How a Black Progressive Transformed Into a Conservative Star

New York Times

02-04-2025

In the summer of 2020, Xaviaer DuRousseau was preparing to appear on a Netflix reality show called 'The Circle,' where a group of strangers, isolated in separate apartments, compete for a cash prize and occasionally adopt fake digital personas to trick one another.
Mr. DuRousseau, then 23, was a progressive who marched in Black Lives Matter protests, had pushed his university to require ethnic studies courses as a graduation requirement and voted for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in 2016. For the TV show, producers wanted Mr. DuRousseau, a Black man, to pose as a white woman and lecture others about racial injustice, before revealing his true identity.
Mr. DuRousseau spent hours boning up on right-wing politics to get ready for debates with conservative contestants.
But as he watched videos from PragerU, the conservative advocacy group, and Candace Owens, a right-wing influencer, he found himself nodding along.
Maybe, he began to think, the media really was targeting President Trump for taking on the political establishment. Maybe free college and free health care were unrealistic goals, despite what Mr. Sanders said. Maybe police brutality against Black people was less common than he thought.
'I was getting so frustrated, because I kept agreeing with some of the stuff that they were saying,' he said. 'I just kept debunking myself, over and over.'
Days before he was set to fly to London to film the show, Mr. DuRousseau backed out. He no longer believed in the liberal politics he was supposed to champion on television.
'Respectfully, Xaviaer'
Mr. DuRousseau's transformation is complete. Now 28, he is not just a proud supporter of Mr. Trump; he works for PragerU, making talky, snarky videos under the brand 'Respectfully, Xaviaer' for its website and for his hundreds of thousands of online followers. The influencer gig has worked out: He has been quoted in Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, lives stylishly in Los Angeles and recently flew to Washington for a Black History Month event at the White House.
Mr. DuRousseau is part of a new wave of conservative social media personalities who are gaining attention among Generation Z voters disillusioned with their economic prospects and tired of identity politics. Young men in particular turned to the right in the 2024 election, with 56 percent of men ages 18 to 29 voting for Mr. Trump, according to Associated Press VoteCast data, a 15-point swing from 2020, when 41 percent of them backed Mr. Trump.
This new cohort of young voters does not fit neatly into one political party, but instead comes from a hodgepodge of political perspectives. Some of these voters, like Mr. DuRousseau, admire both Mr. Sanders, for his authenticity and commitment to the working class, and Mr. Trump, for his disdain for civic institutions and what he considers cancel culture.
'Young people are inherently rebellious,' Mr. DuRousseau said. 'Gen Z got tired of getting called racist and having to tiptoe and walk on eggshells.'
On a recent gray February morning, he was walking down a path in Studio City, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, holding a smoothie and a selfie stick. Mr. DuRousseau has adopted what he calls the classic L.A. influencer look — athleisure and bleached blond hair accessorized with a $21 green Erewhon smoothie — reasoning that it will appeal to young people.
'Looking and sounding like a liberal, while speaking conservative values,' he said. 'And making people realize, 'Oh, I don't have to be an old, rich, white Republican in order to align with some of these values.''
That day's video, part of his 'Walk With Me' series, would be aimed at liberal online critics who might say Republicans would never welcome an outspoken Black man like him.
They are not entirely wrong. It's true, Mr. DuRousseau said, that some on the right sneer at his persona and his efforts to broaden the MAGA coalition to include voices like his friend Amber Rose, the model and OnlyFans star who spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer. (Mr. DuRousseau, who had bumped into her at Erewhon that morning, said he had helped her rehearse for her convention speech.)
Still, Mr. DuRousseau said, he has been welcomed by many others in the MAGA world and he is a member of the Republican National Committee's youth advisory council. And he said that his peers in the movement appreciate that he sees nuance on issues like race where many other Republicans do not.
'I'm anti-D.E.I.,' he said, referring to the diversity, equity and inclusion programs ridiculed by the right. 'But if any time a Black person wins an award you say it's D.E.I., you might just be racist.'
The purpose of that day's video, though, was not to discuss racism, but to own the libs.
''Conservatives are never going to accept you!'' Mr. DuRousseau began, imitating what he says liberals say about him, as he frowned into the camera. 'I'd rather be as lonely as Cardi B's last brain cell than surrounded by weakness. Now walk with me.'
