The Daily Beast Podcast - I’m The Proof that Trump’s Panicking: Poop Target

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Harry Sisson joins the Beast's Joanna Coles to discuss being the target in an AI viral video by President Trump, complete with a crown, a jet, and a very messy payload. He shares his disbelief, how he sees the attack as proof of Trump’s obsession with online feuds, and why he welcomes the attention. Sisson also explains how Democrats can use social media effectively without stooping to the same tactics, highlighting creators like Zohran Mamdani and Gavin Newsom. This episode explores the power of social media, the challenges of political engagement, and the fight to push back against MAGA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't have an answer as to why me in particular, as to why I'm getting under their skin. I just think that they are really threatened by what they saw on No Kings Day. And I think they're really threatened by the wins that Democratic Party has had, not only in media recently, but also in courts and things like that. I think they're running scared. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. And imagine you've just come back from the No Kings protest. You're about to have a drink, sit back and relax. And your inbox starts pinging with people saying, is this you?

Is this you? And of course, what they're referring to is you're the central character in Donald Trump's latest AI video, in which the president of the free world pretends he is a fighter pilot with the fighter pilot's mask wrongly placed, dropping shit all over New York City. Well, Harry J. Sisson, a young political creator slash influencer, he was at the center of that video. And what a weird place to find yourself. Well, we're going to ask him what it felt like. And then how he managed to provoke J.D. Vance to jump into the conversation. Let's get into it. Harry Sisson, extremely pleased to see you and you look as if you've managed to

have a shower and certainly wash your hair, which is looking very good, since the president's AI video. where were you when you saw this thing? It has been a crazy 24 to 48 hours. It started with Trump and moved to J.D. Vance. They both kind of teamed up on me. But transparently, I had just had a long day after the No King's protests here in Manhattan. And I was at home just kind of reflecting on it all, going through the news, anything I missed throughout the day. And I got a message from a friend.

And they're like, is this you in this video? And I'm like, no, I mean, it's a link to Trump's truth social page. It's probably not me, maybe somebody that looks like me. And then I clicked on it. And then what do you know? The president is flying a jet in an AI video with a crown on his head, dropping feces on me and millions of other Americans. So I was just kind of like sitting at home, not really doing much. And what was your immediate reaction?

It was disbelief. I don't even know. I couldn't process what I was looking at. I was like, this cannot be real. This is something that I imagine I'd see in my Twitter comments. There are a lot of right-wing trolls who spend their days making videos like this. That I understand because that's just what they do. But coming from the president of the United States, I was in disbelief.

I was depressed at the state of our country that this is something that I and we as a collective have to deal with. And I'm still kind of in disbelief. And I'm really not disappointed and also not shocked at all these elected Republicans today who are defending this. Mike Johnson said that Donald Trump is one of the best users of social media there's ever been. And I don't know. If that's how he defines it, then power to him. I mean, it's very strange. Well, you're quite a good user of social media yourself.

And so I would think that this might be the best thing that could have happened to you. I made a video last night talking about this in particular. I've gotten a lot of messages from people who are concerned for me asking me, am I safe? Am I nervous about the increased attention, especially from a quite delusional president and a freakishly weird vice president? And I said, I'm better than ever. Not because Trump is giving me attention or anything like that, but because I think he's proving my point. He's proving my point about him.

He's proving our point about him, that he's childish. He's only interested in, like, internet beef with people. He's not a serious legislator. He doesn't actually care about making this country better. He just likes getting into feuds. And so I welcome Donald Trump attacking me because he's just proving me right. Well, and you're obviously getting under his skin, and clearly he and the vice president know exactly who you are. So for those who haven't been following it as myopicly as I have, will you explain to them how J.D. Vance came to join the conversation?

It was pretty stunning. I had responded to Donald Trump's video in a couple of different tweets. One of the main posts I put out was just a simple request for journalists who may have access to Donald Trump. I just want a reporter to ask Trump why he posted this. And I still don't think anybody has. I'm still waiting for that to be fulfilled. But, you know, why did you? Trump posts an AI video dropping feces on me and other Americans. And I said, that would be great thanks. And J.D. Vance took it upon himself to reply to my tweet and say, well, I'll ask him for you, Harry. And J.D. Vance has yet to give me an update on that either.

Well, it must mean that the two of them are both following you, right? Which is a good thing because you are very provocative in your use of social media, which is the point of it, right? I mean, you've taken a lesson. Perhaps you knew how to do it anyway. You're a digital native. But certainly Donald Trump has become incredibly successful. and good at provoking people with social media.

