MAGA Influencer Accused of Doing the Unthinkable at Trump’s State Fair

Summary

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Bulwark Takes: “MAGA Influencer Accused of Doing the Unthinkable at Trump’s State Fair”

Date: June 27, 2026
Host: Tim Miller (The Bulwark)
Guest: Will Sommer (False Flag newsletter)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Bulwark Takes dives into a bizarre and headline-grabbing incident at the Great American State Fair: the arrest of a minor MAGA influencer, known as “Manny” (real name John Rocktell), accused of public lewdness while dressed as Uncle Sam. Tim Miller and Will Sommer unpack the details, explore the social media response, and touch on related MAGA-world legal troubles and rumors, all enveloped in their signature mix of incredulity, dark humor, and sharp analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Arrest of “Uncle Sam” (Manny/John Rocktell)

[01:00 – 07:34]

• Introduction to the Incident:

  • Manny, a minor MAGA streamer, known for his Uncle Sam getup and provocations around D.C., was arrested during the fair—causing immediate outrage in MAGA influencer circles.
  • “There has to have been some mistake. Manny was arrested by the park police at the Great American State Fair. … This is a mistake.” (Will Sommer, 02:07)

• Nature of the Allegations:

  • Manny was accused of masturbating during a performance by female acrobats.
  • “Masturbating Manny. Yes. He was tugging the old chain.” (Tim Miller, 03:15)

• Details and Mechanics:

  • The act was allegedly done “through the pockets” of his overalls, and although not exposed, it was obvious enough to prompt four complaints.
  • The sparsely attended event—“maybe three or four people watching”—meant he stood out, especially in costume.
  • “So it wasn’t out, it was in. … More subtle than that, but apparently not that subtle.” (Will Sommer, 05:54)

• Police Report Highlights:

  • A female performer and other acrobats felt uncomfortable; witnesses reported lewd gestures.
  • “He was vaping and filming… This dude is like… got octopus arms.” (Tim Miller, 06:34)
  • The incident culminated in the police approaching Manny live on his stream, which he promptly ended:
    • “Why don’t you step over here… Oh please.” (Will Sommer, 07:13)

• Reflecting on the Event:

  • Gallows humor about “better places for private time,” the spectacle of a nearly empty fair, and the “witnesses” being both few in number and unlucky.

2. Update: MAGA Influencer Ryan Fournier’s Legal Woes

[07:34 – 10:13]

• Recap of Ongoing Trouble:

  • Tim references a recent segment about Students for Trump’s co-founder Ryan Fournier, whose circle had stories involving Secret Service impersonation, strip clubs, and general chaos.

• New Developments:

  • Fournier was arrested again—this time after a raid on his luxury apartment revealed replica firearms and a baggie of cocaine.
  • “He didn’t answer the doors. They kicked his door in… came up with replica AR-15 and another gun and a Desert Eagle… they also found a baggie of coke.” (Will Sommer, 08:52)

• Legal Consequences:

  • Fournier faces a misdemeanor but was held in jail due to multiple recent arrests, including domestic violence.
  • “That is quite the ramp sheet for summer 2026 for [Fournier] … domestic violence, times two … impersonating a Secret Service agent, and now guns and cocaine.” (Tim Miller, 10:13)

3. MAGA Gossip: Congressman Abe Hamadeh and His “Close Advisor”

[10:55 – 17:00]

• Rumors of Congressman’s Private Life:

  • Tim introduces a recent story about Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), an apparent rising MAGA star, and his notably close relationship with a male staffer who served as both live-in “senior advisor” and highest-paid employee.

• Discussion of the Office Dynamics:

  • The staffer has since moved to the campaign side, and was “unreachable” when vacationing with Hamadeh.
  • “As soon as someone does one of those big office redesigns… that’s when, like, it’s going to come out you’re up to something.” (Will Sommer, 13:03)

• Public and Online Reactions:

  • Lighthearted speculation about office decor, staffer relationships, and Hamadeh’s social media choices, including a suggestive photo from a UFC event.
  • “‘America was never destined to be a soft nation with this man.’ … Is that the kind of thing you’d post a picture of a guy like that?” (Tim Miller, 14:42)
  • “It looks like it’s from… a circuit party or something…” (Will Sommer, 14:57)
  • The hosts joke about the challenge of parsing attractiveness in politics, especially through a partisan lens.

