Mother Jones; Laura Brett/Zuma; Paul Sancya/AP, Jose Luis Magana/AP
On March 23, Steve and Tracy Slepcevic hosted a fundraiser for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the San Diego area. Tickets started at $575, and those who paid $2,750 were to be treated to a “private sunset reception” before RFK Jr. would chat with the assembled and pose for photos. It was hardly surprising that the Slepcevics were supporting Kennedy, given that Tracy is a long-time anti-vaxxer prominent within the autism community. But the personal politics of the Slepcevics illuminate the weird currents propelling Kennedy’s White House bid, for the pair have hobnobbed with QAnoners, Christian nationalists, election deniers, and other pro-Trump extremists. Steve, who has a checkered past as a businessmen that includes an arrest (but not a conviction) for allegedly defrauding victims of Hurricane Katrina, was in the crowd of Trump devotees outside the Capitol on January 6.
Last year, Tracy Slepcevic published a book called Warrior Mom about her years raising a son with autism that she blames on routine childhood vaccines. The book was endorsed by Kennedy and championed by Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser for President Donald Trump who has become a QAnon-friendly Christian nationalist and a leader within the far-right patriots movement. The Kennedy campaign sells signed copies of the book for $150 a pop. Tracy has been an ally of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vax nonprofit that Kennedy ran before entering the 2024 contest. In November, she spoke at CHD’s annual conference in Savannah, Georgia, where she hawked her book and palled around with Kennedy, a longtime peddler of Covid and vaccine misinformation. On Facebook, she declared, “Had a great time at the CHD conference in Savannah with some amazing people…I’m so blessed to be on this journey with each and every one of them.” In promoting her book and activism, she has shared platforms with Stew Peters, a far-right anti-vaxxer who has been tied to QAnon advocacy and has spread (according to the ADL) antisemitic tropes, and with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced scientist who wrote a discredited paper linking autism to vaccines.
Tracy is a regular on the far-right conspiracy circuit. In November 2022, she joined the ReAwaken America tour as a speaker. This was a traveling road show that fused Christian nationalism, QAnonism, and MAGAism. It was a feast of election denialism and assorted conspiracy theories that featured as headliners Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, conspiracy-theory-monger Alex Jones, and Lara and Eric Trump. At these events, there was much talk of demons. (At one stop, Stone proclaimed “there is a Satanic portal above the White House” that appeared after Joe Biden became president.) Last June, Tracy attended the premiere of Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening, the third in a trilogy of conspiracy theory movies produced by an independent filmmaker named Mikki Willis. The first was loaded with debunked notions about Covid and vaccinations, and Facebook and YouTube each removed the film from its platform. The third one claimed Covid lockdowns were “synchronized tyranny” concocted to control the masses, decried a “purported plot” for one-world government, and dubbed Black Lives Matter a pro-communist organization.
In February, the Slepcevics hosted what they called the “Autism Health Summit” in San Antonio. The speakers included numerous anti-vaxxers, including Willis, Judy Mikovits, another Covid conspiracy theorist, and Del Bigtree, a notorious anti-vaxxer who is now the communications director for the Kennedy campaign. Tracy has endorsed election denialism by promoting on her Facebook page 2000 Mules, the much-debunked documentary made by Dinesh D’Souza (a felon pardoned by Trump) that falsely claimed that during the 2020 election thousands of Democratic operatives were paid to illegally gather ballots and stuff them into drop boxes.
Steve Slepcevic, too, has traveled within the Trumpish far-right. Photos and videos taken on January 6 in Washington, DC, provided to Mother Jones by Capitol Terrorists Exposers—an anonymous group that has researched extremists involved in January 6—show he attended the rally on the Ellipse where Trump spoke that preceded the attack on the Capitol. One photo that Steve apparently posted on Facebook indicates he was in the crowd outside Capitol during the assault. In this post, he claimed that the “Fake News Media” was wrong to report that Trump supporters had stormed into the building, and he said that the riot was a “staged event.” (No evidence has emerged showing him inside the building that day.)
Another photo he apparently posted captures him in the company of several members of the Three Percenters militia, including two of the four Three Percenters who were subsequently convicted of charges including conspiracy and obstruction for their involvement in the January 6 riot.
In May 2021, on his Instagram feed, Steve promoted the We the People Patriots Day Rally in Stuart, Florida, which featured Flynn and Stone. The announcer at the event was a QAnon activist named DeAnna Lorraie, who was a host at Alex Jones’ InfoWars site. The rally, according to the ADL, was addressed by other QAnoners and a Christian nationalist.
In 2022, Steve was billed as a guest speaker at an event headlined by former Sheriff Richard Mack that offered “US Constitutional Sheriff Training.” Mack is the founder of the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which asserts local law enforcement officials have the power to block federal officials and even to determine whether laws are constitutional. (Mack was one of the early leaders of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia-style outfit.) Other participants at the training, held at a Sheraton hotel outside Orlando, Florida, included Flynn and Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock and a prominent 2020 election denier and ardent conspiracy theorist. (Byrne has been sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems for spreading false claims that it rigged the 2020 election.)