How do you think the Democrats are doing in terms of keeping attention themselves or indeed drawing attention to themselves? If you assume that one of the great talents of Donald Trump is holding attention. It is, unfortunately, one of his great talents. And I think that the Democrats have gotten a lot better since the conclusion of the 2024 election. I think that was kind of a wake-up call for Democrats. Democrats to realize that there is a lot of untapped potential in social media. I mean, I'm even experiencing myself. I've had far more elected officials actually reach out and are interested

in working together or just meeting together just to have a conversation about what we can do better as opposed to before the 2024 election. And since then, I've noticed a lot of Democrats now have like a dedicated film crew or a dedicated team in their office for them to film content and really get the message out there and make it succinct and concise and not throwing a bunch of of numbers of people that are overwhelming, but easy messages for, you know, your average American to digest who just got home from work and is just scrolling on social media. So I'm really impressed. There's obviously still a lot of work to do. This is something Republicans and infrastructure they've been building for much longer than we have, but I'm confident we are in the process of catching up

and will eventually overcome them in the social media battle. I mean, you know, Trump being at the helm and everything he does, it's so crazy. It's not exactly, I would say, a successful individual as opposed to the Democrats who I think are communicating much better. Okay. So it's hard not to think, I mean, this was such a, if we think of presidents as being people that uphold certain values and people that we want to look up to, it's hard to think how Donald Trump plays into that flying a plane and unloading. You've used the word feces, which is one of those words that I feel like people are

only ever using when they're trying to. avoid the word shit. And what he does is he flies across Times Square, which is full of people marching on the No Kings Parade, and then he unloads a ton of shit, and it hits you first. So Michelle Obama famously said that when they go low, we go high, how does one use social media without going as low as them? Because I think of, you know, you think of someone like, Governor Newsom, who's doing a very good job getting attention, but a lot of his stuff also seems a bit puerile. I think there are some really successful examples of Democrats doing this that have captivated people. I think Zohan Mamdani is an amazing example of this. His video ideas,

his content is creative, it's, you know, has a lot of eyeballs on it. It makes you want to watch more and learn more about who he is as a candidate. It's one of the main reasons as to why he was so successful in the mayor's race and will be the next mayor of New York City, presumably, as the Democratic nominee. So I think he is a great example. We don't actually have to be like Trump. We don't actually have to go as low as he does and demonize people and use the kind of rhetoric he does and type in all caps. We can have a successful social media strategy that doesn't include the factors of Donald Trump. But I also appreciate Gavin Newsom because there's some humor there. There's some satire there that's mocking him, not necessarily saying, you know, this is what we want

to represent us. So I don't, I agree. I think Michelle Obama's quote is fantastic. I think it's sometimes we do have to go and meet them where they're at, but we are not them. We have to remember that. So are we looking at a new class of politician who basically has to be a political creator to get anywhere? I mean, because one thinks about Donald Trump, you know, he was a television producer. He knows how to produce content. And in a sense, that's what his presidency is. And you're right about Soranam Darni, he may well be elected as next mayor of New York, but he's absolutely brilliant on social media. It's incredibly watchable. You want to watch more of it. And it's lively. And it's exactly what social media is actually designed for, provocative, lively engaging.

So do we have, I'm going back to my original question because, sorry, that was a bit of a loopy a loopy question. But do you think that politicians from now on are going to have to be political creators? I think they'll have to have a creative mind or if they don't have the mind to do it, if they're not coming from that background, which is perfectly fine. You know, there are lawyers and doctors and those folks who run for office and they don't have to be content creators. If they don't have that kind of brain, then hire a team that does. And, you know, there's like an entire new job out there, which is kind of being a social media director for a lot of these candidates, these elected officials. And when they get it right, it's really, really well done.

I mean, you don't have to be a President Obama level speaker that charismatic to have a successful social media strategy. And, you know, different races require different approaches. So if you have, like, a congressional race in the middle of Pennsylvania where people are focused on rising costs, I don't expect somebody to necessarily run a Zoron-Mam-Dani kind of campaign, but you can still reach people with that social media, that social media presence. Well, how do you do that? I mean, I imagine that almost every Democratic, certainly governor and senator in the country now is thinking,

how do I hire Harry Sisson? If you're talking about a congressional campaign where you are worrying about the price of milk or the price of gas or whatever, what would be an effective way to tackle that on social media? How do you talk to people? Harry, just hold on one second. going to take some messages.

