WASHINGTON ― The White House’s favored new reporter, the one who scolded Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit, was the primary voice at a “news” outlet that has taken $192,000 from President Donald Trump’s political committees, nearly half of which came while he was program director there.
Brian Glenn now works for a pro-Trump streaming platform called Real America’s Voice, but from September 2020 to May 2024, he was the most visible face at Right Side Broadcasting Network. Over those years, the outlet took $92,000 in “broadcast” fees, first from Trump’s Save America committee and then from Trump’s campaign, according to a HuffPost review of Federal Election Commission filings.
Glenn acknowledged the payments in a brief interview, describing them as “production” costs, and then pointed to the row of television cameras set up in the back of the White House briefing room.
“Who pays for them?” he asked, suggesting that the major networks like NBC, CNN and Fox also accept money from the entities they cover.
In fact, taking such payments would be considered a serious ethical breach among reputable news outlets. The television networks covering this and previous White Houses, as well as print and radio outlets, all pay their own expenses when covering political events, as does HuffPost.
Indeed, the Trump administration, including the White House, has falsely accused legitimate news organizations of corruption because government agencies, even those in the first Trump term, bought subscriptions from them, including some to expensive, lobbyist-oriented trade publications.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary who had worked on Trump’s campaign, also acknowledged the payments. “The Trump campaign paid RSBN for the usage of their live stream,” she said.
She did not address HuffPost’s question regarding the ethics of an outlet accepting money from the subject it was covering.
Those payments continued after Glenn left RSBN to join Real America’s Voice last spring. The campaign gave the online video outlet an additional $100,000 from June 2024 through the end of the year, capped off with a $57,000 payment on Nov. 14, the week following the election.
Glenn referred further questions about the payments to RSBN founder Joe Seales. In a 2024 Politico profile, Glenn was described as “the star who Seales has largely handed control over to.”
Glenn did not dispute that characterization, but said, “I wasn’t the CEO so I didn’t handle business decisions. Just programming content.”
RSBN President Grace Saldana said Seales was not available for interviews but confirmed the financial arrangement with the Trump campaign. “The payments in question were for video production services RSBN provided to the campaign. Specifically, we delivered live video coverage of campaign rallies, which they used on their social media, etc.,” she said via email.
Glenn, who earlier in his career worked at the ABC affiliate in Dallas, has been a darling of the White House press office since Trump returned to power in January. During his time at RSBN, Glenn would describe Trump to his streaming audiences in a more positive light than even Trump describes himself. A go-to question of his to rallygoers was to ask what they loved most about Trump.
Leavitt announced last month that she would grab control of the daily press pool that covers the president in small spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One to replace traditional, fact-based outlets with openly pro-Trump cheerleaders, who typically gather along the briefing room walls. On Wednesday, for example, that coterie was given about half of the questions Leavitt allowed, and most asked her why Democrats had behaved so badly during Trump’s speech to Congress the previous night.
Among that group, Glenn appears to be a singular star, getting access to Oval Office events even when he is not in the announced pool that day. “If they invite me, I go in,” he said.
That happened early last week when Glenn was brought into an executive order signing where Trump started offering red “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING” caps to reporters. The traditional journalists all declined, but Glenn eagerly asked for one.
Last Friday, Glenn was in the very first travel pool rotation to feature a “secondary TV correspondent and crew” in addition to the normal television pool.
And earlier that day, he was invited into the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, even though he was not listed in that day’s on-campus pool assignments. It was there that he asked Zelenskyy why he didn’t wear a suit to the meeting and that “a lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office.”
Zelenskyy has on numerous occasions said that once Russia’s three-year old invasion has been repelled and the war is over, he will resume wearing a standard suit. He told Glenn the same on Friday. “Maybe something like yours, yes,” he said. “Maybe something better. I don’t know. We will see, maybe something cheaper.”
The basis for Glenn’s assertion about “a lot” of Americans having problems with Zelenskyy’s military-style attire is unclear. In any case, his question was followed up later by Vice President JD Vance’s criticism that Zelenskyy had been “disrespectful” to Trump and had not been adequately thankful, which soon led to Trump loudly berating Zelenskyy.
Glenn and a cameraman traveled aboard Air Force One to Florida later that day, the first among the pro-Trump reporters ― along with a writer from Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire ― to join the domestic travel pool, replacing The Associated Press’ reporter, photographer and an additional print reporter from the White House Correspondents Association.
Leavitt said that Glenn and all the other handpicked reporters in the revamped press pool would have to pay the same amount that is charged to WHCA members who are also on the trip. On a weekend golf excursion to Florida, that bill can approach $3,000 per seat.
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“Everyone traveling on Air Force One will pay the same rate,” she said.
The original headline was changed to clarify that RSBN is Brian Glenn’s former employer.