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US firm that boasted of helping elect Trump hired to advise Reform's Senedd election candidat

By Emily Price
Left - Reform UK leader Nigel Farage - Image: Andrew Matthews PA Media / Right: US President Donald Trump - Image: Alex Brandon PA Media

Emily Price 

A leading American political strategy firm that boasted of helping elect President Donald Trump has been hired by Reform UK to advise its candidates ahead of the Senedd election.

An insider who took part in Reform's recent candidate selection process told Nation.Cymru that Ryan Rodgers, president of the U.S. based Strategy Group Company, delivered a presentation to Welsh election hopefuls at a special Senedd candidate "gala".

Rodgers' is a digital communication and marketing specialist with experience in supporting political parties with election campaigns.

His company's website reveals that he has performed "extensive digital audits", provided strategic social media content creation and has conducted "high-level training sessions" for leaders looking to "harness the internet’s full power".

Rodgers' Columbus-based firm claims to be lifting America to a "brighter future" by partnering with candidates and causes to "amplify their voice, vote, and victory" and "surpass goals, win elections, and make dreams a reality".

The company says it has a "nation-wide client list" which it has helped to "win at all levels" - including U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence.

It has also helped a significant number of American Republican Party politicians to win elections, including governors, senators and congressmen and women.

A screen grab of Reform's gala itinerary showed that Rodgers' half hour pep talk came after candidates were treated to a "new leader speech" from Dan Thomas and a "vision for Wales" talk by former Conservative cabinet minister and MP David Jones.

Our source said that Rodgers' "high level" presentation included details about how Reform UK and its candidates engage with users and "how the party is able to extract data for voting intentions in specific areas".

Advice

Our source said: "The talk was delivered to the majority of the 96 Welsh Reform candidates. No one batted an eyelid at the fact an American company was coming in to support a Welsh election.

"There was advice given to candidates in the way they are to conduct themselves on social media.

"Pre-election, engaging with the public should be limited and must rely on Nigel Farage's profile and the national Reform pages being the main page and Welsh specific one.

"However, once elected, members should then set up profile pages that Reform HQ can monitor engagement and collate data - thus assisting with getting Nigel into No.10.

"Candidates were told to block followers who didn't agree with the rhetoric as well."

The insider added: "Mr Rodgers revealed that his company provides a wide range of social media data insights.

"These help with areas to campaign harder for example areas where there is a swing between Reform and say Labour or Conservative - thus allowing the party to target more specific areas than a general campaign.

"They also monitor usage to enable sponsored posts to be shared on the likes of Facebook, Tik Tok and X."

Videos

The Strategy Group Company website provides examples of some of its award winning communication campaigns including art and video advertisements for 2024 Republican presidential nomination Vivek Ramaswamy, and Michael Pence's conservative advocacy and policy group - Advancing American Freedom.

A video advertisement released by the firm during the 2016 presidential election campaign showed an American coal miner becoming emotional as he said Donald Trump had given "the working man" a renewed sense of hope for the future.

The video ends with an image of Trump wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat.

The website states: "No other firm has won more acclaim and awards. Political ads are boring. We believe they don’t have to be.

"Your message is powerful, and your ads should magnify it. We’ve spent decades perfecting the craft of communication, and we have proof."

Influence

Rodgers' most recent "insight" article published to the website explores "how digital momentum is reshaping Hungary's election".

Another article penned by Rodgers delves into how "Conservative candidates across Europe are successfully utilising TikTok to secure the youth vote".

In an article published to the site in 2024 during the UK general election campaign The Strategy Group Company took a look at the spending and strategy of Reform UK, Labour and the Conservative party.

Rodgers' wrote: "Nigel Farage, has significantly influenced the dynamics of the upcoming election. Polls indicate that Reform UK is now a considerable threat to the Conservative Party, particularly in specific vital constituencies.

"This shift is attributed to Farage’s decision to stand as a Member of Parliament and his takeover as party leader, which has energized the party’s campaign and broadened its appeal."

We sent an email to the contact address listed on The Strategy Group Company's website asking the following questions:

*Why does Mr Rodgers think it’s right that American strategists come to Wales to try to influence the Senedd election?

*Does the Strategy Group Company have an office in the UK?

*How much did Reform UK pay Mr Rodgers for the talk he gave?

*What exactly are the techniques the Strategy Group Company uses to identify voting intentions in Wales and advise Reform UK?

*Have you been engaged to support Reform UK with any further elections in the UK?

*Do you have an ongoing contract with Reform UK? Will it take you right up until the next UK general election?

However, the email bounced back marked as "address not found".

'No shame'

Nation.Cymru sent the same questions to Ryan Rodgers' personal email address - but we did not receive a response.

We also contacted Reform UK and asked why the party thought a U.S. based firm was qualified to influence a Welsh election. We did not receive a response.

A Welsh Labour source said: "Farage has no shame is promoting his friendship with Donald Trump.

"He spends more time at Mar-a-Lago than he does in his own constituency. Involving agencies like this in the Senedd election shows just how little they care about Welsh communities or Welsh values.

"They will use whatever methods they can to get Farage into number 10 - and will walk over Wales to do it."

