For years Russian-allied “news” sources like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens dominated the news about Ukraine in conservative ecosphere. Now, conservatives are pushing back.

STEVEN MOORE

Former House Leadership Chief of Staff and current Social Entrepreneur. Firsthand information on Ukraine.

Mar 30, 2026

Last week, stickers boasting “Tucker Carlson Hates Me” were proudly distributed at the Dallas meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee, aka CPAC. 

More substantively, CPAC hosted not one but two speakers at their meeting in Dallas who said unambiguously that Russia is no friend to the United States.

One was my colleague and good friend Sarah Makin, the Impact Producer on A Faith Under Siege. She was articulate and powerful as she spelled out how the Russians have shut down every church in occupied Ukraine they don’t control and destroyed more than 600 churches in Ukraine. CPAC is attended by many conservative Christians.

Sarah Makin, Impact Producer for A Faith Under Siege: “Russia has murdered, by a conservative estimate, 49 pastors, priests and evangelical faith leaders… and they have tortured these men before they murdered them.” Credit CPAC.

President Nawrocki of Poland took the CPAC stage in Dallas as well, telling the audience that the Russian regime that pretends to protect family values is lying. This is incredibly important. Ukraine Freedom Project pollingshows 29% of Republican primary voters believe Russia is a country that promotes and encourages traditional family values. 

I could see Nawrocki emerge as the new European conservative star with what looks like the end of Viktor Orban’s political career. You will like Nawrocki better. Poland has chosen to respond to Putin’s threat by building the second largest military in Europe, after Ukraine, rather than becoming Putin’s pet French poodle like Orban.

President Nawrocki: “Russia does not defend conservatives. Russia represents corruption and violence.” Credit CPAC.

Russia spends some $2 billion annually on spreading lies and creating political chaos around the world. Much of it goes into the conservative ecosphere. Tucker Carlson is the most notable Putin fanboy. He reaches 22% of the Republican primary voter audience. Candace Owens has a much smaller audience but is vehement in repeating Putin’s messaging. Fortunately, these two have gone so far into the depths Russian and Iranian propaganda (Iran spends $600,000 per year on propaganda) that they have lost much of their credibility. 

But it goes deeper. Scores of influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers repeat Putin’s lines. One example is Matty Kim. You have probably never heard of him. I only know about Matty Kim because one of my best friends from high school follows him. He has bad information about Ukraine and Russia, and reaches nearly a million people. What role does money play in the spread of Russian talking points? In 2024, two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, were indicted for giving ten million dollars through a company called Tenet Media to six conservative influencers – folks I once respected like Tim Poole, Dave Rubin as well as folks I don’t know like Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen and Matt Christiansen. All claimed to not understand why the received an order of magnitude above what anyone else was paying them for their work.

Kudos to Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the chairman and driving force behind CPAC, for giving a platform to the truth.

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The “Tucker Carlson Hates Me” stickers are particularly gratifying to Anna Shvetsova and me. In late August I co-authored a piece with Tim Chapman at Advancing American Freedom saying Tucker Carlson is dead wrong about Ukraine and the Russians were torturing and murdering Christians in occupied Ukraine. Nobody wanted it. After two months and a dozen rejections, Providence Magazine placed it. Great bunch of folks. 

Similarly, in fall of 2023, Anna and I went to dozens of Congressional offices with a low quality iPhone testimony by our friend Viktor who had been tortured with electricity by the Russians while a Russian Orthodox priest tried to cast demons out of him for being an evangelical Christian. The response was “This is horrific. If this is true, why is nobody talking about it?”

It is true, Tucker Carlson is a liar and people are now talking about it.

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For years, in response to the nonsense in conservative media, Ukrainians and the pro-Ukraine community have answered back on MSNBC, CNN, Sixty Minutes and other media conservatives don’t watch or don’t trust. For years, Russians have dominated the conservative information space and conservatives have heard nothing but negative information about Ukraine.

As I discussed on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page in November, Republicans are increasingly supporting Ukraine. In part because President Zelensky is being seen in places like Fox News, on Ben Shapiro’s show (Kudos to Joe Lindsley) and on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. 

And in part to our film. Our film moves conservatives on Ukraine. A Faith Under Siege has been seen by some 3.2 million evangelical voters according to our polling. Our YouTube properties collectively have more than 9 million views. Some 15 million evangelical voters have seen, read or heard something about our film, meaning they have gotten at least some of our message. Thanks to Marty Krátký-Katz and the Special Marketing Operationthat has served about 120 million donated digital ads for A Faith Under Siege.

Lara Trump had me on her show in January to talk about our movie and the hell on earth that Ukraine’s Christians are enduring under Russian rule in occupied Ukraine. We had a nice chat before the interview. Charming woman who is genuinely interested in what we talked about and disgusted by what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

I was fortunate to speak at the last Turning Point USA Pastors Conference Charlie Kirk would ever speak at last August. I took the stage and spoke to 500 MAGA pastors. When I left the stage, people kept coming up to me thanking. They said they had no idea what was going on in with Christians in Ukraine and were glad to hear the truth.

A Faith Under Siege team at the Turning Point USA Pastors Conference in Los Angeles last August. 

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade saw through the Russian propaganda early and has been getting the truth to his listeners for years. Almost no conservative commentator knows more about Russia than Brian Kilmeade.

Director of the White House office of Faith Paula White Cain spoke at the Ukrainian Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. Ukraine is so important to Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, he opened a news channel in Ukraine. These are not isolated incidents; this is a trend.

I have long paraphrased a quote attributed to Winston Churchill when talking about President Trump and Ukraine. You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else. 

Since 2024, I have said that Trump may not realize it, but he is boxed in. Conservative public opinion is getting increasingly pro-Ukraine and exasperated with Russia. On the other side, world events are driving him to be tougher on Russia. Putin is not becoming less aggressive. He has sent dozens of drone incursions into European countries – something 94% of Republicans are concerned about. Putin sent at least 18 cargo planes full of weapons to Iran in the three months before Trump launched his second attack on Iran. Russian weapons have now killed seven US service members. As Trump’s conservative supporters realize the threat posed by Russia, it is only a matter of time until Trump lives in to Churchill’s witticism.

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© 2026 Steven Moore
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