The VIRA Briefing — July 28, 2026

This MAGA Influencer Runs a Charity to Teach Kids Civics. Much of the Money Goes to Him Instead.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at the National Archives last month to praise a nonprofit that says it has reached 2 million kids with civics education — a ProPublica investigation finds little evidence the program does much educating at all. Nick Adams, the Australian-born MAGA commentator whom Trump later appointed as a special presidential envoy, has funneled more than half the charity’s recent revenue to himself and his mother, much of it raised through a sweepstakes promising a $1 million prize records show was never paid. It’s a case study in how proximity to power, not results, decides which charities get celebrated in Washington.

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