What's Resonating: Thursday, September 4th
Epstein victims, China’s parade, and the DWTS cast announcement
We’re back with another edition of What’s Resonating – a daily newsletter from the Resonate team that delivers a data-driven snapshot of the stories, trends, and messages shaping online culture and politics.`
If you’re not already subscribed, we’d love to have you on the list! If you are, we'd encourage you to share the link with those in the movement who could benefit from these insights.
Now, let’s dive in.
What’s Resonating
Pushes for Epstein accountability
China’s military parade
The Dancing with the Stars cast
Today’s Analysis: An Epstein Resurgence
Today’s Takeaway: The Epstein conversation is back in the spotlight, with his victims courageously speaking out as part of Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s efforts to demand the release of the files. As the media focus shifts from the victims to the discharge petition being organized in Congress, ramp up pressure on Republicans and Donald Trump for blocking transparency to the American public. It’s helpful to share pro-transparency messages from right-leaning and neutral voices to highlight the crossover prioritization of this issue.
Email users: Click through for the full chart.
Yesterday on Social Media
🟦 Left-leaning accounts
Left-leaning pages reacted to the latest Epstein developments:
Occupy Democrats posted about the victims' press conference. (248,000 likes)
Brian Allen reported on the Epstein survivors’ announcement about creating their own list of names. (220,000 likes)
JoJoFromJerz argued that the military flyovers during the Epstein victim press conference were intentional distractions. (127,000 likes)
U.S. Democratic Socialists (Note: not an official account) shared a Facebook clip of Rep. Stansbury claiming the cover-up went all the way to the top. (3.1 million views)
Aaron Parnas covered the rally (548,000 views) and how a survivor linked Trump to Epstein. (1.2 million views)
Dean Withers also pointed out how the victims connected Trump and Epstein at their press conference. (569,000 views)
Gavin Newsom responded to Trump’s comments about his hands by zooming in on the discoloration of Trump’s hands. (2.1 million views)
Matt Bernstein reacted to headlines about Coldplay’s Chris Martin inviting “all Israelis and Palestinians to this concert as equal human beings.” (209,000 likes)
Occupy Democrats posted about Newsom teaming up with Oregon and Washington to launch a “West Coast Health Alliance.” (160,000 likes)
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen had a similar post (97,000 likes)
🟥 Right-leaning accounts
JD Vance suggested that because the media told their audiences that “Trump was on his death bed because he didn't do a press conference for 3 days, imagine what else they're lying to you about.” (156,000 likes, second most-liked right-leaning post)
End Wokeness shared a body cam photo of an angry woman of color and suggested that BLM’s push for the cameras continues to be one of the biggest “self-owns” of all time. (152,000 likes)
Ken Blackwell shared Trump’s comments about tariffs possibly replacing the federal income tax. (137,000 likes)
Fox News reported on Epstein survivors making their own list. (1.6 million views)
Thomas Massie had a similar post, claiming he would read the list on the floor of the House, where they have Constitutional “speech or debate” immunity. (96,000 likes)
Thomas Massie also shared that the White House is calling his commitment to securing a vote to release the files a “hostile act.” (64,000 likes)
Benny Johnson also clipped the comment about developing a list. (82,000 likes)
Eric Daugherty shared breaking news about Florida ending all vaccine mandates. (107,000 likes)
The Donald Trump for President Facebook page shared Elon Musk’s call for life imprisonment for anyone “involved in performing s-x changes on children.” (65,000 likes)
JD Vance visited Minneapolis following the Annunciation shooting.
🟨 Neutral (Political) accounts
Several top neutral posts covered Epstein survivors speaking out and claiming they will build their own list.
Neutral entities also covered the Chinese military parade, focusing on the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea in attendance as evidence of a “new world order.”
Metro reported that Luigi Mangione’s likeness is being used on Shein’s website, raising questions about AI. (3.8 million views)
🟨 Neutral (Cultural) accounts
Pattiegonia interviewed SJ Joslin, the trans ranger fired for flying the trans pride flag in Yosemite. (1 million views)
Several cultural posts reacted to the Dancing with the Stars cast announcement:
Good Morning America shared the whole cast. (12.5 million views across four posts)
Influencer Alix Earle revealed her dance pro (3.1 million views) and a “Get Ready with Me” video for the reveal. (1.9 million views)
Pop Base announced that Lush closed their stores in the UK in solidarity with the people of Palestine. (108,000 likes)
Influencer Becca Bloom shared her wedding photos in a collab with Vogue.
Resonate’s Take: To put it simply — wedding content does NUMBERS. If your principal is engaged and wedding planning, videos about dress shopping, ring designing, “rules for our wedding,” and more help show off personality and get you in front of new audiences.
Today’s Analysis: An Epstein Resurgence
Social media conversation around the Epstein files had decreased to a murmur for most of August—whether that was due to audiences tuning out, platforms suppressing related posts, or (most likely) a mix of both. But Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna’s efforts this week have sent the conversation roaring back. Posts related to Epstein yesterday generated at least 12.8 million engagements and 152 million views across political leans—the highest such marks since late July.
In particular, this moment galvanized attention from across the political spectrum online. Left-leaning pages have been leading the Epstein conversation, to the point that it risked being polarized as a Democratic rather than bipartisan issue—accounting for 75% of all Epstein-related engagements in August. Yesterday, that figure was down to 55%, as neutral and right-leaning pages got substantially more involved.
Of right-leaning pages, Rep. Thomas Massie, Benny Johnson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene were the three leading voices, with each generating over 150,000 engagements across all of their Epstein-related posts and over-performing by at least 80%. The top neutral voices were CBS News and PBS NewsHour, with the latter generating 15 times more engagements than usual for their accounts. For left-leaning pages, the leading voices were Aaron Parnas, Occupy Democrats, and NowThis—each generating over 500,000 engagements on their channels alone.
Interestingly, posts that mentioned “Trump” as well as Epstein yesterday (accounting for 43% of all Epstein-related posts) performed 20% worse for both left- and right-leaning pages than posts that only mentioned Epstein. There are a number of ways of interpreting that finding, but one strong possibility is that keeping the focus solely on the survivors yesterday felt more authentic to audiences.
Email users: Click through for the full chart.