World Brief with Zach McCormick

Riot Incorporated: Who's Making Money Off Riots?

Zach McCormick Season 3 Episode 24

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 “Professional agitators” definitely get paid for stirring up trouble but it’s not clear who’s actually paying THEM. 

Following apparent top-level security briefings on the subject, President Trump branded the 2025 LA Anti-ICE riots as being fueled by “agitators”. While some dismissed these claims, they appear to have been corroborated by LAPD Chief of Police Jim McDonnell in a press interview where he acknowledged that there are people in the crowd “who do this all the time”. This tracks reports of mysterious ads offering to pay up to $12,500 a week for rioters and pallets of bricks showing up near the protest zones (without any apparent connection to known construction work). 

While it seems clear that a certain percentage of the rioters and protestors are there based upon their own personal convictions, the fact that “professional” rioters are a thing is cause for concern. Not because protesting is inherently problematic — it’s a fundamental American right — but instead because it implicates the question of “who makes money on protesting”? 

Regardless of the cause, this is a question that serves to unify the American people because we deserve to know the truth - whatever it may be. 

Who do you think is funding the professional agitators?