This weekend will be the debut of the America First United conference in Columbus, OH, which brands itself as a bipartisan movement designed to foster a “united front against foreign influence, endless wars, and government corruption.” The group sets itself up as a foil to AIPAC, the notorious Israeli lobby, while boasting a range of speakers for a conference that is exclusive to two hundred attendees. Many of their names have major social media followings, while others are no-names.
The leading names behind the event are Jake Sheilds and Amy Dangerfield. Shields is the MMA fighter notorious for his opposition to Jewish influence, but his brand of politics embraces Third-Worldism as a means to fight this overrepresented influence. Amy Dangerfield is an Australian e-thot who previously worked for Valuetainment before going independent and has a fair amount of “manosphere” adjacent content. Other e-thots speaking at the event include Morgan Ariel, “comedian” Leonarda Jonie, and Faith Merrill, who is the next Sarah Stock.
Several of the slated speakers for an American First-branded event have some foreign associations. Joel Tanney is a small online evangelist and “Reverend” who has connections and an affinity for Armenia. Sameerah Munshi was formerly the token Muslim on Trump’s Religious Liberties Commission until her understandably anti-Zionist statements led to her resignation.
Then there is Vrillium, a groyper with a history of being a communist crossdresser turned Orthodox LARPer. His past became an online laughingstock towards the end of 2025. He is perhaps one of the most obvious grifters a part of this movement.
The question then becomes, is it wise for someone like Joel Webbon to speak at a conference with these associations? In many ways, this has been the direction Webbon has been trending in, not necessarily in their scandals, but in this style of politics. His interviews with Fuentes and Shields revealed that he was more “right wing” than the former but had tactical agreements with the latter. On one hand, it would be hardly expected that Webbon will say anything divergent from his previous statements, but the question of association is one of wisdom and prudence. Are these serious people worth his time?
America First United Candidates
Being situated in Ohio, the event is designed to help candidate Casey Putsch in the lead-up to the Tuesday primary, yet while Putsch’s campaign showed early signs of promise in using an auto-YouTuber celebrity to mount a primary challenge against the electorally disastrous and anti-White Vivek Ramaswamy, his execution has gone Full Retard. While running in the Republican party, he has “crashed out” against Trump, whom his potential voters in Ohio have voted for thrice. While the odds of beating the boomercon-backed token were always a long shot, his campaign with 12% polling has demonstrated that social media campaigns are limited in their effectiveness.
The same could be said of Fishback, that while he is not listed as a speaker, he has received endorsement tweets from America First United. Fishback’s recent polling has dropped into the single digits, while his rhetoric has been more bombastic than Putsch’s in an appeal for online clout.
Then there is Mark Moran, a former democrat running for Senate in Virginia. Tactically, he could be a spoiler for the Democrats, but he is not a serious contender to win the seat. His success would actually help the GOP flip the seat, but this is extremely improbable.
They have endorsed Democrats Bernard Taylor (FL-21) against Republican Brian Mast and Phil Her against Republican Carlos Gimenez. They endorsed Tyler Dykes running for Nancy Mace’s vacated seat in South Carolina’s 1st District, wherein Dykes did not even register support on a local Republican straw poll. Dan Bilzerian is running an online primary campaign against Randy Fines (FL-06). While Fines is a notorious Zionist, he is still more anti-immigration than Thomas Massie. It should also be noted that Bilzerian’s Armenian dual citizenship is a conflict of interest for someone claiming to be America First.
In short, none of the candidates America First United have endorsed are serious or even viable contenders. The notion of a bipartisan movement will unlikely have mass appeal to voters, especially since Republicans in Florida who might appreciate the redistricting work Governor DeSantis has done would not want to see these efforts subverted by any movement for any cause.
Doing Politics
Just because Zionism has had a negative impact on America does not mean that allying across the aisle is a viable solution and such efforts to establish such a political coalition are overseen by dubious or outright untrustworthy actors. If anything, the Right should use Israel as a wedge issue to divide the Left, not unite with the dissidents. In 2024, support for Israel hampered Kamala Harris in Michigan. This is a wedge to be exploited that can deflate opposition turn-out without compromising the Right or devolving into retardation. Just as with the Incrementalism debate pertaining to abortion, most politics will always be incremental in application and the same applies to removing Zionism in politics. There are increments being taken in this 2026 midterm cycle that will produce a better GOP.
This primary cycle has already seen some shakeups with notorious RINO incumbents like Dan Crenshaw and Tony Gonzalez both lost while Ken Paxton and John Cornyn are neck-in-neck going into a runoff. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican who voted for Trump’s impeachment, is third in the polls in going into the Louisiana primary. Within the senate, the GOP is slated to have three fresh faces in “safe” seats in Alabama, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, while Mike Collins would be a major flip in Georgia. Sen. Tommy Tuberville becoming Alabama governor would also be an upgrade over Kay Ivey. The Supreme Court striking down black congressional districts is a major boon to the GOP that will improve the party over the next decade as these newly available seats will be flipped.
There are bad candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy, who will likely lose to Amy Acton, and DEI candidates like Byron Donalds, who will probably underperform, though the state is Red enough for him to win.
Though there are problems, the successful upgrades happening within the GOP demonstrate that working within the system is the more viable path than whatever America First United is attempting to do.
Conclusion
As Auron MacIntyre recently said, “You can just be pro-Christian and pro-American. You don’t need to team up with Muslims against Jews or Jews against Muslims. You don’t need to side with Israel or Iran. You can just be pro your own side.” This is the position the Right should be espousing even while harboring anti-Zionist views. Building a movement specifically to counter Zionism will invariably fail, and with a wide array of perspectives, America First United has no positive vision. For men like Joel Webbon, it is a terrible look to associate with an unserious movement and does him reputational damage in the long run.
2 Responses
Joel Webbon has lost sight of the Gospel. Where does he find any time to be a pastor with all these things to gain clicks?
Joel Webbon is aligning with the guys he considers being part of the future establishment inside a post hegemonial US. The kind of establishment that appeared in a post-hegemonial Britain, after the Empire lost its status to the US during the 20th century. Webbon doesn’t care about Christianity, he cares about being part of future power circles and tries to get a head start.
The AIPAC issue appears with the status of being a global cultural power domineering the planet. It is going to leave with the US losing that status during the 21st century, which is what the focus of the initiative is (“no foreign wars”). At some point a new power will emerge and naturally become the focus of these people.