THE OBSERVER: Outside the Old Bailey in 2018, a reinvented Tommy Robinson flashed his perfect new teeth to 2,000 diehard supporters at a “free Tommy” rally on a stage that blocked the street.
Robinson was suddenly flush with US funds that transformed him from rightwing agitator to self-styled “citizen journalist”, with slick videos and a vast social media following that helped his Unite the Kingdom demonstration draw 110,000 protesters to the streets of London on Saturday.
Money from one man – US tech billionaire Robert Shillman – ties Robinson to a Who’s Who of far-right influencers with millions of followers online. Among them was US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in Utah last week.
Robinson’s reinvention for the social media age, which expanded his heavy focus on Muslims allegedly involved in child sexual abuse, was the result of his “Shillman fellowship” in 2017 to rightwing Canadian website Rebel Media – now called Rebel News – to the tune of about £85,000 over a year.
Shillman, who calls himself “Dr Bob”, citing his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is said to be a key figure in the transatlantic “counter-jihad” movement. He has invested in about 20 fellowships, working with Rebel News and rightwing thinktank the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), where the aim is “to promote freedom and to expose the lies of the radical left, the Islamist movement, and their allies in the media”.
Shillman “fellows” at Rebel News included Katie Hopkins, the former reality TV star, who made a documentary on “the mass slaughter of South Africa’s whites” in September 2018, long before the conspiracy theory was repeated by Donald Trump in the White House. The idea of a white genocide in South Africa based on attacks on farmers has been repeatedly debunked. Soon after, Rebel News brought in a new Shillman fellow, Laura Loomer, who is now a powerful conspiracy theorist with such proximity to Trump that she is referred to as the president’s “de facto national security adviser”. » | John Simpson, Home affairs editor | Sunday, September 14, 2025
