Beautiful Lies: Meet TPUSA Influencer and “Big Lie” Propagandist, Kristina Malimon
A closer look at the young political social media influencer who was arrested in DC following the Capitol Riots.
Prior to January 7th, 2021, Kristina Malimon was fairly unknown outside of the bubble of Trump-supporting Turning Point USA and the affiliated organization “Young Republicans of Oregon”. Her bio below indicated that she was an ambassador of the Falkirk Center, a political think tank at Christian institution Liberty University. As a leader of the Young Republicans of Oregon”, Malimon gained notoriety in the summer of 2020 for organizing a boat parade in support of reelecting Donald Trump and Mike Pence. A boat, who was not a part of the 100 boat parade, sank in the wake created by so many boats, but thankfully no one was injured.
Before she deleted her social media following the riots at the Capitol building in DC, Malimon had a decent sized following, with nearly 26K followers on Instagram and a YouTube channel with 261 followers for only a handful of videos. She also had an online shop where her customers could purchase her outfits, which are shown in the final picture collage. After Kristina Malimon (28) and her mother, Yevgeniya Malimon (54), were arrested for violating curfew in DC, Kristina’s social media accounts were disabled. A trail of photos and videos were still available online on 1/8/2021 and they contain plenty of information that we can use to piece together a picture of what her role might have been within TPUSA.
Malimon was pictured on social media at the rally prior to the Capitol riot. In an attempt perhaps to distance Turning Point USA from her arrest, most of Malimon’s connections to Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk have been deleted on social media. Kirk did not mention her arrest following the Capitol Riots, even though she was well known GOP backing influencer and spokesperson for Turning Point USA.
Malimon was in a photo with Roger Stone, wearing a large flag print scarf or vest, at an unknown location and event dated December 24, 2020. In the post she was congratulating Stone for his pardon. Malimon has attended many other TPUSA events throughout 2020, including the rally for Trump in July 2020 that was held near Mt. Rushmore. She was also pictured with Donald Trump Jr. at the Student Action Summit in late December 2020. For more about #SAS2020, check out my thread below.
Recounting Malimon’s busy year, Tess Riski wrote: “Despite her day job, Malimon found ample time to travel during 2020. As the national committeewoman for Young Republicans of Oregon, Malimon in 2020 attended conservative events in Miami Beach, Fla., Keystone, S.D., and Phoenix. In a December video posted by NDT news, Malimon said she volunteered as a poll monitor in Savannah, Ga. Also in December, she attended the Million MAGA March in Washington, D.C. She posed for a photo alongside Roger Stone, whom she congratulated for receiving a pardon. She also took a selfie with Donald Trump Jr. and shot videos within feet of Kimberly Guilfoyle.”
Malimon and her family immigrated to the USA from Balti, Moldova when she was 13 years old That was 15 years ago, which would mean that she was likely born in 1992, after the fall of communism in Moldova. Malimon speaks fluent English, but still retains an accent when she speaks. Her mother, Yevgeniya, required a Russian translator during their arraignment. I was not able to find the clip because her Instagram was taken down, but it was reported that she told a family story about her grandfather and great-grandfather being imprisoned for their Christian faith during Soviet rule.
Often pictured in attractive poses and overly dressy attire, Malimon gives off model vibes. Her messaging seems consistent with what I have seen from other young women social influencers who were connected the Trump re-election campaign. I have observed that they are often conventionally attractive and present themselves as highly feminine, with interest that are fairly stereotypical among conservative young women. I noticed that although she is not wearing pants in all but one picture and that although her clothes are often form fitting, she does not display cleavage in the photos that I have seen. I would guess that her religious beliefs might have influenced her concept of modesty.
Her image in projecting the idealized contemporary conservative women is spot on. Kate Bitz of Western States Center, a organization that monitors extremism in the Pacific Northwest, said “Figures like Malimon present a friendlier face to MAGA even though their ideologies are often baseless and anti-democratic,” and adds that this “…dynamic is driving the entry [into] conspiracy theories, and it broadens anti-democratic trends.”
In one photo in the above photo collage, Malimon is in an advertisement for a TPUSA Zoom call dated 10/29/2020. It is entitled “Socialism Sucks Because…” and was co-hosted by Portland Activism Hub. A screenshot of her Instagram profile includes “Trust in the Lord with all your heart! Proverbs 3:5”, says that she is from Portland, Oregon, and “God Bless America” and each line starts with a heart emoji and is punctuated with a small American flag emoji. Malimon is then pictured with a sign that says “Make America Pray Again”. She is also wearing a small flag pin on her blue dress. Behind her is a background that says “Young Women for America”.
