Several conservative social media influencers were caught accepting money from a public relations firm to oppose reforms to SNAP benefits — the government assistance program formerly known as food stamps — investigative journalist Lee Fang reported last week.
The campaign emerged in response to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposal that soda and processed foods be excluded from the over $100 billion government program that helps 42 million low-income people supplement their grocery budget.
Brooke Rollins, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has also signaled support for the proposed reforms. The program is administered by the USDA, not HHS.
A significant portion of SNAP benefits are spent on “ultra-sugary drinks” that offer minimal nutrition, according to Fang.
“We shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison,” Kennedy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
In another interview with podcaster Michael Knowles, Kennedy said, “If you want a Coca-Cola, you ought to be able to get one and we have no objection to that.” But taxpayer money intended to feed low-income children shouldn’t be used for sugary soda “which is giving them diabetes.”
Kennedy said taxpayers foot the bill twice, when Medicare funds then go to cover healthcare for people with chronic diseases.
The proposed reforms have gained popular support, particularly from conservatives, who tend to favor cuts to welfare programs, according to Substack writer Will Sommer.
But shortly after Kennedy publicly made his case, several high-profile conservative accounts began criticizing the reforms, denouncing Kennedy’s “war on soda.”
According to Sommer:
“A wave of MAGA types started to take the pro-soda position. In similarly worded posts, Cheong, Prather, Daugherty, popular MAGA meme account ‘Clown World,’ and other X users with big followings said it was unfair for the government to tell recipients how to spend their food-stamp money.
“‘Is Mountain Dew nutritious and life-giving?’ posted Kevin Posobiec, a pro-Trump figure best known for being the brother of pundit Jack Posobiec, in a since-deleted post on X. ‘No. But freedom of choice is.’
“A number of the posts focused on the fact that Donald Trump himself drinks Diet Coke — the implicit suggestion being that it would be horribly wrong to tell the president that he can’t drink his soda.
“‘President Trump literally has a Diet Coke button in his Oval Office,’ wrote Daugherty.”
Many of the posts had near-identical messages, Fang wrote. Blake Marnell, a pro-Trump anchor whose X handle is Brick Suit, first pointed out the similarities on X. Then Turning Point USA’s Riley Gaines posted that she was offered money to make similar posts, but declined.
Reporter Nick Sortor was the first to reveal that the public relations firm Influenceable was behind the posts. It had reportedly paid influencers up to $1,000 per post to oppose the SNAP reforms.
🚨🧵 EXPOSED: “INFLUENCEABLE” — The company cutting Big Checks to “influencers” on behalf of Big Soda
Over the past 48 hours, several large supposedly MAGA-aligned “influencers” posted almost identical talking points fed to them, convincing you MAHA was out of line for not… pic.twitter.com/PpPwH9lHGe
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 22, 2025
Sorter found messages that included templates provided by Influenceable to influencers in what he said was an attempt “to turn MAGA folks against RFK Jr. and MAHA” — Make America Healthy Again.
After Sorter outed the influencers on X, Daugherty confirmed the allegations, posting on X, “Yeah, that was dumb of me. Massive egg on my face. In all seriousness, it won’t happen again.”
Sorter also said this was a playbook, often used by soda industry lobbying firms like American Beverage and Cart Choice. This led some people to mistakenly report that American Beverage was behind the scheme, which the firm denies.
American Beverage was caught in 2023 paying off dieticians to promote sugar and aspartame to kids on Instagram.
Fang similarly noted this tactic revealed a “longstanding pattern in the beverage industry’s approach to policy debates over sugary drinks.” For example, the industry has funded scientists to persuade people to focus on exercise instead of calorie intake for weight loss strategies.
When San Francisco proposed taxes on sweetened beverages, Big Soda paid protestors to attend anti-tax rallies and argue the tax would disproportionately harm minority communities, Fang wrote.
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The industry used similar tactics in New York, where Coca-Cola funded the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, which then promoted similar arguments when the city proposed a soda tax.
Fang also reported that the industry targets organizations focused on children’s health. For example, Coca-Cola has given nearly $3 million to the American Academy of Pediatrics over six years, and the organization stayed silent during contentious policy debates over sugary drinks.
Save the Children, which supported a soda tax in the past, changed its position when it sought grants from soda producers, including $5 million from PepsiCo.
Health reporter Nina Teicholz commented on the influencer grift on her Substack. She said she wasn’t surprised. “But I do wonder why conservative influencers, some with more than 1M followers each, would sell their credibility for so little cash. Only $1,000 to sell your soul?”
Teicholz also raised concerns about the proposed SNAP reforms. The argument that taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize foods likely to cause chronic disease makes sense, she wrote. “Yet I’m also worried that a soda ban could be the thin end of a wedge that could lead to prohibitions on buying processed meats.”
While processed meats may not be the most healthy option, she wrote, they are an important source of protein in government programs and one of the few forms of protein available in stores where low-income people often shop.
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