Perhaps there is a key. That key is Elijah Schaffer’s interest.

From his subsequent firing from Blaze Media, Elijah Schaffer went independent and freelanced between multiple venues, most notably Gateway Pundit. Schaffer boasted after going independent how much more money there was to be made. But the emergence of RiftTV was a more sophisticated media company that he launched. It was a suspicious venture from the onset, and Milo Yiannopoulos, in addition to breaking the news of Schaffer’s affair with Sarah Stock, also alleged that RiftTV is in financial shambles.

Schaffer faces a messy divorce, made more difficult because he is flat broke. He raised money for a new endeavor, RiftTV, at a $5m valuation, including one investment of over $250,000. But that money is already gone, as are the staff. RiftTV is insolvent, heading for bankruptcy.

Is there truth to Milo’s claim? The short answer is, how couldn’t there be?

RiftTV was founded by Elijah Schaffer after his departure from BlazeTV in 2022. The entity was initially a Florida registered LLC in March 31, 2025 and dissolved in June 10, 2025 in pursuit of establishing a C-Corp. That C-Corp, Rift TV, INC, was filed on June 16, in Delaware.

RiftTV was to operate as an independent conservative media platform focusing on political commentary, documentaries, and far-right perspectives. Indeed, they waded into controversies and brought on additional talent like Sarah Stock, Alicia Powe, Amy Dangerfield, Braeden Sorbo (Kevin Sorbo’s son), Keith Woods, and others, even those writing pseudonymously.

Rift TV’s most popular stream amassed 117K and in second place, 43k views. Both streams were religious in nature benefitting from Jay Dyer, one of the most famous Eastern Orthodox apologists. Elijah Schaffer cracked 100000 hosting a Catholic vs Orthodox debate. This content took place or was planned while he was still cheating on his wife. But it gave Schaffer a good impression of what content would bring in the most views.

Elijah Schaffer interviewed Joel Webbon and subsequently lined him up to host a show on his network, back in November. However, this never came to fruition as Joel Webbon backed out of the deal months ago, dodging the inevitable bullet.

The metrics of Elijah Schaffer’s content do not add up to being able to field a staff, higher production value, and, most importantly, Schaffer’s lavish lifestyle. Schaffer was caught in a propaganda campaign opposing tariffs on India. Additionally, Schaffer has been accused of using botfarms to give the appearance of more views. Most people underestimate how big you have to be to live off being an influencer or in some cases, shameless. Schaffer is certainly shameless, but Rift TV cannot make money via written journalism any more than Evangelical Dark Web can. By the way, our web traffic is higher than this bougie operation. Rumble ad revenue is notoriously pitiful and even YouTube ads are less profitable than they appear. Schaffer would subsist from superchats, mostly, but that’s not funding his network of talent, even if they are 1099. To put a damper on that, at least through YouTube, Rift TV might not have even cracked $1000 in supers.

In November, Schaffer would resort to crowdfunding to defend against a lawsuit from Kash Patel’s girlfriend. This crowdfunding campaign had three donations of $10000, one donation of $5000, and two donations of $1000, raising suspicion that crowdfunding was used to launder money. Schaffer raised just shy of his $50000 goal thanks to these anonymous whales. Immediately after the crowdfunding campaign, Schaffer jetted off to El Salvador. Perhaps there were some Bukele bucks to sing the country’s praises for tourism.

That is only a half-joke, as the likelihood that RiftTV had foreign dollars is increasingly likely. Why else would he shill for India? Why else would a company that has absorbed other entities fail to establish basic revenue streams?

The crowdfunding campaign portrayed RiftTV as a “fledgling network,” giving the appearance of being much weaker than the big bad Kash Patel and his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins. But what if this messaging was telling the truth about RiftTV’s imminent failure, and not just a PR stunt?

Rift TV has been inactive in the month of February, with Alicia Powe and “Pebbles” no longer publishing any articles.

The supposed $5 million valuation, though insane at its face, is indicative of capital investment. RiftTV has burned money to launch into a competitive ecosystem, with no barriers to entry, and can easily be replaced by AI. Media companies are increasingly irrelevant on the right and make little sense for content creators. Even the Daily Wire appears to be in financial shambles. But to a foreign oligarch, this could be worth the risk, as Americans are more gifted at propaganda than, for instance, Middle Easterners or Russians.

Is Elijah Schaffer covertly a foreign asset (like what Lauren Chen was falsely accused of being), or are people willing to blitzscale an incompetent business model because of personal affection for Schaffer? In any case, RiftTV was doomed from the start.