contradicts. This merging of religion and power replaces responsibility with belief and shifts the boundary between politics and salvation. Presler avoids substantive debates and concentrates on effect. His speeches live from the pathos of unity and from the feeling of threat. He creates closeness by presenting himself as an outsider – gay, devout, patriotic – a man who in the world of the right is both alien and indispensable. This role makes him for many in the movement the proof that Trumpism is not an ideology but an identity.

On October 28, 2025, Scott Presler appeared as a guest speaker in the ballroom of the Altoona Grand Hotel in Pennsylvania, invited by the Central Pennsylvania Council of Republican Women. The event was publicly promoted, his name emblazoned on the invitations – an appearance that shows how deeply he is now anchored in the regional structures of the party. Presler not only travels across the country, he builds networks, strengthens ties, fills halls. His mere presence is enough to understand the dynamic he creates: he is the engine of a movement that organizes its power from below – in veterans’ homes, community halls, hotel ballrooms – with a smile and a clear mission. Such evenings seem harmless but are political training sessions disguised as a sense of community. Presler draws the lines along which loyalty is measured.

His strength lies in the closeness he creates – the feeling of being part of a larger plan. That makes him dangerous. He creates order, discipline, and belonging. In Altoona, as elsewhere, it became clear that Scott Presler is not simply a speaker but an architect.

In truth, behind this façade stands a tightly organized network of actors that has been forming for years. Alongside Kirk and the structures of Turning Point USA, several think tanks and campaign organizations play a central role. The Claremont Institute in California is considered the ideological backbone of the new right. It trains lawyers, publicists, and political newcomers who believe in a “second founding of America” – a mindset that accepts constitutional loyalty only as long as it aligns with its own view of power. Project Veritas, founded by activist James O’Keefe, works with covert recordings and staged revelations to discredit political opponents. The platform Liberty Sentinel spreads similar content in journalistic form – a mixture of opinion, activism, and campaign journalism. The Faith and Freedom Coalition, founded by former Christian conservative lobbyist Ralph Reed, organizes evangelicals as a political voter base and provides the religious infrastructure of Trumpism. And the Federalist Society, long an influential association of conservative jurists, has pursued for decades the goal of fundamentally reshaping the American judiciary – with visible success up to the Supreme Court. The system is financed through foundations and political committees, so-called Super Political Action Committees, or Super PACs for short. They may accept unlimited donations from corporations, individuals, or associations and spend the money specifically on advertising, campaigns, and influence – often through complex structures that conceal the origin of the funds. Outwardly, many of these organizations appear as voluntary citizen initiatives, but in reality, they are professional apparatuses with million-dollar budgets, PR departments, and legal advisors.

Scott Presler at a speech in Butler in 2024, right, the woman in green, is Lara Trump. She (born Lara Lea Yunaska) is the wife of Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s second son. She has been active in the Republican Party for years, was an advisor in Donald Trump’s campaign team, and since 2024 has been co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

This interweaving of money, media power, religious influence, and legal strategy forms the backbone of digital Trumpism – an informal but disciplined alliance that merges political communication, financial flows, and messages of faith into a single movement. It carries no official name, yet in Washington politicians and observers have long referred to it as the “Claremont Network” or simply as the movement infrastructure. Scott Presler is regarded as one of its most important nodes – the one who brings to the streets what is drafted in the offices of the ideologues.

In February 2024, Scott Presler addressed a German audience directly through social media. In a Facebook post he wrote: “Germany, we did our part in electing President Trump. Today is Election Day in your country. Vote AfD.” The message was more than just a polite greeting – it sounded like a call to adopt the American model of Trumpism in Europe. Between the lines lay a political message: Presler sees Europe’s right-wing movements as part of the same mission, as allies in a global struggle against liberalism and political diversity.

Part of his background is his role in the environment of the “Stop the Steal” campaign. Presler was one of the loudest organizers of the rallies in Pennsylvania and Georgia that mobilized the base and laid the groundwork for January 6, 2021. With a laptop, a loudspeaker, and an unyielding belief in his mission, he turned the anger of January 6 into a machine that now operates more efficiently than ever before. Presler – tall, elegant, almost gentle in appearance – is the embodiment of a new type of political architect: organized, disciplined, cold, unflappable – and ideologically uncompromising. In doing so, he helped create the atmosphere from which the violence arose. Within the movement he has since been seen as one of the co-initiators of this dynamic, even though he himself has never been held accountable.

His relationship with Trump is close, almost division of labor. Presler delivers the mobilization, Trump delivers the stage. Both are united by their belief in the principle of unconditional loyalty. From within the Republican Party it is said that Presler has regular contact with Trump’s campaign staff and is regarded as a “trusted intermediary to the base.” His organization Early Vote Action works closely with donor circles and regional Republican groups that serve as front organizations for the campaign. Within this structure Presler is the tool that turns enthusiasm into votes. What makes him dangerous is not the volume but the system. Presler is not a lone actor but part of a strategic network that translates political power into religious language and sells it as moral truth. He combines digital reach, religious rhetoric, and national identity into an ideology that no longer fights the opponent politically but existentially. This combination of conviction and organization makes him a key figure of modern American right-wing populism – and a risk to everything that remains of democratic culture.

The official data of the Federal Election Commission show the financial flows of the organization Early Vote Action PAC founded by Scott Presler. In the chart the green bar represents the total donations received – around 6.3 to 6.5 million U.S. dollars in the 2024 election cycle – while the yellow bar marks the expenditures, which amount to a little more than 6 million. The money flowed mainly into fundraising, advertising, and voter-registration campaigns. Although the amounts formally went to the PAC, control over their use lies with Presler himself, who as director determines distribution, contracts, and strategic priorities.

Scott Presler stands for the transition from political mobilization to community of faith. His campaigns are not election campaigns in the classic sense but revival rituals in which patriotism and religion flow into one another. What looks like activism is in truth a form of political liturgy – the sacred side of Trumpism disguised as a citizens’ movement. In doing so he has created a dangerous model – a movement that uses democratic forms in order to hollow them out from within. No shouting, no violence, no uniforms – only the gentle, constant pressure of conviction. A new digital pulpit from which America is proclaimed anew each day – what is true and who belongs. He is not dangerous because he calls for violence but because he understands it. From the failure of January 6 he learned that insurrection is not a goal but a tool – and that power is better secured through discipline than through chaos. He speaks softly, smiles kindly, says he loves America. But the country he invokes is not one of equality and diversity, but one that is to be “restored” – whiter, more male, more devout, more orderly. Scott Presler is the answer of the new right to the loss of control – a symbiosis of activism, data discipline, and faith in redemption. He needs no torches, no uniforms, no slogans. His weapon is organization, his strength patience, his goal the lasting shift of power.

He did not merely survive January 6 politically – he transformed it into a principle. In his shadow a movement is taking shape that has understood that democracies no longer need to be overthrown if they can be slowly redirected. The traces it leaves are quieter, more strategic, more enduring. Scott Presler, the architect of the internal overthrow – the silent general of a movement that never rests.

To be continued … then you will learn more about Scott Presler and the Epstein Files and Presler’s position within Donald Trump’s direct network.