A report from The Daily Beastpublished on Thursday night sheds light on a pro-Donald Trump network of Internet users called Nimble America who reportedly create anti-Hillary Clinton memes and organize politically on Reddit. According to the report, the group's self-proclaimed "money man" and vice president is Palmer Luckey, the 24-year-old founder of Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets who Forbesestimates is worth $700 million.
The group champions "shitposting" Clinton and reportedly took responsibility for posting a billboard of Clinton's face with the words "too big to jail" in Pittsburgh. "We conquered Reddit and drive narrative on social media, conquered the [mainstream media], now it’s time to get our most delicious memes in front of Americans whether they like it or not," someone associated with the group wrote on Reddit in an introductory post.
Luckey reportedly agreed to match any donations made to a Nimble America fundraising drive on Reddit's r/The_Donald thread and has worked with maligned Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. "I’ve got plenty of money. Money is not my issue," Luckey told The Daily Beast of his fundraising efforts. "I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time."
He also allegedly wrote under the pseudonym "NimbleRichMan" on Reddit that the American Revolution “was funded by wealthy individuals. The same has been true of many movements for freedom in history. You can’t fight the American elite without serious firepower. They will outspend you and destroy you by any and all means.”
As a 501(c)(4) organization, Nimble America can donate money to Trump's campaign as long as it's not the group's primary financial activity. That is, it has to spend more than half of its money on "non-election-candidate-work." The Daily Beast is reporting that the group's Reddit posts were "rapidly being deleted" during the reporting of their article.
Late Friday evening, Luckey issued a statement about his relationship with Nimble America. He admit to giving the group $10,000, but denies being "NimbleRichMan" and denies giving them any money beyond those initial funds.
The statement in full is below:
“I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners.The recent news stories about me do not accurately represent my views.