He paused for a sip of smoothie.
'There is nothing appealing about being a liberal,' Mr. DuRousseau continued, cranking up the outrage. 'I don't want to be on the side with neutered men or women bragging about aborting babies like it's a Call of Duty kill streak.'
It was a typical moment for him — edgy, provocative and glib. Asked later whether he really believes liberals boast about abortions, Mr. DuRousseau said he did, though he acknowledged having used some hyperbole.
'I feel like every time I tell a joke, there's some truth in it,' he said. 'Yes, I know factually there are some liberal women who brag about that. Do I think the average liberal woman does? No — it's a more extreme thing.'
Going Off Script
The MAGA cultural movement is nasty, liberals say, with conservatives freely using slurs to describe gay people, disabled people, transgender people — anyone the right considers weird. A widely read New York magazine piece about young conservative influencers at a party in Washington, D.C., dubbed this crowd the 'Cruel Kids' Table.'
Some on the right said the article unfairly portrayed the group as racist and lacking diversity. Mr. DuRousseau, who was at the party, was not thrilled with it, either, but he also blamed some of his fellow guests.
'You don't go up to a reporter and say wildly reckless, racist jokes,' as some at the party did, he said. 'If that's your sense of humor and your dark humor, don't do that in New York mag. Do that with your friends.'
Mr. DuRousseau was not quoted saying anything controversial, though the author wrote that his TikTok 'is full of sometimes transphobic rants.' Mr. DuRousseau has said that trans people 'have no idea who they are,' has applauded efforts to bar trans people from serving in the military and competing in women's sports, and said he does not support children having gender transition surgery.
He acknowledged he was sometimes 'harsh' when talking about the trans community but said it was unfair to call him transphobic. He said he was primarily concerned with protecting women's spaces and with the consequences of children having irreversible surgery.
Still, controversy leads to more eyeballs, which lead to more dollars. Mr. DuRousseau wouldn't say how much money he earns, but he has an enviable lifestyle, working out at Equinox and dining at expensive restaurants.
Mr. DuRousseau's viewers on social media sometimes wonder in their comments whether he has carefully crafted his transformation story just to get attention and an income.
He said he understood the skepticism, but insisted the change was legitimate — and painful. It destroyed relationships with his friends and family, he said.
'MAGA culture now is hot,' Mr. DuRousseau said. 'Everybody wants to be a part of it.' But not long ago, 'you were exiled from society.'
Mr. DuRousseau's social media content is a potpourri of pop culture and right-wing politics, though his political takes sometimes deviate from the MAGA script. He praises Mr. Trump, mocks Kanye West, fact-checks Elon Musk, celebrates Beyoncé, assails pro-Palestinian protesters, compliments Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas — a rising Democratic star — and gleefully calls for deportations.
Several hours after filming his 'Walk With Me' video, Mr. DuRousseau dined on the rooftop of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills with his friend Emily Wilson, another Democrat turned MAGA influencer. She said her conservative transformation began after she lost her job during the Covid pandemic and began criticizing mandatory lockdowns on social media.
Now, she courts controversy and attracts attention on her podcast, called 'Emily Saves America.' Ms. Wilson, 31, said the left's policing of speech and scolding tone reached an extreme in 2020, amid racial justice protests and debates over vaccine requirements and mask mandates.
'The way I felt is probably how young Americans feel: I felt like I was literally bullied into a corner for the past four years,' she said, peppering her comments with expletives. 'You just have to tiptoe: 'Don't make a racist joke. Oh, don't be misogynistic. Oh, call them by their pronouns.' You get to a point where you feel like you're going to explode.'
'The Beverly Hills Conservative'
The next morning, Mr. DuRousseau sat down inside a hyperbaric chamber at a Beverly Hills longevity center called Oxynergy2, where patients come for IV drips, massages and other therapies. 'We offer personalized protocols to enhance brain and body performance,' its website says.
Mr. DuRousseau, who visits weekly, was multitasking: inhaling oxygen through a tube attached to his nostrils, soaking up the red light from a glowing panel in his lap and clacking away on his laptop, preparing for the episode of 'Respectfully, Xaviaer' he would film later that day.
