The Corona–Signorini case, which exploded with the episode of “Falsissimo – The price of success”, is based on a narrative strategy that explicitly recalls the language of collective complaints and the imaginary “MeToo”, while moving in a hybrid terrain between revelation, show and tabloid exploitation. For some it is the new frontier of infotainment, for others it is just rubbish. If we want, it is only the last frontier of tabloid entertainment that comes directly from the USA. Just as commercial TV arrived at the end of the 70s and American TV series in the 80s, a new way of providing entertainment is now arriving in Italy which is no longer based on the television medium, but on the social media. But beyond the content of what Corona passes off as an “investigation” – with obvious limitations on a narrative level, but also in terms of content – the mode of production and distribution of the editorial product is striking. Methods that are new here, but certainly not in the Trumpian USA.

Corona vs strong powers: the MAGA model of social media against elite media

In the USA, since the first election of Donald Trump, militant influencers and podcasters from the MAGA world have been born who have spread the conspiracy ideas – more or less bizarre – which are still making the fortune of Trumpism. And it is precisely the media – social media, from YouTube to Instagram – that most characterizes these contents, because they are different from traditional media – radio, television and print media – to which elites and traditionally institutional actors usually have access, due to the evident higher costs of production and distribution. The concept, from the influencers and podcasters Maga, up to our more modest Fabrizio Corona, is: the traditional media, precisely because they are infiltrated by interests and connivances that have been rooted for decades of the “usual” power groups and lobbies, tell falsehoods or, at least, omit them, while we who act freely on social media, can tell the truth; but precisely because we do this, we risk our skin. Hence Corona’s mantra in his “Falsissimo”, “we don’t want any money here, we don’t do any more negotiations”, even going so far as to say “only death can stop us. Shoot me!” (episode of “Falsissimo” of January 27, 2025, which dealt with the case of the son of the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa”), almost presenting himself, in his egomania, as an aspiring new Charlie Kirk. Elements that refer precisely to the all-US phenomenon of Trumpian MAGA influencers.

MAGA’s media weapon against Western liberal democracies

In the MAGA world, conspiracy podcasters are central figures who mix anti-deep state narratives, QAnon-style and distrust in institutions, with a clear desire to undermine the establishment, seen as a shady organization that hides the misdeeds of the elites against the real country and the “poor” defenseless citizens. This is content based on propaganda aimed at spreading conspiracies on, for example, the “stolen” election of 2020 in favor of Joe Biden – with the corollary of the assault on Capitol Hill – the “Epstein files” as a shining example of the vices of the world elite – with the corollary of the conspiracy hatched by the Israeli Mossad which moved Epstein himself as a pawn of unspeakable blackmail against the powerful of the Earth – Covid as a great scam, vaccines as an instrument of subjugation of the population in favor of Big Pharma and the “Illuminati” governments, and a whole series of suspicions, with judicial or media impacts, aimed at discrediting the institutions and foundations of Western liberal democracies. These MAGA podcasters dominate the American pro-Trump debate – and, therefore, throughout the Western hemisphere – through a mix of political militancy and populist entertainment. This media galaxy, which emerged forcefully during Trump’s re-election in 2024, unites pure activists, Trump family members and entertainers with a large, white, misogynistic, homotransphobic and conservative male following, shaping the “America First” narrative against the establishment corrupted by comfort and power, unjustly held to the detriment of the poor people, of the “real” America.

