President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have speculated for years that liberal protesters are often paid to show up.
The mainstream media dismissed the idea as a conspiracy theory — until The Los Angeles Times recently discovered it could indeed be true.
A new report names a Beverly Hills firm, Crowds on Demand, as a company that supplies liberal leadership with protesters to fight against social and political issues. The Crowds on Demand website claims they provide clients with “protests, rallies, flash-mobs, paparazzi events and other inventive PR stunts.… We provide everything including the people, the materials and even the ideas.”
Since the 2016 presidential election, interest in paid protesters has plagued various political events.
During the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump claimed that paid protesters were fighting Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
He wrote on Twitter, “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”
The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018
According to the LA Times, “Crowds on Demand isn’t the only outfit that hires paid protesters, though it is perhaps the most open about what it does.”
Edward Walker, UCLA sociology professor who wrote a book on paid protesters, told the LA Times, “There are hundreds of lobbying firms and public affairs firms that do this work, though not all in the same way,” he said. “Some only do a little bit of this grassroots-for-hire, but things adjacent to this are not uncommon today.”
Political consultant Garry South also explained that many campaigns do pay people money, or give them food in exchange for attending a rally.
South noted that there is a major difference between that kind of protest, versus the paid protesters that Crowds on Demand hires.
“What’s different is the commercialization of the process,” he said. “It just contributes to the air of unreality that exists in this day and age with essentially not being able to believe your own eyes or ears. I don’t think it’s particularly healthy. But it probably inevitably was going to come to this.”
Ever wonder why Americans have lost trust in the government, and the media?
The conspiracy theory surrounding paid protesters has heated up since Trump took office — and now they’ve become so bold, they’re advertising on websites.
–The Horn editorial team