Rockefeller Foundation enlists MrBeast in “psy-op” partnership to brainwash Gen Z ahead of elections

  • The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a strategic partnership with YouTube megastar MrBeast, aiming to leverage his massive youth audience for philanthropic messaging.
  • Critics frame the alliance as a sophisticated influence operation designed to inject globalist and progressive narratives into content consumed by Gen Z and younger audiences.
  • The partnership is seen as part of a broader effort by legacy institutions to regain narrative control after losing influence with young people on independent media platforms.
  • Historical context highlights the Rockefeller Foundation’s century-long role in shaping public policy and social agendas, raising questions about the underlying motives of the collaboration.
  • The move signals a new front in cultural persuasion, moving beyond traditional media to directly target the digital spaces where young Americans form their worldview.

In a move signaling a new frontier in cultural influence, the century-old Rockefeller Foundation has partnered with YouTube phenomenon MrBeast, aiming to capture the hearts and minds of Generation Z. Announced in late November 2025, the alliance pairs one of America’s most storied philanthropic institutions with the digital era’s most successful content creator, Jimmy Donaldson. The collaboration, branded as “next-gen storytelling,” seeks to make global philanthropy “viral.” However, national security advocates and media analysts warn this represents a sophisticated soft-power operation, using entertainment as a vehicle to shape the political and social views of young Americans ahead of critical election cycles.

A foundation with a history of agenda-setting

To understand the significance of this partnership, one must examine the historical footprint of the Rockefeller Foundation. Established in 1913 with wealth from Standard Oil, the foundation has long been a powerhouse in directing the course of public health, agriculture and science. Its early 20th-century funding of eugenics research and its central role in founding institutions like the United Nations demonstrate a legacy of pursuing large-scale, systemic change—often aligned with visions of global governance. In the modern context, the foundation is a key funder of climate initiatives, digital ID advocacy and public health frameworks. This history suggests its ventures are rarely purely charitable but are strategic investments in shaping future paradigms.

The perfect vehicle for a target demographic

The choice of MrBeast is a calculated one. His channel commands an audience where approximately 55-60% are between the ages of 13 and 24—a demographic notoriously distrustful of traditional institutions and mainstream media. Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah admitted to The Associated Press that traditional philanthropy has failed to emotionally connect with these young people. MrBeast’s formula of high-production, emotionally charged stunts—from planting millions of trees to funding cataract surgeries—proves uniquely effective at engaging this cohort. The partnership effectively outsources the task of persuasion to a trusted influencer, embedding the foundation’s preferred narratives within compelling, shareable content.

From protest industrial complex to “kindness” content

This foray into influencer marketing follows a period where legacy institutions have lost narrative ground. The explosive growth of uncensored podcast platforms and independent media has allowed alternative viewpoints to flourish, leading to what observers call a “great defection” of audiences from mainstream progressive narratives. Investigative researchers have previously documented the Rockefeller Foundation’s role as a financial pillar for the so-called “permanent protest industrial complex,” which organizes political activism. With this partnership, the tactics appear to be evolving from street-level activism to a more insidious, screen-based persuasion campaign. The goal is no longer just to mobilize protesters but to fundamentally shape the worldview of an entire generation, making globalist policy goals seem like innate, apolitical virtues of “kindness” and “action.”

A psy-op in plain sight?

The operational hallmarks are familiar to national security professionals: identify a target demographic, recruit a culturally relevant asset they trust and deliver tailored messaging wrapped in an appealing package. The content will likely emphasize themes like:

  • Technocratic solutions to global problems
  • The necessity of supranational cooperation
  • A redefinition of “equity” and “sustainability” that aligns with foundation goals

This is not philanthropy in the traditional sense of disinterested charity. It is a strategic communication campaign funded by one of the world’s most powerful non-governmental entities. The “next-gen storytelling” is a modern iteration of psychological operations, or psy-ops, moving from battlefield tactics to the digital landscape of domestic cultural influence.

Guarding the marketplace of ideas

The ultimate success of this campaign hinges on a lack of public discernment. It represents the very centralization of information control that free speech advocates have long warned against—where a handful of powerful, unelected entities dictate the boundaries of acceptable thought through captivating media. In an open marketplace of ideas, this partnership would be one voice among many. The danger lies in its scale, its targeting of the impressionable and its potential to drown out independent critique under a tidal wave of viral content. The defense against such engineered persuasion is not censorship, but vigorous competition in that marketplace: supporting independent creators, cultivating media literacy and insisting on transparency regarding the motives behind the messages that flood our screens. The battle for the next generation’s mind is not being fought on campuses or cable news alone, but on YouTube, and the most effective storytellers may now have the oldest agendas.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

APNews.com

ThePeoplesVoice.tv

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