Benny Johnson, tucker Carlson, Candace Owens on a red background with crosses

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Calling their opponents “demonic,” some right-leaning online shows are embracing “spiritual warfare” rhetoric

Online figures and podcasters have warned of a “satanic world order” and called on their audiences to “fight these demons in culture if we're going to win politically”

Written by Payton Armstrong & Noah Dowe

Research contributions from Jack Winstanley

Published

Some right-wing and right-leaning podcasters have embraced the extreme rhetoric of “spiritual warfare” against their political opponents, accusing political and cultural figures they disagree with of harboring a “demonic” ideology.

Such rhetoric seems to stem from a once-fringe Christian nationalist movement, and is increasingly being used by evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump and his allies in right-wing media. During the 2024 election, Trump himself accused Democrats of being “demonic.”

Americans increasingly get their news from podcasts and online shows, an ecosystem dominated by overwhelmingly right-leaning shows. Since the 2024 election, some right-leaning online hosts and guests have used those platforms to suggest that the right must combat the “demonic activity” of their political and cultural opponents.

  • “Spiritual warfare” rhetoric — which is associated with an extreme Christian movement — has been increasing on the right

    • “Spiritual warfare” rhetoric is associated with a charismatic movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, whose “followers view foes of their quest as satanic.” As described in The Atlantic, NAR’s early vision “was not technically conservative but radical: Constructing the Kingdom meant destroying the secular state with equal rights for all, and replacing it with a system in which Christianity is supreme,” and the movement’s central ideas include “the belief that God speaks through modern-day apostles and prophets. That demonic forces can control not only individuals, but entire territories and institutions. That the Church is not so much a place as an active ‘army of God.’” NAR leaders also “hold that the physical world is enveloped by a supernatural dimension, featuring warring angels and demons, and are convinced that demons afflict their enemies on behalf of the devil.” [Rolling Stone, 9/29/22; The Atlantic, 1/9/25; The New Republic, 1/23/23]
    • Media Matters previously reported that right-wing media figures were “ramping up apocalyptic political rhetoric” ahead of the 2024 election, with some suggesting demons were waging “spiritual war” against humanity. [Media Matters, 7/5/23]
    • On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump accused “demonic” Democrats of “fighting so hard to steal this damn thing,” and The Associated Press reported that “evangelical leaders in Trump’s orbit have increasingly used the rhetoric that he is ‘anointed’ to fight ‘spiritual warfare’ against Democrats.” [Financial Times, 11/5/24; The Associated Press, 10/20/24]

  • Right-leaning hosts and guests on online shows have attacked their political and cultural opponents with talk of a “demonic” ideology and invoked the language of “spiritual warfare”

