Meet the D.C. women shaking up right-wing media

The big picture: Young people are veering further right, a trend that helped get President Trump back into the Executive Manse and is being fueled in part by Gen Z-coded, conservative-leaning influencers and platforms.

• Yes, there are the "manosphere" bros, but there's also a growing cohort of young women making their names in right-wing media. Some like Turning Point USA figure and wellness podcaster Alex Clark — whose followers are dubbed "cuteservatives" — are tapping into the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) subculture.
• The media roster also includes Brett Cooper, who was formerly with The Daily Wire and now has her own YouTube channel, and Evie Magazine, which Rolling Stone describes as "a girlboss-ified Breitbart."

Meanwhile, Trump performed slightly better with women in this election than he did in 2020.

State of play: The Conserveatur gained over 40,000 Instagram followers in the three days following Trump's election, says Jayme Franklin, a Fox News and Trump White House alum who co-founded the site and runs it alongside three other women.

• It's also recently received interest from new potential investors, says Franklin, although she declined to spill deets.

The site bills itself as a lifestyle platform, not a news outlet: Articles include tips on how to decorate for Christmas like a First Lady, a piece on Lara Trump's new fitness line, profiles of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt, and a behind-the-scenes look at Cooper's Nashville wedding.

• "A lot of these right wing-adjacent women trust us to cover them," says editor-in-chief Caroline Downey, who's also a staff writer at the National Review.

By the numbers: The Conservateur saw 1.7 million page views last year, says Franklin, and the women fund it themselves, bringing in revenue from subscriptions and by selling merch.

• You can buy swag like bright pink "Make America Hot Again" trucker hats ($45), rhinestone cross earrings ($55), and sweatshirts featuring a black-and-white photo of Ronald Reagan with a horse ($60).

And, of course, there's a little lib-owning: One meme shared on the platform's Instagram shows Barron Trump holding his hand up to his ear with overlaid text reading, "When I refresh ICE's live deportation tracker."

How it started: Franklin and her co-founder, Isabelle Redfield, launched the Conservateur in 2020 as an antidote to what they saw as the overt wokeism within traditional mags like Marie Claire or Cosmopolitan.

• "I'd be like, 'What the heck is going on in these magazines?,'" says Franklin. "It's a very toxic culture, with casual sex, telling you to hate men, telling you to hate white people."

What they're saying: After Trump claimed the popular vote last year, it's now no longer "taboo" to be considered a conservative, says Downey: "You couldn't really question the fact that more than half the country is now on board with this, and you can't say they're all crazy."

• "It's cooler now to be conservative," Franklin tells Axios. "People kind of think you're not really that cool, or you're kind of weird, if you're this uber-progressive person now."

The intrigue: Franklin tells Axios several things have led to this vibe shift.

First, libs lost cachet with former President Biden: "The left had an opportunity in 2020 to really take advantage of culture, because [there] was a lot of energy there, especially with BLM and all that stuff," Franklin tells Axios. "And then they put in this, to be quite frank, old man who just didn't inspire anyone."

Second, young people started to chafe against "the progressive culture of policing everything," says Franklin. "You're not allowed to say this, you can't make a joke, you'll be canceled."

Third, some women got fed up with feminism. "Growing up, you were sold this [narrative of] 'men are bad. Don't get married. Be your own woman. Be a career woman,''" says Franklin.

• This comes as some conservatives increasingly push for a shift toward traditional gender roles and family structures.

Fourth, many wellness-loving women have found a gateway to the right through the MAHA movement, particularly moms concerned with their kids' food ingredients or vaccines.

• "The Washington beltway really underestimated [Health Secretary Robert F. Kenndy Jr.'s] message, especially towards women," says Franklin.

Between the lines: The Conservateur's audience tends to be women ages 20-40 in left-ish metro areas who lean Christian and conservative, Franklin tells Axios. Sororities love them, too.

• The site's largest markets: New York, D.C., Dallas, and Orange County, California.
• Many of the women following them aren't even overtly political, says Franklin — they just feel alienated by the messages they see in mainstream media.

Zoom in: Things are already changing in largely liberal D.C. since Trump came back to town, says Franklin.

• Cafe Milano is a big right-wing hangout right now, she says, as is the Capitol Hill restaurant Butterworth's. (The Conservateur is hosting an "America Is Hot Again" event there next month.)
• And Franklin is excited for Trump's plans to clean up D.C. — she and her family used to live in Georgetown, where she says their home was broken into. They've since moved to Northern Virginia. "[D.C. is] becoming the new California."

What we're watching: A Conservateur podcast is in the works, say Downey and Franklin, and they'd love to feature women of the Trump administration who they believe won't get their due in mainstream media: Names floated include Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and Linda McMahon.

• Also on their list as an up-and-comer: Kai Trump.
• "She does give 'role model' for young girls," says Downey.

The bottom line: "We're a capitalist country at the end of the day, and capitalism caters to consumers," says Franklin of the tide shift. "If Trump's the popular candidate, a lot of these brands are going to have to start catering."