His embrace of alternative therapies is itself a kind of statement, this time in support of the Make America Healthy Again movement, which emphasizes healthy living and exercise and distrusts much of modern medicine, including vaccines.
Led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Trump's secretary of health and human services, the movement has capitalized on the growing interest in wellness on social media and especially among young people, encouraging them to embrace supposedly healthy habits, sometimes to an obsessive degree. Young men are talking up the benefits of cold plunges, young women are comparing how fertile they are, and seemingly everyone is suddenly skeptical of pharmaceuticals, processed foods and seed oils.
Mr. DuRousseau said he got on a wellness kick after becoming obsessed with Crumbl cookies. As he worked to cut them out of his diet, he started researching unhealthy chemicals and focusing on his health.
'When it comes to health and environment and wellness, I feel like those are conversations that should transcend politics, but it has become political because of major institution involvement,' he said. The wellness movement, Mr. DuRousseau argued, was exposing corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, the Food and Drug Administration and big food conglomerates.
'When all of these institutions become too big and they start to partner up, it becomes problematic for the everyday American,' he said.
MAHA, like MAGA, seems to be supercharged by anti-establishment, sometimes conspiratorial thinking — in this case, skepticism of drug companies and agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. DuRousseau said he distrusted the F.D.A. because it takes in money from drug industry fees.
'Is it not common sense that they benefit financially from people being sick?' he asked.
Mr. DuRousseau's focus on wellness fits neatly into his brand. His target audience is less the unkempt, basement-dwelling keyboard warrior, and more 'the Beverly Hills conservative — people who want to be healthy, attractive, successful and have limited government.'
Finding the Nuance
The son of a factory worker and a truck driver, Mr. DuRousseau was born on the South Side of Chicago. When he was 2, his parents moved the family to rural Pontiac, Ill., to keep his siblings from getting involved in crime, he said.
Growing up, he said, he often felt too Black for Pontiac, a predominantly white, conservative town, and too white for Chicago, where he spent many summers and where his grandmother still lived. But he was active in Pontiac, playing football, running track, attending church and graduating from high school as co-valedictorian.
He also faced racism, he said. In a video he made in 2019, during his progressive days, Mr. DuRousseau said he had been repeatedly racially profiled by police officers and subjected to racist epithets by classmates.
After his time in the hyperbaric chamber, Mr. DuRousseau drove to PragerU's Los Angeles-area office to record an episode of his show reacting to that video. 'Ex-BLM Activist Reacts to His Cringe-Worthy Woke Past!' it would be titled.
As he watched, he seemed surprised that he still agreed with much of what his 'woke' self had believed. For example, he said, it's true that some police officers are racist. Indeed, studies and investigations have detailed how police violence disproportionately affects Black people.
But he disagreed with the liberal Xaviaer on one major point, arguing that 'what I dealt with is far from systemic racism.'
'My worldview was shaped around the fact that there were some racist kids in this hillbilly town who did a couple bad things to me,' Mr. DuRousseau said in his new video, adding that he had a 'victim mind-set' during his years on the left.
Mr. DuRousseau said his rapid embrace of conservative politics back in 2020 caused tension with members of his family, who are mostly liberal. He said he and his father stopped speaking for several years and their relationship had only recently begun to thaw; it was a similar story with his eldest brother, he said.
Mr. DuRousseau's father and brother did not respond to requests for comment. His mother, Venus DuRousseau, sent a message via text.
'I don't know much about politics or what really changed Xaviaer's views,' she wrote. 'He's always been someone who asks a lot of questions and is outspoken. I'm very proud of him for living out his passion even though I don't understand it.' She said their relationship never changed because of his views.
Wrapping up his 'Woke Past' video at the PragerU studio, Mr. DuRousseau told his audience they were free to 'drag' him. 'We're all cousins here,' he explained. 'So, cousins, y'all can roast me, bully me, so that I never have that mind-set again.'
When the cameras stopped rolling, he leaned back in his chair, exhausted.
There was a time, Mr. DuRousseau said, when Black conservatives were afraid to talk about racism at all, worried that it would make them seem 'woke.' He hoped that was changing.
'People are afraid to have nuanced conversations,' he said. 'So to be able to acknowledge that there's a little bit of truth on both sides of the aisle — I love it here.'