Leonard Leo's Dark Money Machine Is Funding Anti-Somali Fear Campaign in Maine

Follow the Money to the Hate

When federal agents swept through Maine in January, rounding up hundreds of migrants and raiding Somali-owned businesses, it wasn't spontaneous law enforcement. It was the payoff of a well-funded propaganda campaign bankrolled by some of the right's biggest power players.

The Maine Wire, a website that spent a decade churning out standard libertarian content, suddenly developed an obsession with the state's Somali community starting in 2023. The timing wasn't coincidental -- it came right as dark money from Leonard Leo, the judicial activist who engineered the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court, started flooding into the site's parent organization.

Between 2020 and 2024, the Maine Policy Institute's annual revenue nearly tripled. At least $1.2 million of its $1.9 million budget in 2024 came from organizations tied to Leo's dark-money network, according to tax documents analyzed by The Intercept. Another major donor: Thomas D. Klingenstein, a MAGA megadonor who chairs the ultra-conservative Claremont Institute.

That cash injection doubled the Maine Wire's staff and turbocharged its reach to 200,000 followers across social media -- in a state with just 1.4 million people.

Shock Jock Journalism With a Racist Agenda

The site's editor-in-chief, Steve Robinson, came aboard in 2023 after years producing shock-jock radio in Boston. His impact was immediate and ugly.

"Maine Governor Wants to Resettle 75,000 Foreign-Born Migrants in Maine by 2029," screamed one 2023 headline. Weeks later, neo-Nazis rallied at the state Capitol. Critics directly blamed Robinson's inflammatory coverage.

But Robinson's most consistent target has been Maine's Somali community, a highly visible immigrant population in a state that's over 90 percent white. The site spins old state audit findings into breathless claims of massive fraud, presenting routine enforcement actions as evidence of unchecked criminality.

"The Maine Wire has a way of telling half-truths and then getting Mainers riled up about it," said Paige Loud, a social worker running for Congress in Maine's 2nd District.

Robinson's bias isn't subtle. Discussing fraud allegations in Minnesota on a podcast, he asked: "You get one Somali on a jury in Minnesota, you think they're going to convict anybody?" -- completely ignoring the dozens of people actually indicted and convicted by federal prosecutors under the Biden administration.

Real-World Consequences

The Maine Wire's drumbeat of anti-Somali coverage had tangible effects. In January, the Department of Homeland Security launched a surge of federal agents into Maine, sweeping up hundreds of migrants and conducting showy raids on Somali-owned businesses that the Maine Wire had previously targeted.

In February, Donald Trump himself called for greater scrutiny of Maine's Medicaid system using language that directly targeted Somalis -- echoing the Maine Wire's narrative almost word for word.

The site presents itself as scrappy local journalism fighting for ordinary Mainers. CEO Matt Gagnon told The Intercept that the Maine Wire isn't trying to be the Wall Street Journal: "We're very open about our perspective."

That perspective, funded by Leo's dark-money machine, amounts to a coordinated attack on one of Maine's most vulnerable communities. The site's homepage paints a dystopian picture of the state: endless fraud allegations, fearmongering about mail-in ballots, and a steady stream of mugshots and drug bust stories designed to stoke fear about crime and immigrants.

The Bigger Picture

The Maine Wire is part of a broader strategy by Leo, Klingenstein, and other conservative megadonors to inject cash into state-level projects. Their goal: ensure that authoritarian, anti-immigrant, and climate-denial efforts have local staying power long after Trump leaves office.

Neither Leo nor Klingenstein responded to requests for comment. Robinson initially agreed to an interview with The Intercept, then stopped responding. When contacted with detailed questions before publication, he declined to comment.

The playbook is clear: Use dark money to build local media outlets that look like journalism but function as propaganda. Demonize vulnerable communities. Watch as federal law enforcement and elected officials follow your lead. Rinse and repeat in the next state.

Maine's Somali community is just the latest target. They won't be the last.