And we're back with Harry J. Sisson, who was the subject of Donald Trump's AI video this weekend. Yeah, I mean, I think that obviously different campaigns require different strategies. But if we're just using Zoron as like the best example in recent history of this, I love the videos when he would go into bodegas in New York City and talk to these business owners and say, you know, how much is X, Y, and Z? How much has this gone up by since you started your business or even last year? getting real people on camera telling their stories is inspiring. And I think it opens up a lot of people to the realities of somebody else's life and the realities of the place they live in and the solutions as to which that politician is providing.

And so I think something like that can be really effective. But again, it just really depends on the race. You're not going to have the Zohran Mamdani approach to necessarily a presidential campaign, for example. So if you were one of the Democratic governors at the moment, thinking that you might be getting ready to throw your hat in the race for the president 2028. How would you be thinking of building out your social media campaign now? Because assuming it takes a bit of time to get you on the radar with people. Yeah, I mean, we'll be just kind of at the end there touched on, I think, the most important thing for candidates right now,

which is just simply getting on people's radar. I think Gavin Newsom has done a really, really good job of that. you see in the 2028 polls in the Democratic Party, he has surged to the top in recent weeks and months simply because of his social media approach, but also his pushback to Donald Trump. And so if I were advising a candidate right now and not giving necessarily a specific video idea, I would say right now is the time to just get eyeballs on you. We can talk about specific policy later and like certain videos on certain policies and things like that. But right now, I would advise getting eyeballs on you and also just pushing back on Donald Trump.

People are really hungry for an authentic approach that pushes back on the madness we're all seeing. I think everybody wakes up every morning and they're just wondering how this is the reality that we live in. So I think those two main things is how I'd advise them. But then after 2026, I think it changes a little bit. And do you feel confident that the Democrats can retake the House in 2026, given what you're seeing across the social media landscape at the moment? Yeah, I'm very confident. I think aside from social media, media, which I'll touch on in just a second, aside from social media, historical trends will tell us that

the Democrats are likely to take the House or the Senate, or hopefully both back in 2026, but also putting the history aside, I think a lot of people, even people that voted for Donald Trump, are just kind of pissed off and fed up with what they're seeing, the picking up of people in unmarked vehicles on American cities and streets, the rising costs that Donald Trump promised to get rid of all these things. You don't need to go down the laundry list. All of these things people are pissed off about. But then from a social media perspective, I can't tell you how many viral videos I see a day in this sphere of average people who may not even be content creators saying like Trump is doing X, Y, and Z is crazy. He's whatever the video might be.

It's pretty stunning. It's certainly not something I saw before 2024, but I'm seeing it a lot now. So you yourself have been very provocative on social media and certainly you've got people coming up against you. Four days ago, there was a tagline, I think, or a hashtag saying deport. Harry Sisson, because you weren't actually born in America, correct? You were born in Singapore, or you grew up in Singapore. Is that right? Yeah, I was born in Singapore. I stayed there for less than a year, left after eight months for Dubai, and then Dubai, I lived there for five years, and then Dublin from age six to 14, and then came to the United States. But I was an American

by birth because my parents are American. We were only abroad for work. Okay, and what were they doing? What sort of family did you grow up in? Because you seem remarkably articulate and confident. I know you went to NYU. I know they produce confident students because I have a son who went to NYU. But what kind of an environment did you grow up in that you feel so confident to talk about politics in the way that you do? That's a really great question. It's very thought-provoking. And I think it's nuanced.

I think I'd have to give you a longer answer than I can provide here. Well, we can give you plenty of time to talk about it because I'm always interested in how bright, smart, young people, the background they come from? I didn't really grow up in a political household. Like, neither of my parents are necessarily in politics every single day, debating politics every single day. None of them work in politics either. They've never worked in politics. What did your parents do that they were moving around? My dad works in aircraft leasing and financing. Don't ask me what the specifics are of that industry.

