MTG Demands Influencers Paid by Israel Register as Foreign Agents
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling for full transparency after new filings revealed that a media firm hired by the Israeli government planned a U.S. influencer campaign worth up to $900,000. The effort—known as the “Esther Project”—intended to pay 14 to 18 American influencers to post pro-Israel content aimed at U.S. audiences.
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Greene, a Georgia Republican, responded forcefully after the program became public. In a video shared across her social-media accounts, she said, “If they’re being paid by a foreign country, they must register under FARA. Period.”
Greene later expanded on her position in a post on X, writing, “All social media influencers being paid by the Israeli government or ANY foreign government must register as foreign agents. This is the law, and they are breaking it if they don’t.”
No influencers have been publicly identified in the filings, and no one has filed a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosure tied to the campaign. That lack of transparency is at the center of Greene’s criticism. “Americans deserve transparency,” she said. “If foreign governments are secretly paying influencers to sway public opinion, the public should be told.”
The disclosures come amid Greene’s broader shift on Israel policy. In recent months she has accused pro-Israel lobbying groups of having “incredible influence and control on Congress” and has criticized ongoing U.S. military funding to the Israeli government.
The Justice Department documents show that the Israel-backed campaign was scheduled to run from June through November and budgeted for dozens of social-media posts. Reporting has suggested the payouts could reach as high as $7,000 per post, though that figure remains unconfirmed because the identities of the influencers are still unknown.
Greene says the legality of those payments is simple: If the posts were made on behalf of a foreign government, the influencers must disclose it. Until that happens, she argues, the public has no way of knowing whether they are consuming political messaging—or foreign-funded propaganda—on their social feeds.