A political neophyte from New York has an enormous Twitter following, punches back hard at the press, takes on critics within the party and has completely upended the Washington establishment.
We’re talking about Donald Trump, right?
Wrong.
Another New Yorker.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, newly elected Congresswoman from the Bronx, who has emerged as an effective counterweight for progressives dying to take on Trump in his own style.
Many of President Trump’s most media-conscious supporters can’t help but admit it: Ocasio-Cortez has got serious political game.
“AOC has what I call ‘gameness’ or competitive heart — the combination of grit, determination, fighting spirit that you can’t coach,” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist. “You either have it or you don’t, and she has it big league.”
“I aspire to be the conservative AOC,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), an outspoken 36-year-old in his second term who has achieved a measure of prominence as a highly visible Trump defender.
Such admiration, in spite of vast ideological and demographic differences, is a testament to just how quickly the 29-year-old former activist and waitress has achieved political stardom.
It’s also a sign that many parts of Trump’s playbook — a populist image, an authentic social media presence, a willingness to lash out at mainstream media gatekeepers and fact-checkers, and a lack of deference to party leaders — are becoming enduring features of American politics, rather than some aberration made possible only by Trump’s unique persona or the state of the Republican Party circa 2015.
Trump’s most media-savvy supporters recognize Ocasio-Cortez’s approach because it is so similar to Trump’s, a comparison they often make.
“Laughing at Trump, as the libs did, sure stopped him from being POTUS,” the far-right activist Mike Cernovich tweeted in November, adding, “Laughing at AOC, as the cons are doing now, sure is hurting her.”
Since Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in last summer’s primary, Cernovich has regularly weighed in on her political potential, arguing that she is a left-wing Trump with a better understanding of social media and the benefit of positive coverage from mainstream outlets.
“I think her policies and everything are a disaster but I just look at her effectiveness,” Cernovich said, praising her as an exemplar of the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of will to power. “No one’s more effective than her right now.”
Talk-show host Meghan McCain called Trump and Ocasio-Cortez “two sides of the same coin” and said she was “just like Trump on Twitter.”
A senior GOP source observing Ocasio-Cortez on Capitol Hill put it more bluntly: “They are the same f—ing person. Think about it.”
Democratic critics privately say they’re just sick of being asked about her and talking about her, just as much as they’re sick of Trump.
They see her as a media celebrity like Trump, who won his first political office with no experience in policymaking or governing.
Cernovich dismissed Ocasio-Cortez’s conservative skeptics as “cultists” who are, “the same as Dems who couldn’t see Trump’s methodology.”
The reality is a freshman congresswoman who has held office for less than a month is dominating the Democratic conversation on Twitter, generating more interactions — retweets plus likes — than the six most prolific news organizations combined over the last 30 days.
Ocasio-Cortez is miles behind Trump in the influence of her Twitter account, but way ahead of every other Democrat including Barack Obama, congressional leaders and the likely 2020 presidential candidates.
A Vanity Fair headline last month asked, “Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a Smarter, More Beautiful, Charismatic (Woker, Socialist) Trump?”
“The right has constantly worried that she may be demonstrating some of the no-fucks-to-give political sangfroid displayed by Donald Trump: ill-informed but aggressively charismatic, adept at overcoming traditional political gatekeepers through social media, impervious to the dissonance between political promises and fiscal realities, and, most importantly, an avatar of our populist moment,” the article read.
Conservative editorial writer Jay Ambrose wrote in Newsday today: “In some ways, she is akin to President Donald Trump, a Twitter addict, sufficiently ignorant to let absurdities get a tight hold on her and gifted with a personality that says to at least some that here’s a soul who can and will get things done, important things.”
She never hesitates to unleash her Twitter followers on specific reporters or news outlets when she feels she’s been wronged — another similarity to Trump.
Ben Thompson — founder of Stratechery, and one of the most pioneering online thinkers — points out that neither Ocasio-Cortez’s “background nor her position as a first-time representative are … noteworthy enough to be driving the national political conversation. And yet she is doing exactly that.”
“In short, she is the first — but certainly not the last — of an entirely new archetype: a politician that is not only fueled by the Internet, but born of it.”
The self-described democratic socialist has also caught the attention of “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, a prominent pro-Trump voice on social media who began insisting in the summer of 2015 that Trump had mastered the principles of hypnosis.
In November, Adams, who has studied the art of persuasion, gave Ocasio-Cortez an A+ grade on her persuasion skills.
He responded to a skeptic who argued that her appeal was limited by responding, “Same thing was said of Donald Trump in 2015.”
Meanwhile, Ann Coulter, another early Trump believer, has become privately preoccupied with Ocasio-Cortez’s ability to command mass attention, according to a person close to the conservative commentator.
“Terrified is a good word,” said the person. “She’s terrified of her.”
Many fellow Democrats praised Ocasio-Cortez for injecting youth into a party dominated by septuagenarian legislators, mastering social media to engage a new set of voters and shifting the national debate on a Green New Deal on climate change, universal health care, higher wages and a 70 percent tax rate on those making at least $10 million.
Last week, Ocasio-Cortez — recently spotted dancing on Twitter and cooking on Instagram Live — earned kudos from colleagues for leading a workshop on how lawmakers can be more effective on social media platforms.