• Memorable Sidebar:

  • Office redesign as metaphor for “the closet”:
    • “He just kicked them out and took over this giant room and kind of pushed them into a much smaller room.”
      “A closet, if you will. We’ll leave it there.” (Tim Miller, 17:00)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Manny’s Arrest:

  • “Manny loves a beautiful woman. And now, according to the police, what we aren’t seeing on the stream is, you know, some self gratification.” (Will Sommer, 03:45)
  • “This dude is like… got octopus arms. He’s vaping, filming… I don’t know what he’s doing.” (Tim Miller, 06:34)
  • “If you just want to have a little private time and you’re in the Washington, D.C. area, I’d recommend staying away from the Great American State Fair.” (Tim Miller, 07:34)

• On Ryan Fournier’s Arrest:

  • “Three guns and a bag of coke is just 10 days in prison now. That’s interesting.” (Tim Miller, 09:42)

• On Abe Hamadeh Rumors:

  • “As soon as you start posing for like a crime family portrait with your staffers, that’s when… it’s going to come out that you’re up to something.” (Will Sommer, 13:03)
  • “I’m not really in the outing business … maybe I have complex feelings about it.” (Tim Miller, 13:38)
  • “It looks like it’s from… a circuit party or something.” (Will Sommer, 14:57)
  • “Sometimes you just gotta, in this business, admit to your biases.” (Tim Miller, 15:47)
  • “A closet, if you will.” (Tim Miller, 17:00)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:00 – 07:34 — Deep dive: Manny’s arrest and the social media fallout
• 07:34 – 10:13 — The downward spiral of Students for Trump’s Ryan Fournier
• 10:55 – 17:00 — Capitol Hill MAGA rumor mill: Abe Hamadeh’s living/office situation
• 17:00 – End — Closing jokes, sign-off, and light banter

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Tone and Style

The conversation is brisk, irreverent, wryly judgmental, and often incredulous. Miller and Sommer balance a dark kind of comedy with critical reporting, underscoring the absurdity and hypocrisy punctuating much of MAGA influencer culture.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode is a rapid-fire, jaw-dropping tour through current MAGA influencer scandals—from the embarrassing (a lewd arrest in Uncle Sam garb) to the criminal (drug and firearm-related arrests) to the whispered (innuendo-laced gossip about rising political stars’ private relationships). With humor and skepticism, the Bulwark hosts skewer the narratives and contradictions at the heart of Trumpist spectacle politics.

Transcript

[Lady Luck]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Tim Miller]

Hey everybody. Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with my buddy Will Sommer of the False Flag newsletter. It's just a duo. Sam's at a children's swim meet or something. Can you believe that Sam is prioritizing his children's wellbeing over you, the Bulwark YouTube viewers? I'd be upset about that, but don't take it out on us. Subscribe to the feed anyway. Subscribe to the feed. Sam will be back. We'll get the trio going next week. Will, we had to do this without Sam, though. We just had to. When I heard about the arrest on the mall and what had happened at the Great American State Fair, I was like, I cannot wait for Sam. I must do this with just Will. And so I want to bring this to the people. So to start, I just, I guess I want to start here. This came to your attention and many people's attention that there was an arrest at the Great American State Fair. And it was of a MAGA American, an upstanding maga American named Manny. And Manny dresses like Uncle Sam, apparently. And he got detained and MAGA influencers and commentariat were unhappy. Talk about like what, how, what the vibe was like related to that.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, so, you know, I noticed this last night. I mean, admittedly this guy is named Manny. His real name is John Rocktell. But basically he's like a very marginal MAGA streamer who kind of bounces around D.C. one of his big pictures, it' him and the antifa are glowering at him and he's like, I'm speaking the truth. And he dresses like Uncle Sam. And so last night people were saying, you know, there's. There has to have been some mistake. Manny was arrested by the park police at the. The Great American State Fair. You know, there. This is a mistake.

[Tim Miller]

Mixed him up with the antifa that was screwing up the reflecting pool or something that are.

