Meet the ‘Dark MAGA’ Agent With a Dirty Past: Radical Touted as Movement’s ‘Secret Weapon’

Donald Trump wasn’t the only one thirsty for redemption at his second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania—the first time that the former president was back in the city since an assassination attempt was made on his life.

Just before Trump took to the stage on Oct. 5 for an emotional roller coaster of a keynote speech—which included Elon Musk awkwardly jumping for “Dark MAGA”—a long-haired, right-wing conservative Scott Presler was introduced to the crowd.

“And he wore shorts for us today so check out his legs. Look at this!” said Trump’s daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, calling Presler up to the podium.

In a roughly two-minute address, with his Rasputin-like hair blowing in the wind, Presler made a pitch for Pennsylvanians to get registered to vote and support MAGA come Election Day.

“Pennsylvania, you have the power to change the world. Pennsylvania wins the White House,” said Presler. “So I ask you today, please check your voter status and make sure you’re an active voter registered at your current address.”

Presler pitched to Pennsylvania’s union workers, hunters, and even to the state’s “beautiful” Amish.

“We will protect your raw milk, your dairy, your school choice, your religious freedom, your ability to afford to have 10 beautiful children per family,” he said.

Yet Presler, who identifies as gay, seemed to be also pitching himself to other top Republicans watching to prove he is ready for another chance in an official role following his 2016 resignation from the Republican Party of Virginia in the wake of allegations that he had sex in one of its offices.

Politico Playbook reported that three people familiar with the incident said Presler engaged in sexual activity in the office and then posted pictures of the encounter on Craigslist. When he was confronted about it, he quit.

Since cutting ties with the RNC in Virginia, Presler has slid deeper into the world of “Dark MAGA,” the dystopian meme movement to get Trump back into the White House through any means necessary. He chaired Gays for Trump in 2017—tying his coming out story to the Pulse massacre—before moving on to spearhead the anti-Muslim far-right group ACT for America, helping to organize “March Against Sharia” protests across the country, reported The Washington Post.

The events “attracted various factions of the radical right, including white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and anti-government extremists—all of whom were united by anti-Muslim animus,” reported the Southern Poverty Law Center nonprofit, which called ACT for America an “extremist” group.

“I 100 percent believe in the notion that armed gays don’t get bashed,” Presler, then 28, said in a 2019 interview with The Virginia Pilot about why he voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton. “It is our right to feel safe,” said Presler, who claimed his vote came down to the second amendment.

In the aftermath of Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden, Presler also began pushing “stop the steal” election denialism propaganda and helped organize the January 6 insurrection, which Presler called “the largest civil rights protest in American history” in a tweet, according to NBC News.

In the following months as charges began to be filed against January 6 participants, Presler tweeted: “My dad is a retired Navy Captain. His dad was a Navy Captain. Never served our country, but I feel like I’m serving in a different way. Promise to do everything in my power to preserve our freedoms. I want my family to know that I wasn’t a quiet observer — I took action.”

Online, Presler has crafted more than a million followers by peddling far-right conspiracy theories under QAnon hashtags. Yet lately Presler seems to have made efforts to tone down some of his more divisive views to present himself as a conservative voter registration “activist.” 

“I helped defeat Hillary, Cheney,” Presler’s X profile boasts, in reference to his work getting Republicans registered to vote, which he claims has mobilized upwards of 200,000 people.

In March, NBC reported that Lara Trump announced plans to hire Presler to run the party’s “legal ballot harvesting division” just as she stepped into her role as Republican National Committee co-chair.

“I think he’s fantastic,” Lara told conservative commentator Benny Johnson of Tenet Media, reported Media Matters. She has also previously gushed over his voter registration efforts on her The Right View with Lara Trump show in an effort to talk him up for the job.

But the role never materialized, with an RNC spokesperson telling NBC that Presler is a “valuable voice to the RNC” but will not become a direct employee as he “remains focused” on his voter registration nonprofit, Early Vote Action. Some political commentators suggested that Presler was too extreme for the Republican party ... for now.

Yet like his X handle, @ThePersistence, Presler persists. He reportedly grew up in Florida and graduated from George Mason University with a degree in criminal justice. Now around 36 years old, Presler has continued to profess his fandom for Trump and all things MAGA, and has been featured on several conservative media outlets, including podcasts by Donald Trump Jr. and Megyn Kelly, with commentators hailing him as a “secret weapon.”

On stage in Butler, opening for Trump, Presler called it “the most surreal moment of my life.”

“Thank you, Lara, for the opportunity to speak,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

To which Lara commented, “You are a star and we all appreciate your hard work! 🇺🇸❤️”

Several messages sent to Presler for comment on this story were not returned.