Bannon, Kirk and the MAGA Hydra: the podcasters dominating Trump 3.0

Among the MAGA militants, the main actor is Steve Bannon who makes his voice heard in his “Bannon’s War Room”, a daily podcast that acts as a strategic MAGA headquarters (the podcast, launched in 2019, has now reached around 2,100 episodes and maintains a daily rhythm): here communication campaigns are coordinated, democratic opponents are attacked and militants from the Trumpian base are mobilized on issues such as immigration, protectionist economics and the fight against the “deep state”. Another tutelary deity is still Charlie Kirk, even after his killing, with what was “The Charlie Kirk Show”. He represented the young face of the MAGA movement, leader of Turning Point USA (an American non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk himself and Bill Montgomery, created to promote conservative ideas among high school and university students), he attracted conservative students by amplifying the MAGA agenda against university “wokeism” and identity politics. After his killing, like a multi-headed Hydra – where by cutting one off, others emerge – other podcasters and activists came to the fore such as Candace Owens, who grew up alongside Kirk in Tpusa and Blexit (a conservative political movement born in 2018 in the USA, created by Owens herself under the aegis of Turning Point USA, whose activity is aimed at convincing African Americans to leave the Democratic Party and embrace republican conservatism). Owens, with millions of followers, with his show of the same name, breaks racial barriers by addressing a conservative African-American audience, attacking DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) issues and radical feminism. Other influencers who have increased their visibility after Kirk’s assassination are Isabel Brown, 28 years old, a “Catholic streamer” with 1 million followers on Instagram and Allie Beth Stuckey, 32 years old, a Texan podcaster, both “Gen Z” influencers, close to the MAGA movement. Other candidates to take Kirk’s baton are Riley Gaines, former college swimmer, turned icon Maga against transgender athletes in women’s sports and Brilyn Hollyhand, very young MAGA political commentator, founder at 11 years old of The Truth Gazette and podcaster with her “The Brilyn Hollyhand Show”. Hollyhand calls himself “the youngest voice of reason on the web” and has become Kirk’s “heir” by virtue of the “One Conversation at a Time” tour, financed by the Maga movement, around American colleges. Finally, another podcaster on the crest of the wave of the Trumpian world is Ben Shapiro, author and host of the second most listened to podcast in the USA “The Ben Shapiro Show”, characterized by anti-woke positions. And then we have Donald Trump Junior, Donald’s son who, with his podcast “Triggered with Don Jr.”, offers a megaphone directed at the Trump dynasty with aggressive tones, family endorsements and a focus on the Republican grassroots (the militant and spontaneous base of the Republican Party that is activated beyond millionaire donations or directives coming from the central party elite). This is just part of the world of American Maga influencers. And if we want, it is the crème de la crème of everything that drives the engine of Trumpian populist propaganda. In short, a composite and multifaceted world which, in the space of five years, has multiplied and been targeted based on the various categories of age, sex, geographical location and socioeconomic category to which one belongs.

Corona, the Robin Hood MAGA: “Very false” against the Italian strong powers

What does Fabrizio Corona’s video podcast “Falsissimo” have to do with the whole world of Maga podcasters? In “Falsissimo” Corona’s themes and narrative style are very similar in approach and target to what has been done by MAGA podcasters for years. From the case of Apache La Russa, up to Alfonso Signorini, passing through the case of Ciro Grillo, the ultimate aim is to discredit the centers of power that have branches in the Italian economic, media and institutional world. From politics, to justice, to the major exponents of the Italian economic and business world, these are the object of attack and ridicule by Fabrizio Corona. A way to tell viewers: this country deceives you. A subtle destruction of institutions done with an “unofficial” narrative because it was done outside the official channels and recognized by the mass media circus of the last century. Precisely because that mass media circle, in order to defend the powerful, excludes Corona, the Robin Hood of information. For example, in the most famous case, the Signorini case, the matter, in the story that is proposed, immediately takes on a systemic dimension: Corona credits himself as the “liberator” of uncomfortable truths and declares to have collected dozens of testimonies from a huge multitude of young people, while Signorini’s lawyers ask the main digital operators to block the diffusion of “Falsissimo” and contest both the factual reconstruction and the legal qualification of the contents disseminated. The investigation remains ongoing, suspended between hypotheses of abuse of power and media exploitation of pain, and the public narrative oscillates between scandal of customs, settling of scores in the television system and new laboratory of spectacularized justice. All seasoned with a vulgar conservative moralism, complete with homophobic taunts. In many quarters it is said that Corona’s mass media operation has as its ultimate aim to sabotage the descent into politics of Marina Berlusconi, as well as that of Pier Silvio Berlusconi, on the indirect mandate of the other leaders of Forza Italia, as well as of Fratelli d’Italia. Furthermore, there are those who cloak the “Falsissimo” operation with a precise US-made strategy – typical of the Maga world – as an initiative aimed at destabilizing our political landscape, with the aim of deteriorating the political possibilities of specific potential political exponents. So much so that it is said of a phone call received by Corona from Donald Trump’s factotum – that Paolo Zampolli sent to Italy to manage the most disparate affairs – during the interrogation at the Milan Prosecutor’s Office. Others assume that Corona’s revenge is in the name of his father, killed by Silvio Berlusconi, when he was hired to create the Italia Uno news program “Studio Aperto” and disobeyed the diktats of his editor. The latter is the most romantic possibility, more similar to an early nineteenth-century feuilleton, almost as if he were a modern-day Count of Monte Cristo, a little tacky, a little arrogant, ready to take revenge in the name of his father.