    • On The Benny Show, former Trump adviser Michael Flynn called former President Barack Obama “the antichrist,” adding, “Talk about spiritual warfare.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 11/4/24]
    • Right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec: “We saw demonic activity in the streets with Black Lives Matter.” Posobiec continued, “And I saw there was some guy who said — he said, I can't believe these people on the right are suddenly talking about demons all of a sudden. I say, excuse me, excuse me. I have believed this my entire life.” [Rumble, Human Events Daily, 9/3/25]
    • Posobiec: “In 2020, houses of worship were shut down, and then demonic energies were unleashed on the country without countervailing prayer and church gatherings. BLM leaders discussed occult ties openly. This has always been spiritual warfare.” [Twitter/X, 8/28/25]
    • Right-wing podcaster Candace Owens: “So we have to, you know, kill these demons in Hollywood. We have to fight these demons in culture if we're going to win politically.” Owens has previously claimed “the media is a form of black magic” and suggested “Hollywood is, in fact, being controlled by some sort of a demonic cult with an intention to corrupt our souls.” [YouTube, Candace, 1/28/25, 6/12/24]
    • Former Fox host and current podcaster Tucker Carlson has claimed that he was “physically mauled” by a demon and suggested the U.S. is experiencing a “spiritual battle.” In an interview for a documentary titled Christianities?, Carlson claimed that he was attacked by a demon that left him “bleeding” and that he “had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder.” And after the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, Carlson said, “There is a spiritual battle under way,” adding, “There is no logical way to understand what we're seeing now in temporal terms. You just can't. These are not political divides. There are forces.” [The Guardian, 11/1/24; Blaze Media, 7/14/24]
    • Steve Bannon declared “the deep state is demonic” and asserted that “our audience is united in trying to save the country and understands at the end of the day this is spiritual warfare.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 2/6/25; Media Matters, 2/27/25]
    • On The Tucker Carlson Show, Bannon said, “When you come to Washington, you can really feel it’s a spiritual war because of the dark specter that hangs over this town,” according to Christianity Daily. Carlson in turn praised Bannon for characterizing political battles in Washington as “a spiritual thing,” the publication reported. [Christianity Daily, 6/24/25]
    • Also on Carlson's show, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said people will have to “choose a side,” describing one side as the “evil, establishment, satanic world order” and the other as “good,” and claimed there is a pattern of women becoming “demon-possessed.” Carlson agreed that “what you just described is just on display everywhere,” suggesting leftists are “worshipping death in some way.” [YouTube, The Tucker Carlson Show, 4/9/25]
    • Right-leaning podcast host Russell Brand referred to Hillary Clinton as a “potential literal demon.” [Rumble, Stay Free with Russell Brand, 9/29/25]
    • Brand has also suggested that “our culture has defaulted to paganism,” and we are in the midst of a “holy war” and “spiritual warfare” that is “unignorable yet more deplorable as captured institutions are plainly used in order to persecute and control.” He also told his audience that we need “a strong constitution” to “survive the evident and obvious demonic forces that are in this world. … We know now that when people say democracy, they don’t mean the will of the people. They mean a set of institutions that they control.” Ahead of the 2024 election, he used similar language, asking his viewers, “Whose side are you going to be on in this spiritual warfare? What side do you want to wake up on on November the 5th? … Do you want constricted authoritarianism and total control? Do you want godlessness?” [Rumble, Stay Free with Russell Brand, 4/14/25, 10/8/24]
    • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said “socialists” “hate” the nuclear family and thus are “a demonic force.” He said: “Either you stand with the family, you defend it, or you don't. And if you don't, then you're an agent of despair and moral chaos. You're the enemy. You're a demonic force. We're not allies. We can never be allies. I want your whole world view and everything you stand for to be destroyed if you stand against the family.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 8/4/25]
    • Walsh argued that “the central conflict in this country is not political but spiritual,” suggesting the “distinction between the political parties” is a “distinction between good governance and demonic influence.” “That's been obvious for some time now, but it's always operated beneath the surface to some extent,” he added. [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 3/5/25]
    • Right-wing streamer Stew Peters, who has repeatedly pushed rhetoric promoting violence against perceived enemies, said: “This is a battle of good and evil. We've talked about spiritual warfare on this program a lot.” He added, “We're going to continue to talk about it because the enemy is still waging war.” [Rumble, The Stew Peters Show, 3/26/25; Media Matters, 11/7/23]
    • War Room co-host Natalie Winters said police in Washington, D.C., have had their “hands shackled” by “woke ideology and very progressive policies” and “it’s quite demonic and just evil what they’re motivated by.” She added: “They worship death and that's what you're seeing on full display.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 8/11/25]
    • On Carlson’s show, Owens discussed defamation lawsuits against her and Fox News, saying, “These people are satanic.” In an attack on Tom Clare, an attorney who represented both Dominion in their lawsuit against Fox News and the Macron family in their suit against Owens, she complained: “He was sitting up there giddy with Jake Tapper. … Tapper sits to him, he's like, and how much did you get from Dominion lawsuit? That's a lot of money. You're going to sue her for all that money? And that tells you who their master is, right? … Yeah. These people are satanic.” [YouTube, The Tucker Carlson Show, 8/1/25; Time, 7/24/25]
    • In a Glenn Beck video titled “Will Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance be DEMONIC?!,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock accused musician Bad Bunny of being “closely associated with demonic activities, so closely associated with promoting gender fluidity and the cross-dressing deal.” Beck then played an AI-narrated TikTok video that said “fans are reporting that they felt a demonic presence when attending Bad Bunny’s recent concert,” leading Whitlock to comment that “the music industry clearly has a close association with the occult movement.” [Blaze TV, The Glenn Beck Show, 9/30/25; YouTube, 9/30/25]
    • Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson, while discussing an incident near the CIA headquarters, said, “When Satan loses territory, when these godless demons who run these agencies, when they lose power, they'll lash out.” Johnson continued, “They'll behave like their master tells them to because, you know, they don't have a relationship with God.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 3/19/25]

    Media Matters is maintaining a database of online shows with a right-leaning or left-leaning ideological bent, including those that self-categorize in nonpolitical categories such as comedy, sports, and culture but which we determined regularly cover news and politics. This report draws upon that ongoing research in categorizing the online shows mentioned.