GOP Influencer Lands Another Foreign Agent Gig With Israeli Autonomous Drone Maker
GOP influencer CJ Pearson registered in September to conduct foreign influence work for an Israeli drone company.
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Pearson, a Gen Z MAGA influencer with 500,000 followers on X, previously registered as a foreign agent to lobby for the government of the Bahamas in April. He is now working on behalf of XTEND Reality, a Tel Aviv-based drone maker with a U.S. headquarters and manufacturing center in Tampa, Florida, Politico Influence (PI) first reported Monday. (RELATED: MAGA Influencers Are Wearing Out Their White House Welcome)
For $20,000 per month, Pearson’s lobbying efforts will center around “public relations, promotion, and perception-management activities on behalf of Xtend, including media outreach, preparation and dissemination of informational materials, coalition-building efforts, and participation in public forums and events,” according to a FARA filing.
Pearson got straight to work in a statement to PI.
“America can’t keep buying its drones from China,” he said. “Thankfully, Xtend is doing something about that through its production of American-made drones and technologies that are equipping our warfighters with the tools they need to keep Americans safe. There is nothing more America First than supporting companies predicated on protecting this country.”
PI noted the Trump family’s ties to XTEND. In February, President Trump’s son, Eric, invested in XTEND’s $1.5 billion merger with Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings. U.S. drone maker Unusual Machines, where Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser, also invested in the merger.
Online fights have erupted in MAGA world over foreign influence lobbies and astroturfed pressure campaigns that seek to sway the Trump administration’s policy decisions. White House officials have begun monitoring for signs that an influencer might be secretly pushing an agenda on behalf of a foreign country or domestic lobby, going so far as to compile a “blacklist” of influencers, the Daily Mail reported in June.
Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna highlighted the issue by introducing an amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act in August. The two-page bill, known as the Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act, would insert the language “social media influencers” under the definition of “publicity agent.” It would also define “social media influencer” as a person with a monetized account on any given social media platform. (RELATED: Anna Paulina Luna Exposes Foreign Paid Influencers With New Amendment — But It’s Far From A ‘Crack Down’)
A lawyer who represents clients registering under FARA told the Daily Caller that “while Rep. Luna’s Foreign Propaganda Registration Act aims to address a genuine gap in oversight, existing law already covers much of this ground.”
“FARA currently requires registration for any person, including influencers, who engage in political or public relations activities on behalf of a foreign principal — meaning the findings in this report could already trigger disclosure obligations under current law,” Nicole Kelly, senior counsel at Lex Politica, said.
Luna claimed in an interview with Politico that some of the “biggest profile names” among political influencers “have been approached at one point to push a certain position that’s probably tied to a foreign country.”
“I’m not going to put anyone on blast. That’s not my job,” she said, but added, “I’ve seen contracts into the millions.”
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