The new “Esther Project” foreign influence campaign has been paying Pentecostal consultants with ties to Trump family members.
A recent foreign influence initiative seeks to sway American public opinion toward a pro-Israel stance by financially compensating social media influencers for promoting related content. The American Conservative discloses that initial payouts under the Esther Project have gone to evangelical Christian advisors, including one connected to Brad Parscale, an ex-advisor to Donald Trump who operates a right-wing media firm partially owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump. Several other consultants involved come from a network of evangelicals linked to Trump, nurtured by the Israeli PR lead behind this effort to preserve Israel’s support among American religious conservatives.
According to the company’s latest submission to the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the Esther Project is managed by a firm representing Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The disclosures in September from Bridges Partners LLC revealed the outline of a well-financed campaign, sparking curiosity about which American pro-Israel social media figures might receive substantial payments amid declining public backing in the U.S. for Israel’s actions in Palestine.
In recent months, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has also initiated two similar campaigns. One involves a California firm deploying “geofencing” technology targeting Christian college and church attendees across western U.S. states to show pro-Israel advertisements. Another project will grant Brad Parscale $6 million to develop AI-driven pro-Israel media tailored for Generation Z.
However, the connection between Bridges Partners’ influencer program and Parscale alongside evangelical advisors has not yet been exposed publicly.
The influencer campaign through Bridges Partners operates via Havas Media Group, headquartered in Germany. Bridges Partners LLC was established in Delaware this past June by two Israeli consultants, Uri Steinberg and Yair Levi. Steinberg served for ten years at Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and was the North American tourism commissioner from 2014 to 2018. He collaborated with various American evangelical organizations and describes his work as facilitating connections between Israeli and American faith-based groups.
Steinberg is also the director of CityServe Israel, affiliated with the California faith charity CityServe International, which has partnered multiple times with Ivanka Trump. The group portrays itself as a “collaborative network designed to help local churches create greater impact and offer hope in the name of Jesus. We mobilize the church to fulfill its purpose locally and globally.”
His longstanding partnerships include American evangelical leaders, notably meeting in 2009 with figures from Kentucky’s Creation Museum, an institution promoting a literal interpretation of biblical creationism.
On September 2, Bridges Partners compensated the Matt Brown Group and Mark Forrester $7,880 and $2,000 respectively for consulting. The Matt Brown Group, an LLC based in Minnesota, manages content for evangelist and author Matt Brown, who commands 1 million followers on Facebook.
Dave Donaldson, co-founder of CityServe International, frequently posts about Ivanka Trump’s support for his organization on X and hosts a podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, which has featured both Steinberg and Brown. In 2021, Donaldson took part in a conference with national faith leaders when Trump, considering reelection, introduced a national faith advisory board to boost evangelical support.
Ivanka Trump collaborated with CityServe and renowned televangelist and Trump advisor Paula White on a charity initiative in 2021. Trump has regularly enlisted White’s backing to engage evangelicals, despite criticism of her selling $1,144 “resurrection seeds.” Paula White Ministries has continued working with CityServe Israel and Steinberg as recently as 2024.
Matt Brown has contributed articles to a Christian online publication owned by Salem Media Group, a Texas-based conservative Christian conglomerate encompassing a radio and streaming network plus conservative websites like TownHall, Redstate, and Hot Air. Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2016 digital media campaign director, was named chief strategy officer at Salem in 2025. Parscale, an evangelical Texan, has the Trump family ties that include Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump, who became Salem Media Group stakeholders this year.
Parscale is credited widely for his social media strategies that contributed to Trump’s 2016 electoral victory.
Brown has publicly declared his pro-Israel stance through the years, including in 2020 and 2024. It remains uncertain whether his consulting with Bridges involves identifying and managing paid pro-Israel influencers.
Mark Forrester also received a consulting payment from Bridges via the Esther Project. According to FARA documents, Forrester serves as chief communications officer for the large Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God. He has written for Matt Brown’s platform and acknowledged Brown as a close friend on Facebook. Steinberg appears to have cooperated with Forrester, tagging him in a post about launching Israel Campus in 2020. Israel Campus offers “first of a kind live online classes from Israel, delivered by top Israeli scholars in a variety of subjects relevant for Christians around the world,” according to Steinberg.
Forrester has a history of involvement in Israel-evangelical American outreach. Last year, he featured on a podcast with Yael Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Eckstein’s show, “Nourish Your Biblical Roots with Yael Eckstein,” streams on the Charisma Podcast Network, owned by evangelical publisher Stephen Strang, author of a book asserting Trump’s elections were divinely predicted.
In a discussion, Eckstein asked Forrester about how younger Assemblies of God members respond to increasing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, especially following October 7th, expressing concerns about “happening on college campuses.” Forrester explained that the denomination’s support for Israel is rooted biblically and crosses generations.
Efforts to reach Mark Forrester, Matt Brown, and Uri Steinberg by email went unanswered.
Both Eckstein and Steinberg have been recognized as “BridgeBuilders” or prominent activists in Christian-Jewish engagement by Root Source, a Texas nonprofit dedicated to fostering respectful relations between pro-Israel Christians and Jews.
Assemblies of God is a widespread, fundamentalist Pentecostal denomination endorsing practices like speaking in tongues, faith healing, and prophecy. Like other American evangelical groups, it belongs to a long-established Christian Zionist tradition. However, generational shifts show waning pro-Israel support among younger evangelicals, a trend evident even before the Gaza conflict, notes religious scholar Matthew Taylor.
“It’s logical for Israel to engage American evangelicals,” he told The American Conservative, “given that Christian Zionists form a larger demographic than Jewish Americans, whose support for Israel is now very fractured.”
Steinberg’s co-founder at Bridges Partners is Israeli Orthodox musician and ex-IDF captain Yair Levi, seen together with Steinberg in photos on Facebook.
Bridges also compensated the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, known for having previously represented Israeli spyware company NSO Group, along with an Israeli digital marketer handling “Project Services.”
Another recipient, Candor Marketing, Inc., received $2,000 as “pre-payment for future content generation.” This South Carolina-based company is owned by an evangelical Christian couple formerly involved in the Israel Collective, a part of Christians United for Israel, the largest Christian Zionist organization in the U.S. A former employee of Steinberg’s consulting firm, also a past staff member at Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, worked as outreach and alumni coordinator for the group. Matt Brown also collaborated with the Israel Collective and made multiple trips to Israel with them, as seen in Facebook posts.
Candor specializes in social media management, content creation, and paid advertising targeting clients such as faith-based fitness trainers and Christian business coaches. They did not respond to requests for comment.
While no specific social media influencers have yet been named as beneficiaries from Esther Project funds, these newly uncovered vendors hint that American evangelical figures will likely be tasked with efforts to restore Israel’s favor among younger U.S. audiences.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this piece erroneously referred to Lara Trump as the wife of Donald Trump Jr.
Original article: www.theamericanconservative.com
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