[Will Sommer]

They're always pursuing him. And I was curious. I assumed it was like, I don't know, he was mouthing off or something. Do we have the Free Manny photo? Can we throw that up? Yeah. So it says, free Manny, false report, unfair arrest, wrongful detention. And it's a setup. Not guilty. So I was eager to see why he was arrested at his, which would be revealed today. And it turns out Manny has been

[Lady Luck]

accused

[Will Sommer]

of masturbating in front of acrobats who were performing at the fair.

[Tim Miller]

Masturbating Manny. Yes. He was tugging the old chain.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I was talking about this with producer. Choking the bishop. Yeah. Cranking the hog. All kinds of things.

[Lady Luck]

Yeah.

[Tim Miller]

You know, paddle in the sea. It depends on what it is down there. That's interesting. So it's a weekend content. It's a duo. Paint a picture for me. So Manny is in a Uncle Sam outfit.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, he's in like Uncle Sam outfit, I think, with overalls. And he has shades that have the American flag on them. And he's walking around and I will say, I went to the American State Fair today, and I will say there's not a lot of other stuff to do, you know, so. So, you know, so one of the performances is there's this thing called, like Cirque. And so it's like, you know, circus performers. And so they have jugglers, they have acrobats. What have. And so I. I watched Manny's stream, and he's sitting there watching, you know, the women in leotards and they're hula hooping and they're all doing all kinds of stuff. And the commenters are like, well, like, whoa, look at that one. Or like, Manny loves a beautiful woman. And now, according to the police, what we aren't seeing on the stream is, you know, some self gratification. And then a man is, you know, a group of men troop out to do their acrobatics. And he goes, who cares? You know, gets up and leaves.

[Tim Miller]

Okay, so female acrobats, he's watching, and he's just having a wank there on the National Mall. Now, I haven't worn overalls in a minute. My daughter does sometimes when I put them on. And so I Just. I'm trying to think about the mechanics of this. You can't. You do. You would have to unbutton a strap of the overall, I would think at least one, in order to kind of get to little nanny. Right.

[Will Sommer]

So, you know, it's interesting. Maybe he was. He was supposedly doing it through the pockets. And so, you know, overalls, I guess, have pockets. But he was doing it in an obvious enough way that, like, four people complained about it.

[Tim Miller]

So it wasn't out. So it's kind of the thing where you're sort of rubbing it through the pants. Okay. Rubbing it through the pants and doing it and. Wow, a pretty dramatic fashion. Then if four people saw it. And I was initially, I was picturing Uncle Sam. What was the Seinfeld line? It out. When Elaine. Jerry's like, what happened? She's like, he took it out. He's like, what it out? So it wasn't out, it was in.

[Will Sommer]

It was more subtle than that, but apparently not that subtle. And the other challenge is it's important to keep in mind there's basically no people at this thing in terms of the audience. And so it's probably an audience of, like, three or four people watching this. So it's not like he was blending in with the crowd. And, of course, he's dressed like Uncle Sam.

[Tim Miller]

Witness three was approached by a female member of the acrobat team who had noticed an older white male that was making her and other female performers uncomfortable. They informed me that they noticed him making lewd gestures in his pants while they were performing. Ah. He was also. This is. This is an interesting little fact from the police report here. Also. He was vaping and filming.

[Will Sommer]

Yes.

[Tim Miller]

Yes. Wow. These. This dude is like. He's, like, got octopus arms. He's like. He's got a vape in his mouth. He's got his camera.

[Will Sommer]

He's having a wank camera in the mouth.

[Tim Miller]

I don't know what he's doing. Wow. Sounds quite the scene.

[Will Sommer]

So he watches the acrobats, and then he kind of moves to, like, a different segment. And the fair is kind of broken up by these sponsor things that are run by, like, Truth Social or what have you. And so it seems as though he maybe thought he could, like, kind of just move to a different segment and no one would see him anymore. And he cuts the stream for a while, and then he comes back on. And then a cop comes up to him and he says, why don't you step over here and can we play the video of Manny's Final moments on the stream.

[Tim Miller]

Oh, please.

[Will Sommer]

Oh, we got one cop. How bad could it be? Oh, oh, oh.