Steve Slepcevic’s business career as a disaster management entrepreneur has been a rocky one. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times mounted an investigation and “found dozens of fraud complaints, lawsuits and government investigations targeting Slepcevic and his Rancho Palos Verdes-based company, Paramount Disaster Recovery, spanning six states over the last decade. In California alone, insurance companies have filed 22 fraud complaints since 2002.” The newspaper described Paramount as part of “the world of ‘storm chasers,’ traveling contractors and insurance adjusters who descend on natural catastrophes, offering to help victims maximize their claims and rebuild.”
The paper reported that California had suspended Steve’s contractor’s license and that a judge had tossed out his petition for personal bankruptcy: “In the bankruptcy case, Slepcevic had acknowledged 21 claims against him or Paramount. But the U.S. trustee said in court papers that Slepcevic was ‘actively concealing’ a $200,000 fine by the California Department of Insurance and six related criminal charges for allegedly misrepresenting himself to victims of California wildfires.” The paper also noted, “Despite his legal and financial troubles, Slepcevic drives a Mercedes-Benz and lives in a $1.6-million Redondo Beach home with an ocean view. Over the years, he has earned up to $80,000 monthly, divorce records show. In addition to heading Paramount, Slepcevic runs the National Disaster Summit, a for-profit educational conference that serves as an advertising vehicle for disaster services. He charges other self-described disaster experts $3,000 for 45 minutes on stage.”
Steve told the paper that he had “made mistakes” and that his company had suffered from “management issues.” He insisted those problems were behind him. Speaking about the Los Angeles Times article 13 years later at a ReAwaken America event, Tracy called it a “smear job” and recalled, “We lost everything. My husband lost his business of 20 years. We lost our house.”
Two months after the Los Angeles Times piece appeared, Steve was arrested by the Louisiana State Police for allegedly participating in a “scheme that stole insurance proceeds from individuals and businesses after Hurricane Katrina.” The state charged that Steve and two associates swiped $355,461 from victims of the storm by negotiating insurance claims on their behalf, forging the signatures of the victims on settlement checks, and depositing the checks into the bank account of a company owned by Steve. The case was dismissed the following year.
In 2014, Steve and Tracy Slepcevic incorporated a business in California called Strategic Response Partners, which, according to its website, helps “organizations respond quickly, efficiently, and appropriately to rapidly changing disaster-related situations.” He also started a Florida-based private security company called Sabre Defense Team. Its credo: “Survival is not just a skill set, but a mindset.” According to its website, “Sabre is an elite team of highly trained and uniquely skilled professionals equipped to assist with all facets of private security, paramedic, and emergency rescue and recovery services. When it comes to private security services, experience counts!” Until this week, the site said the company has been providing “proactive security” for “more than 25 years.” The firm was incorporated in 2021. After Mother Jones inquired about the company and its incorporation date, the reference to “25 years” was removed from the site.
Speaking at a recent conference, Steve noted that he had worked with Turning Point USA, a conservative outfit aimed at young people, and its leader Charlie Kirk (a Trump champion and election denier who has been in the news lately for making racist comments) to produce a documentary on the US-Mexico border. He also described how he escorted Kennedy to the border last year and “set up all the interviews for him.” (The Kennedy campaign released a short film about this visit in which Steve appeared as an expert on smuggling at the border.) During this talk, he said that he would be providing security for a press conference at the end of May in Geneva that will feature government officials from countries who oppose the signing of a treaty obliging nations to share data and work together in the event of another pandemic. He noted his disaster management firm was collaborating with activists who intend to travel to the Swiss city to protest the accord and who are planning a similar event in Washington, DC, in September that will feature Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, Russell Brand, and others.
Neither Steve nor Tracy Slepcevic responded to multiple questions and requests for comment Mother Jones sent them. When a reporter for Mother Jones called Tracy, she answered the phone. After he identified himself, the line went dead. Subsequent calls went to voice mail.
Mother Jones emailed the Kennedy campaign a list of questions about the Slepcevics and their associations. The queries included: How much money did the Slepcevics help raise at the recent fundraiser they hosted? Does the campaign plan to use them further in fundraising? How does the campaign feel about their ties to pro-Trump extremists? The campaign replied: “Your request for comment is under consideration and your deadline is noted. If the campaign has a response, we will let you know.” There was no additional response.
Political commentators have had a tough time characterizing Kennedy’s campaign. Is it a project of the left or the right? (Kennedy recently told CNN that he considers President Joe Biden a “much worse threat to democracy” than Trump.) The campaign defies easy categorization. But the participation of the Slepcevics shows how RFK Jr.’s presidential bid can coexist with advocates tied to far-right extremists and Trump superfans. Beyond the fundraiser and the book sales, the Slepcevics have assisted Kennedy in other ways. In February, the campaign auctioned a one-hour coaching session with Tracy. The highest of the two bids that came in was $700. Last month, the campaign auctioned four hours of private firearms training with Steve. The buy-now price was $5,000. The winning bid was $1,325.
