What's Resonating: Wednesday, July 9
Ongoing conversations on the Texas floods and Epstein list
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
Texas flood recovery and commentary continues
Reactions to the Trump administration on Epstein
Today’s Analysis: Texas flood newsmakers
TLDR: Right-leaning pages continue to run circles around left-leaning pages on post volume and engagements re: the Texas floods.
Email users: Click through for the full chart.
Yesterday on Social Media
🟦 Left-leaning accounts
Left-leaning pages engaged in the Epstein narrative, questioning conservative transparency and Trump’s connection.
The Daily Show mocked the DOJ’s announcement about the lack of an Epstein file with a photo of Epstein posing with Trump. (32x average channel likes on Facebook)
The Daily Show’s 10-minute segment including the Epstein news was the most-viewed political video on YouTube yesterday (1.4 million views)
Philip DeFranco and Courier shared clips of Trump getting defensive when asked about the Epstein list during a cabinet meeting.
Stacey Abrams reposted a video of her on Jimmy Kimmel explaining how Trump is pushing our country into authoritarianism, earning over 1.9 million views.
Cory Booker amplified creator Beverly Mahone explaining the word “Trumpery.” (553,000 views, 4x average channel views)
Occupy Democrats shared a clip of people protesting JD Vance’s visit to San Diego. (2 million views, 9x average channel likes)
Matt Bernstein amplified the story of Mexican firefighters crossing the border to join the Central Texas rescue efforts.
🟥 Right-leaning accounts
Fox News had the top right-leaning post with a “message of faith” from Kansas City Chiefs owner’s daughter Gracie Hunt after she lost a relative in the Texas floods. (162x average channel likes)
Many right-leaning pages continued to react to the DOJ’s announcement that there is no Epstein list:
Elon Musk questioned how people can have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files, and how more “squirrels and raccoons” have been arrested than anyone on Epstein’s client list in two of the top-liked right-leaning posts. (806,000 likes across two posts)
Roseanne Barr responded to Trump, arguing people do still care about Epstein. (95,000 likes, 7th most-liked right-leaning post)
Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned DOJ claims about Epstein, claiming “no one believes there is not a client list.”
Joe Rogan gave a shout-out to people who don’t believe in conspiracies for their ability to “stick to [their] guns” in the fourth most-liked right-leaning post (179,000 likes)
Fox News and End Wokeness reported on 10 people who were charged in a “planned ambush” on an ICE facility in Texas.
The Fox News Facebook post earned over 150,000 likes, 41x the channel average.
🟨 Neutral (Political) accounts
Footage from Camp Mystic ahead of the devastating Texas floods was featured in two top neutral posts from the Daily Mail, earning a combined 8.6 million views.
Rescue efforts were also popular across neutral pages:
CBS News’ Facebook page featured a video of firefighters and first responders from Mexico who crossed the border to help with the flooding. (3.8 million views)
The Daily Mail posted a clip of a baby being rescued from the flood waters.
Several top posts included Trump interrupting Pam Bondi to shut down a reporter who asked about the Epstein tapes during a cabinet meeting.
Trump sent 14 letters to heads of state, informing them of new tariff rates on goods from their countries and warning them not to retaliate. (1.7 million views, 3x average channel views for CNN)
🟨 Neutral (Cultural) accounts
Several top cultural posts included commentary on the viral antipasto TikTok story, including the third most-liked post across all tracked pages from Mack 2.0.
Ms. Rachel shared a video with Rahaf, a three-year-old from Gaza who lost both of her legs in an airstrike. (872,000 views)
The Shade Room shared an ABC News report on TSA phasing out its policy requiring passengers to remove their shoes for security checks.
Today’s Analysis: Texas Flood Newsmakers
The Texas floods remain one of the top two topics of conversation online this week, although volume has started to come down a bit. To date, neutral and right-leaning pages have each driven about 40% of total engagements on tracked posts related to the Texas floods, while left-leaning pages have driven only about 20% of floods-related engagements.
Legacy media outlets have been driving the majority of this coverage. Fox News has been by far the leading voice on the floods — between July 5th and July 8th they have posted 320 times about the floods across platforms, earning nearly 8 million engagements. That’s 46% of engagements from right-leaning pages, and 20% of the entire conversation across political leans, from Fox News accounts alone.
Fox’s volume is nearly double that of the next highest channel, CBS News with 168 posts, and has driven 38% more engagement than the next-best page, The Daily Mail. Eight of the top 10 pages by engagements were neutral media accounts. The top left-leaning channels covering the floods have been MeidasTouch and Aaron Parnas, with 29 and 17 posts respectively.
Elected officials from Texas have played a small but meaningful role in the conversation. We’ve tracked 182 posts from 24 different Republican electeds from Texas related to the floods, compared to just 34 posts from 10 different Texas Democratic lawmakers. Texas Republicans earned over double the engagements (348,000) on flood-related content compared to 138,000 from Texas Democrats.
Jasmine Crockett led Texas elected officials in total engagements on the subject, and her flood response video—which offered condolences and tied the disaster to the Republican budget bill—has received 1.3 million views across TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Republican Buddy Carter was the Texas elected with the most over-performing post, a tweet announcing his granddaughters had been rescued from one of the flooded camps (overperformed by 56x).
Today’s takeaway: The Texas floods are a critical story that left-leaning pages should communicate about more. Increasing post volume and making sure to lead with empathy and outrage before weaving in the dangerous impacts of Trump’s budget cuts remains the best engagement strategy.
Headlines you can use (via Daily Guidance from our friends at CAP Action):
Ted Cruz ensured Trump spending bill slashed weather forecasting funding. [The Guardian]
Cuts to NOAA increase the risk of deadly weather tragedies. [Yale Climate Connections]
Deadly Texas floods raise questions about emergency alerts and whether staffing cuts affected forecasts and warnings. [CBS News]
Texas floods reveal limitations of disaster forecasting under climate crisis [The Guardian]
Email users: Click through for the full chart.