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: "While Plaid Cymru are out knocking on doors across Wales every single day, Reform UK's claims to be on the side of working people is becoming as see-through as their un-costed manifesto.

"Reform UK choose to cosy up to super-wealthy, Trump-backing, international billionaires, proving that they don't work for the interest of Welsh communities, and they don't understand nor do they even care about Wales."

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10 comments

Guess Again

Reform UK’s proposal to direct how Welsh museums present history should set off alarm bells for anyone who values cultural integrity over political convenience. Buried in its Senedd election manifesto is a pledge that sounds innocuous at first glance: museums should present history “in chronological order” and “in context.” But beneath that language lies a far more consequential shift - the idea that politicians, not curators, historians, or communities, should ultimately shape how the past is interpreted in public institutions. The party justifies this by claiming that museums have become “divisive,” pointing to efforts by Amgueddfa Cymru to “decolonise” collections. Yet this critique sidesteps an uncomfortable truth: history is not neutral simply because it is arranged in a timeline. Decisions about what to include, what to emphasise, and whose voices are heard are inherently interpretive. Imposing a top-down definition of “context” risks replacing one contested narrative with another - only this time sanctioned by government. The concern voiced by museum bodies and unions is therefore not abstract. It goes to the heart of what museums are for. Institutions like Big Pit National Coal Museum and National Museum Cardiff are not simply storage spaces for artefacts; they are places where Welsh history is explored in all its complexity - industrial, linguistic, cultural, and yes, shaped by centuries of interaction with England and the wider world. To suggest that these stories can be standardised by political directive is to misunderstand their very nature. There is also a deeper tension at play. Reform’s language about avoiding “narrow or exclusionary narratives” positions the party as broadening historical understanding. But critics argue that prescribing how history must be framed risks narrowing it in a different way -privileging a particular interpretation under the banner of balance. When governments begin to define which perspectives are legitimate, the line between stewardship and control becomes uncomfortably thin. Dan Thomas, Reform’s leader in Wales, has publicly denied that funding would be used as leverage. Even so, the mere prospect of political oversight can have a chilling effect. Curators may feel pressure to align exhibitions with prevailing political expectations, particularly in publicly funded institutions where budgets are never guaranteed. At stake is not just a technical question about display methods, but a broader principle: whether history in Wales will remain a living, contested field shaped by evidence and debate, or become something more fixed—tidied into a form that better suits contemporary political narratives. Museums, at their best, do not tell people what to think. They invite them to engage, to question, and sometimes to feel uncomfortable. Any policy that risks turning them into instruments of political messaging, however well-intentioned it claims to be, deserves close and critical scrutiny.

Reply
Y Cymro

If it’s not Reform UK’s traitor Nathan Gill in Putin’s pocket, we now have another Trojan Tory, Dan Thomas, allowing his boss, Nigel Farage, to use foreign agents from America to interfere and teach Reform’s Senedd candidates how to manipulate would-be voters on social media using misinformation for electoral gain. This is very sinister behaviour from those who claim not to be part of the establishment, yet employ big brother Soviet-style techniques reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984.

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Mab Meirion

On your bike etc at £8 million per mile...in a struggling nation...

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algebra museums

Reform has many of the same issues that the WRU are suffering from at the moment, just not understanding their "customers". The WRU has a board built from people who used to be part of English rugby, and they're still trying to run the WRU in the way that they ran teams in England, but they forget that in Cymru, the sport here does not originate in private schools but in the mines, the quarries, the farmland, the industrial heartlands of Cymru. They're even talking about "removing the emotion" from rugby here, when it's been the emotion of the working people across the country that gave the sport its beating heart here. It may even be possible that the current WU shares the goals of Reform Saes, in that they both want to use a system of almost soft imperialisation to make people here forget their history, their reasons for despising the cultural invaders.

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J Jones

Correct, as Reform and the current WRU 'leadership' are both English. The English WRU want us to be seen as this: Catrin Feelings: Reporting live from Principality Stadium which brought yet another loss in an empty stadium. But the English WRU don't want us to see this: How the Welsh Rugby Union destroyed its own National Team | A Squidge Rugby Deep Dive - YouTube because it will mean the English take-over getting kicked out of the WRU.

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Charlie

Reform candidates shouldn't listen to the fancy consultants and corporates in Reform HQ trying to turn them into stiff politicians. They should just be themselves. Unvarnished. Just say whatever's on your mind. Preferably after a few bottles of wine. On all the social media channels. Livestreamed. It's what voters want.

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FrankC

Right on! Wales needs drunk racists in positions of power. 😂

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Mab Meirion

It worked for Fat Shanks...

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Charlie

The last thing Nigel needs is honest candidates revealing the true nature of his project before he's taken control in 2029 because that can't happen without the centre right vote that needs to believe it's a serious political party.

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Jeff

Farage has taken a lot of foreign money. Anyone really think he will do anything for Wales apart from line his own pockets on the proceeds of selling us off and ruining away? All those rubes at that event, you will be left holding in the mess and we will be living it. Farage has form with political lying. Its his default position. https://www.desmog.com/2026/04/18/mapped-nigel-farage-reform-uk-money-income-donations-tracker/

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On your bike etc at £8 million per mile...in a struggling nation...

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