New Delhi: A 22-year-old medical student found a novel way to make a “few thousand dollars a month” right from his own home in North India. He created a blonde, blue-eyed, and often skimpily clad AI influencer designed to attract older American MAGA supporters.
A 21 April WIRED report by writer EJ Dickson detailed how the Indian student ‘Sam’— who hopes to one day move to the US—built an Instagram persona named Emily Hart, a ‘nurse’, whose content mixed bikini photos with strongly pro-Trump, pro-Christian, and anti-immigration messaging. The account has since been banned.
Sam told the news outlet that it took a fair amount of trial and error before he hit the right demographic for the scam. A liberal version of Emily had flopped.
“Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much,” he told WIRED. “The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people—like, super dumb people. And they fall for it.”
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‘Advice’ from Gemini, Sydney Sweeney photo
Sam told WIRED that he initially tried making money online by creating YouTube Shorts and selling study notes to other medical students. He said the idea for Emily Hart came while scrolling through Instagram.
Initially, the aspiring orthopaedic surgeon struggled to gain traction by posting generic AI-generated images of attractive women. Then, he turned to Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro for advice, which reportedly suggested focusing on a “MAGA/conservative niche” because it could be more profitable.
According to a transcript Sam shared with WIRED, Gemini described the niche as a “cheat code,” adding that “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal.” The article also included a quote from a Gemini spokesperson who claimed that the chatbot is “designed to offer neutral responses that don’t favor any political ideology or viewpoint.”
Sam said he created the Emily Hart account in January and began posting images of her drinking beer, ice fishing, and shooting at a rifle range. He paired the posts with captions such as: “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported.”
He told WIRED that the account quickly gained traction, with some reels purportedly receiving millions of views. Within a month, Emily Hart reportedly had more than 10,000 Instagram followers, many of whom later subscribed to her content on Fanvue, an OnlyFans competitor that permits AI-generated creators.
Sam said he earned money through Fanvue subscriptions and MAGA-themed merchandise, including T-shirts featuring slogans mocking Democrats. WIRED reported one such slogan as: “PTSD: Pretty Tired of Stupid Democrats.”
He added that he also generated explicit images of Emily using Grok AI and uploaded them to Fanvue, where users paid for exclusive content and direct interactions.
“I was basically doing nothing,” he said in the interview. “And it was just flooded with money.”
The report also noted that few of the fans “cared whether Emily was real.”
Sam described his strategy to WIRED as “rage bait,” saying criticism from liberal users still increased visibility.
Instagram removed Emily Hart’s account in February, according to WIRED, after flagging it for “fraudulent” activity. A Facebook account linked to the persona remained active at the time of publication, the report added.
In a thread on X, EJ Dickson offered more insight into the Emily formula, including how Sam fed an image of Sydney Sweeney — an actress popular with the MAGA crowd — into a custom AI tool to help create the “20-year-old nurse based in NYC who loves Christ, beer, and ice fishing.”
For @WIRED, I spoke to a med student in India who made thousands of dollars duping MAGA fans by creating a blonde AI influencer named "Emily Hart." Here's how he did it. pic.twitter.com/oaCdDekIho
— ej (@ejdickson) April 21, 2026
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The Emily debate
The story triggered a wave of reactions on X. Some users mocked MAGA supporters who interacted with the AI account, while others commented on the stereotype of Indians being inveterate scammers.
One handle, @Oliviazaeee, wrote: “@grok probably clocked this in 2 seconds… y’all still sending money.”
Another, @readline888, posted: “Fall for it again. There is price you have to pay to became racist and MAGA dumba$$ payed it.”
Other users pushed back. @Yodhaa_warrior claimed: “Account has 3.8k followers. Posts barely have few hundred likes. ‘He made thousands of dollars.’ No wonder you dvmbfks lose your jobs to immigrants. On odd days: ‘indians are low IQ. We are superior.’ On even days: ‘oh no they scammed us…’ Pick a struggle lmao.”
@whiskycommandr commented: “Just when I think MAGA couldn’t fall to new depths of pathetic stupidity, they surprise me yet again. Bravo guys. Bravo.”
Another account @EmTeaVe suggested that an Emily-like persona may not have been the right pick to fool liberals and that an “androgynous, trans anime character that loves communism” would do the trick.
Mrinalini Manda is a TPSJ alumnus currently interning with ThePrint.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)