Sheriff Grady Judd holding a booking photo of Craig Long

He called himself “MAGA to the core.” Now he has a mugshot to match.

Craig Long II, 41, a Tampa fitness influencer with nearly 700,000 followers, was arrested in a human trafficking sting operation. That alone would have made local news. Then investigators mentioned the photos of Long grinning alongside Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at a UFC event in Miami. Three weeks before his arrest.

Sheriff Chad Judd made sure the press conference was unforgettable.

“Well, I’m going to give him some content for his social media today,” Judd said into the cameras. “He was a previous felon who straightened up, really what we want to see in life. Now he’s an influencer.”

He let that hang in the air for a moment.

“Well, there you go. Got arrested in a human trafficking sting. Influence that for a while.”

The clip went viral before the press conference even ended.

Long built his entire brand around hard work, masculinity, and absolute loyalty to Donald Trump. His X bio reads “MAGA to the core.” He spent years marketing himself as a reformed man, a bootstrap success story who climbed from felony convictions to fitness empire to the inner circles of Republican power. He was photographed with the president. He had the followers. He had the brand.

He had a Hillsborough County sheriff waiting for him too.

Now those photos of Long beaming next to Trump and Trump Jr. are everywhere, and the questions are getting louder. How does a man with a prior felony record and an apparent appetite for trafficking-related activity get that close to a sitting president? How does nobody notice? How does nobody ask?

Trump’s team will say a photo at a public event means nothing. And technically, they are right. But this is the same political movement that spent years screaming about Democratic elites and secret trafficking rings. They turned “groomer” into a campaign slogan. They made child exploitation their signature culture war weapon.

One of their most vocal influencers just got caught in a sex trafficking sting.

The Republican Party does not get to own the issue of protecting women and children while this keeps happening inside their own ranks. This is not a coincidence anymore. It is a pattern, and voters are watching.

Long’s fitness pages and MAGA content have gone completely dark since the arrest. No posts. No explanation. No accountability.

Sheriff Judd had a suggestion for him though.

He has plenty of fresh content now.

"MAGA to the Core" Influencer Arrested in…