MAGA Conspiracy Tours Plagued With ‘Grifter’ Allegations
By Oct. 19, Truth Tour 2 was near its end. So was its leader’s patience.
“I will NOT take it any longer,” the organizer, Lewis Herms wrote on the messaging app Telegram. “It appears as if the lies, rumors and infiltration of the Truth Tour and it's [sic] participants is reaching epic levels.”
For weeks, Truth Tour 2 had been on the road, bringing its eclectic mix of fringe speakers to hotel conference rooms across the country. There were COVID denialists, election denialists, and at least one globe denialist. But nestled among the semen-retention evangelists and a self-described “Shamanic Priestess™ of the Magdalene Mysteries School” were figures with startlingly long reaches in rightwing politics.
Those marquee names included Jim Watkins, the 8kun owner speculated to be behind the QAnon conspiracy theory (he denies the claims) and Judy Mikovitz, a doctor who starred in the Covid denial film “Plandemic.” And there was one of the tour’s biggest stars, Juan O. Savin (real name Wayne Willott), who got his hands in real politics by assembling a coalition of election-denying secretary of state candidates - a fact bragged during Truth Tour appearances.
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And for just $49 to $149 in 17 cities, followers of fringe politics got a chance to see them all.
But the relative success of the roadshow was not enough to spare the series from rightwing infighting, with critics accusing Herms, conspiracy influencer and founder of Truth Tour 2, of unjustly cashing in on the MAGA movement.
Herms did not take kindly to these accusations.
“My amazing team and myself have been accused of many sick things but we are all in incredibly high spirits,” Herms wrote. “I have noticed a few known ‘paper’ patriots are actually projecting. One I know is saying that I am making a fortune on the tour. That's a good one... between both tours, traveling, equipment and more I am in the hole over 100k plus I have virtually abanonded my business which was once valued at millions and now I can't give it away. The irony of this is the fool that says this BS about me is making a fortune monthly from patriots... Projecting?”
Herms did not return a request for comment, and The Daily Beast could not verify his claim to have lost more than $100,000 on the tour. He is currently selling the tour’s RV on eBay. The winning bidder will also “get to hang out with [tour speaker] Jason Q for a day.”
Conversations on conservative social media platforms like Truth Social revealed critics lodging complaints against the tour throughout the run, from Herms’ treatment of “sovereign citizen” influencer : Russell-Jay: Gould., to allegations that tour organizers were “pay-triots” who were most interested in bilking money from the movement.
“I think it's un-American to grift other Americans during times when money is tight,” one Truth Social user griped.
But spats over the MAGA roadshow offered a glimpse into the often-feuding movement, and the traveling conventions that have become meeting grounds for Trump fans after his defeat.
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A larger roadshow, ReAwaken America, has been touring since Spring 2021, drawing higher-profile guests and larger audiences than Truth Tour 2. An estimated 5,000 people attended ReAwaken’s event in Manheim, Pennsylvania last weekend, where they paid up to $500 for VIP tickets.
The big-money event, however, has not been without detractors who used to be allies.
Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood was a ReAwaken speaker in 2021, but turned against the tour after one of its attendees, podcaster Douglas Kuzma, died of Covid after attending the event. Other former ReAwaken allies soured on the event after a separate rash of illnesses in 2021, which they attributed not to Covid, but to anthrax poisoning.
“All I know is that we have done seven events of these so far, and at each event, people have claimed they have been attacked by a bio-weapon,” Clark told The Daily Beast last year after the anthrax scare. “This is actually normal for me.”
Though the afflicted attendees tested negative for anthrax, prominent conspiracy theorists like Wood and David Clements stayed skeptical of ReAwaken, and subsequently accused its leaders of being “pay-triots.”
“To run a secret campaign under Trump's nose while using his reputation to gain a crowd while trying to subvert his supporters and simultaneously trying to help instate an air of pacifying amnesia under the guise of a traveling circus called the ReAwaken Tour,” read a post that Wood shared on his Telegram in August.
As the more modest Truth Tour 2 neared its conclusion, fans took to Telegram to speculate as to enemies within their ranks. Some speculated that a practitioner of gematria named “Tom Numbers” might have fallen on organizers’ bad side, after he stopped showing up.
“When I asked if Tom Numbers would be rejoining the tour, all I got for an answer was, ‘No,’” one tour follower wrote on Telegram. “Then my question and the answer were deleted. Makes you wonder,eh?” Neither the question nor the answer were deleted. You can still read them.
Others defended the gematrician from rumors.
“Tom wanted to spend more time on the area where he had his past life,” one said. “I got the information from his show with [Truth Tour 2 tarot reader] Janine.”
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