I'm not 100% sure. So he's an international businessman. If that's the label, you'd go, sure. That's what took us abroad. But that's what he did. And so, didn't work in politics or anything like that. And I just kind of came to love politics by myself. I think it was around the 2016 election. I was young at that time, maybe 13, 14 years old. And I was, you know, I was in Ireland at the time. And I was reading the newspapers. And I just, you know, Trump's face was in it every single day as the election was ramping up. And I was like, you know, what is going on here? I was seeing these absurd quotes and seeing Hillary Clinton running against

And I just, I was baffled at what I was reading as an American who hadn't really paid attention to the United States all that much before because I wasn't ever living there. I was just really stunned. And so I just kept reading more and more and eventually became really enthralled with politics. And I was devastated after the 2016 election. I remember in my Irish school, I walked in as the only American. And I had teachers and students hugging me saying, I'm so sorry for what just took place in your country. And then once I moved back to the United States at age 14 and eventually at age 14, and eventually at age 15, I started working in politics on a local level with my state senator, my local councilwoman

who were fantastic and really gave me an introduction into politics. And so it's been a long journey. And I've been doing content creation since I was 17. So I'm five years in coming up on six in April. And I'm, yeah, I love it. And you've been to the White House, I gather you met President Biden. You met President Obama. Both, both fantastic people. And I love meeting them. They're genuinely, what you see on camera and the interactions they have publicly are exactly as they are in private. They're really authentic good people. So do you see yourself as becoming an advisor to an array of democratic candidates? Is that your next step? Are you going to be doing that alongside staying as a political

creator? Are you going to run for office? This feels like a very good moment for you. I'm sure there are lots of people out there that would feel alarmed about being the center of a presidential AI video. but at the same time, it's brought you incredible attention. I mean, it's the best possible source of flattery. It is a great source of flattery that I'm living rent-free in the president's mind. I take a lot of pride that I've pissed him off so much. Right now, in the near future, I intend to continue my political content creation. I think new media is only going to grow.

And if we don't have people in new media, Republicans will continue to take advantage of that. and I'm not willing to seed ground to them anytime soon. But in terms of the future, at least in terms of 2026 and 2028, if there is a campaign candidate that I can advise, I will do so for free. I'm not really interested in making a bunch of money. I'm not really interested in the attention necessarily from Donald Trump. I'm just interested in beating MAGA and beating them in elections and taking our democracy back.

And so if there are candidates out there and they're interested in advice regarding their content creation or just what young people are thinking, I'd be happy to provide that for free. I don't need to pay me. Well, I'm sure there'll be lots of candidates who are thinking this guy is fantastic. Not only is he really good at making career, but he's not political ads and content, but he's not going to charge me. I think perhaps you should take that decision under review. Maybe I should.

Yeah, you should totally take that decision under review. You can always give the money back to causes, if you like, but you don't have to do your work for free. You're also going to get much more, I'm sure, attention online and you hit a bump in what appears to have been otherwise a pretty smooth road in your career earlier this year when apparently 11 women came forward and said that you had been soliciting what I'm assuming are naked photos of them on Snapchat. So I was going to get your response to that. Harry, just a quick break for our sponsors. And we're back with Harry J. Sisson. I mean, yeah, I mean, this has been a long running story that was really amplified

by Republicans. But the story is interesting. There's a lot of misinformation out there, but I don't have to get into all of that right now. I'd say that at the time that this took place, I was a single man. I was younger than I am right now. I was a single man in college acting like a single man in college. And of course, I think I should have approached it better. But I was just kind of playing the field as people have labeled it as. And I'm now in a relationship. I'm in a happy relationship. I'm older than I was, making better decisions than I was. And of course, I regret, you know, talking to so many people at once and having that kind of be almost secret, I guess. But, you know, it's in the past. I'm really focused on the future and just pushing back on

Donald Trump. And clearly, he's angry by what we do here. And so I'm focused on that. Okay. Well, Harry, thank you for joining us and keep up your content. It's clearly getting under the president's skin. Do you know, I mean, as you pointed out, there are a lot of young people making very provocative, lively content like you are. Do you have any sense of why your content in particular is getting under his and the vice president's skin? I don't have an answer as to why me in particular, as to why I'm getting under their skin. I just think that they are really threatened by what they saw on No Kings Day. And I think they're really threatened by the wins that Democratic Party has had, not only in media recently, but also in courts and things like that.

I think they're running scared and Trump has a habit of when he's panicked and really nervous of just lashing out. And so I just think that maybe perhaps I was on his mind that day and he decided to pick me to target. Well, let's stay in touch and would love to have you back on the podcast, especially the next time you attract his attention. I would love to stay in touch. I'll be back whenever you'll have me. There you have it. Democratic candidates call Harry J. Sisson. He's offered. his services for free. He's undoubtedly an extremely talented political creator. And it's very clear that the Democrats could use some more of those. So if you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast. We are independent media and we really love and need your support. Don't forget to join the Daily Beast community for access to extra content, special lives, all sorts of things. It's actually a really fun membership. Feel free to leave us a comment on YouTube and don't forget to review us wherever you get your podcasts. And if you haven't been this week, it's time.

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