I would conclude from these pictures that Malimon considers herself a Christian and that her faith and her politics go hand in hand. When Christian faith cannot be separated from conservative politics is often referred to as Christian Nationalism. If you are interested in exploring this topic more in depth; a hashtag #CapitolSiegeReligion was created by Peter Manseau and has circulated for the use of tagging examples of Christian Nationalism during to and in the events leading up to the Riots at the Capitol.
Malimon was involved in two campaigns to sow the seeds of doubt regarding a fair election process. Above is a video posted on 6/17/2020 where Malimon speaks with Shari Wassell of “Campaign Corner” about her suspicions that there was voter fraud happening in Oregon in July of 2020. Oregon has had mail-in voting for many years now and does not have in person voting, so there was no change in the way that Oregonians voted during the pandemic. However, Malimon made the claim that during the primary 2000 voters who were previously registered as Republican had their affiliation changed to Non-Affiliated or other party without their knowledge. Malimon did not say that voters registered as Democrat reported their affiliations changed to Republican or Non-Affiliated.
The host is clear that Malimon was opposed to mail-in voting being used by the rest of the nation during the pandemic. Malimon used emotive language like “corruption” to describe the democratic voting process in her state and said that “many people aren’t having their voices be heard” (sic). However, clear details of what happened and how it happened are not given by Malimon. The information she shared sounded a lot like hearsay, and is not proof of a stolen election. Furthermore, when Malimon is asked a question that goes off the script she seemed flustered and then used scare tactic language to bring the conversation back to her talking points, which sounded rehearsed.
It appears that information of these complaints were gathered via a Facebook page called “My Political Party was Changed” that was created on May 8th, 2020. PolitiFact found that these complaints were not proven, nor were the claims of a popular pro-Trump publication. In response to concerns, communications director for the secretary of state, Andrea Chiapelli, said “Our office is diligently working through each request we get to look into the claims that party affiliations have been changed without consent. We have not found any cases of fraud or malfeasance,” said Chiapelli. “We hold our elections to the highest standard and are ensuring that they are safe and secure. If there are any cases of fraud, we want to identify those.”
Fast forward to October 2020. Malimon continued to promote “The Big Lie” of a stolen election with another strange sounding story where she recounted what she says she observed as an election poll watcher in Georgia. Compared to the video below, the election poll sounds oddly coached. I have questions as to why a resident of Oregon served as an election judge in Georgia and why she used oddly specific terms and complicated explanations of the wires hooked to the Dominion voting machines. Considering that Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani are facing defamation lawsuits, I wonder if Malimon will also face charges for her accusations against Dominion?
The above video contains a message of encouragement that Kristina Malimon expressed for former President Donald J. Trump. Molimon was still pushing the “Big Lie” that Trump won the election in this video posted on December 12, 2020, despite the inability of Trump’s lawyers to prove this claim. In her now deleted accounts, Malimon was known to use hashtags popular with QAnon proponents. She was praised by former GOP nominee to the USA Senate from Oregon, Jo Rae Perkins, who is a vocal QAnon promoter.
Above are screenshots of the other videos, which I am including screenshots of in case those are taken down at a later date.
Above is a collage of the merchandise that Malimon was selling on her website in January. She has an LLC registered in her name, which I assume is for her fashion business.
I find it intriguing that not much is known about Malimon prior to her involvement in the Young Republicans of Oregon. She started posting political opinions on her social media in late 2019, but prior to that she reportedly wrote of her faith on social media. Even the head of the Young Republicans of Oregon organization could not recall Kristina’s back story. Although she has said that her family immigrated from Moldova, “It is unclear when, exactly, Malimon and her family moved from Moldova to Oregon. Multnomah County property records show that her parents purchased their Southeast Portland home in 2005, when Malimon would have been about 13.” Her Slavic background led to initial speculation, but at this time she does not appear to have Russian connections that have influenced her political involvement.
Although, Malimon may not have been a Russian operative, it seems that she could have been part of an attempt to rehabilitate the image of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Judging by Kirk’s new initiative to include church outreach to his organization’s goals, he may need to lean in heavily towards appealing to more conservative and more feminine audiences. Kirk’s has a well known history of throwing young women who volunteer or are employed by his organization under the bus every time he faces criticism probably isn’t doing wonders for the female perception of his organizations. Shenanigans like hiring the legging clad Bang Girls and having them shoot money from cannons at #SAS2020 may have also been a miss for both conservatives and for women who desire to be taken more seriously in political settings.
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