[Tim Miller]

Oh, boy.

[Will Sommer]

There. And, you know, I. I think there's just a lot of law enforcement and National Guard hanging out and, you know, they would love to catch a. A sicko. And so. And that's when he cut the stream.

[Tim Miller]

Well, if you just want to have a little private time and you're in the Washington, D.C. area, I'd recommend staying away from the Great American State Fair. Better places for it than that, I guess. The good news is that nobody's going to his fair. So fewer people had to be witnesses to such a grotesque scene as masturbating. Uncle Sam wanted to just hit two other things with you really quick. While we had the duo, we did. I believe it was the last trio video. We were discussing Students for Trump co founder maga influencer Ryan Fournier. People who missed that the long and short of that story was him and his friend were running afoul of the Secret Service because his friend had a Secret Service badge that he's pretending to be this Students for Trump founders protectorate. And they were, you know, going to strip clubs and causing a lot of ruckus and yielding or coming out of, rather, the investigation of that. It does seem like Mr. Fournier is gonna have to spend a little time in the clink. Why don't you give us a brief update on what's happening there?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, so he got arrested again.

[Tim Miller]

Oh, so this is unrelated.

[Will Sommer]

This is a new one. This is a new.

[Tim Miller]

Okay, I'm sorry. I thought it was related to the prior investigation about the Secret Service.

[Will Sommer]

Ultimately, it might be, but basically he was in his luxury apartment, and the FBI and the D.C. police came, and now we find out that they're. They're investigating a search warrant related to a firearms investigation that was launched a few days earlier. So a few days after our article ran. And basically, it seems. I don't know if there was an incident with a gun or he was waving one around. I had heard he had a replica Desert Eagle, so a pretty big gun. And basically, he didn't answer the doors. They kicked his door in and they arrested him. He was there. And during the search where they came up with replica AR15 and another gun and a Desert Eagle that supposedly look identical to those guns, which is maybe why someone reported them for having those guns. They also found a baggie of coke in one of the bath in one of the bedrooms, allegedly. And they, you know, took him to the. Took him to jail.

[Tim Miller]

Hmm. 10 days that's three guns and a bag of coke is just 10 days in prison now. That's interesting.

[Will Sommer]

Well, so, so he's, he's facing a misdemeanor charge. He hasn't been charged in the, in the gun case possibly yet. But then when he went in front of the judge, the judge said, well you know, I'm looking at your record here, buddy, and you've been arrested three times in the past month, two of them for an earlier domestic violence case. And so in fact the judge is holding him over in jail, which is pretty surprising but maybe makes sense in this case. And so he'll, you know, next Thursday he'll, he'll be in front of the judge again.

[Tim Miller]

That is quite the ramp sheet for summer 2026 for students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier. Domestic violence times DU and then friend impersonating a Secret service agent and now guns and cocaine now.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, he's been busy.

[Lady Luck]

Hey everybody, lady luck here. And we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now all summer long I'm going to be celebrating by playing on finquest.com which is an American owned social casino. It obviously features over a third thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to spinquest.com get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks.

[Tim Miller]

Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. We talked about this a little bit on the podcast with Jane Coston but it's, you know, since it's in the remit, think of the false flag greater universe and as kind of the residential former Republican homosexual. I do feel like it's something that we should just explore here though I should say we don't know if homosexuality is at play here. Everyone can judge for themselves. Congressman Abe Hamaday, Republican out of Arizona. Got to spend a little bit of time with him. Not that, get your mind out of the gutter Will. Not that kind of time. I just, you know, been to a lot of Republican events in Arizona. He's got an interesting staff. Yeah. So that's his office there. They kind of redesigned it kind of a little fancy. If you have not been to a congressional office that usually doesn't have this kind of accoutrement. That's Abe there in the middle. You can't really get as good of a look at him as I'd like but people can Google you can get a good sense for what we're doing here. Anyway, there's A story that was broke earlier this week at Sources say News. So that they had two sources that said that Abe Amadei has a live in senior male advisor at his Capitol Hill residence. The advisor was previously a realtor, and the sources say that the relationship is a little closer than the typical member staffer dynamic. They would go on vacations together as well. It's led to a lot of questions about what's exactly happening there. Abe is. I actually don't know if Abe's made any official statements about his sexuality, but he's not openly gay, so we don't exactly know what's happening. Any thought? It looks kind of the buzz out there in MAGA circle. Abe, I should also say, is kind of, at least in Arizona, I mean, naturally, kind of a rising star of the MAGA wing. He is very much of the MAGA Trump era within the party.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, look, I think it was a surprise to me. I didn't know. I mean, you know, I do think, you know, as soon as someone does one of those big office redesigns, we saw this happen with Aaron Shock. As soon as you start posing for like a crime family portrait with your staffers or whatever, that's when, like, it's going to come out that you're up to something. And as you said, you know, he's reportedly been living with this staffer who, by the way, was his highest paid congressional staffer, who's now, now with his campaign, not with the Congress anymore. But he was unreachable when he was on vacation with this guy, according to this article. So I think there's a lot of smoke here. You know, we'll have to see if there's fire.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, they also, I remember this from covering him. One of his big endorsers and allies was a leading gay maga, Rick Grinnell. That's Abe there again in the middle. That's Rick Grinnell. And then that is Will Hannon there, the roommate slash staffer of Abe Comedy. It's interesting, you know, I'm not really in the outing business, so this did not come as a surprise to me. It's just one of those things, like, whatever. I don't know, maybe I have complex feelings about it that maybe we should share another time outside of a duo video. But I will say that my interest started to get piqued about whether Abe was starting to just become a little bit more open about his proclivities when he posted this tweet just a couple days ago. America was never destined to be a soft Nation with this man. And very tight.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. From the UFC fight.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you'd even call those kind of shorts. I don't know. I mean, I guess. Well, let's go to your expertise as a heterosexual. Is that the kind of thing that you would post a picture of a guy like that?

[Will Sommer]

No, I mean, it looks like it's from a. What, a circuit party or something, you know, you.

[Tim Miller]

Good pull, Will Summer.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I was also going to say, you know, America was destined to be a bricked up nation or something like that, basically. But it is odd, right? And particularly, it's especially funny because it's obviously now divorced from the context of the UFC fight and it just looks like, like a hot guy in kind of a vaguely federal building.

[Tim Miller]

This is package showing. Yes, yes.

[Will Sommer]

With who's, you know, looking, you know, I think smoking a cigar or something, you know, looking very pleased with himself. You know, one thing that's been striking to me is like, I feel like the reaction from the gay fellas has been that, you know, Abe Hamade is like a real hunk. You know, he's maybe like an Oscar Isaac, kind of like Gilded age, that main actor kind of thing going on.

[Tim Miller]

Hmm. You've seen that in the MAGA gay circles or just, well, just from you

[Will Sommer]

and some other, some other, you know, more liberal gays perhaps.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I don't know that I would say hunk. I'm not sure that I would use the word hunk. I wouldn't. Don't put that word in my, my mouth. He's not, he's not hideous, I don't think. You know, I think it's hard for me because the mag, you know, the MAGA thing is a real big mark against. And I know some people can kind of separate the art from the artist or separate the looks maxing from the political ideology. But that's getting hard for me. And so I don't know if I can really grade Abe Hamade's looks on an unbiased curve. Sometimes you just gotta, in this business admit to your biases. It's important. It's an important part of candor and building trust with the audience.

[Will Sommer]

You know, one other thing that struck me here was that, you know, he was boasting about, he was boasting about like, you know, these other congressional offices look like shit. I'm going to make mine look good, whatever. And then, but. And I was like, and I was like, well, how did he make that office so big or whatever? And the article says. Basically he. That's supposed to be like a big pit for all the staffers and cubicles and he just kicked them out and took over this giant room and kind of pushed them into a much smaller room.

[Tim Miller]

I can't. A closet, if you will. We'll leave it there. Will Summer False flag newsletter. Not a masturbating Uncle Sam I need to see in person this weekend.

[Will Sommer]

That's right.

[Tim Miller]

We'll see you soon. Everybody else, subscribe to the feed again. We'll be back with Sam next week. Bye.

[Will Sommer]

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[Tim Miller]

Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.