Aspiring country singer Alexis Wilkins has been outfitted with an elite SWAT security detail and enjoyed a romantic “date night” with Patel on taxpayers’ dime. Now, new streaming data obtained by Rolling Stone shows significant boosts to her streams whenever Patel is making headlines.
Streams for the little-known 27-year-old Nashville artist have increased 48 percent in the past year, coinciding with Patel going from a podcaster to the head of one of the country’s top law-enforcement agencies. And whenever Patel finds himself at the center of a news cycle, there’s a corresponding surge of people tuning in to Wilkins’ music, according to music data provider Luminate and viewed by Rolling Stone.
Patel has praised his girlfriend as a “country-music sensation” and justified the highly unusual move to provide security to a non-spouse of a government official by claiming Wilkins has faced hundreds of death threats related to her newfound publicity.
The couple met three years ago in Nashville, with Wilkins telling Megyn Kelly that she was drawn to the then-director of Trump Media & Technology Group’s integrity and honesty. “We both are very patriotic, so obviously there are things there that we definitely agree on,” she said. Patel, 45, has similarly heaped praise on his “partner in life,” calling her a “true patriot.”
Wilkins has been making music for more than a decade, building up a small fanbase mainly through gigs around Nashville. After a string of singles, she released her first EP, Grit, through Saddle Up Records in April 2023. After graduating from Belmont University in 2020, where she studied business and political science, Wilkins became more active in right-wing politics. She said a wake-up call came while she was in college, when she received an “F” in a class because she believed the professor was punishing her for her conservative beliefs.
A few years later, she began giving away Constitutions for the Fourth of July, became a contributor to the conservative nonprofit group PragerU, spoke about the RNC for Newsmax, opened a show for Trumpworld favorite Lee Greenwood, and started singing at Turning Point USA-affiliated events. In late 2023, she stopped posting music to her Rumble account — except for her single “I Want My Country Back” — and pivoted to political commentary. She’s also a spokeswoman for the American Border Story, which describes itself as “uncovering the truth behind the immigration crisis.”
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But Wilkins has been simultaneously pushing her music career, which hit new levels this year — 508,000 streams across all online platforms to date versus 343,000 last year, according to Luminate — coinciding with Patel’s public-facing role in the administration.
Typically, Wilkins hovers between 4,500 and 7,000 weekly listeners, or a median of 6,300 streams each week, according to Luminate. But after a beaming Wilkins stood beside Patel at his swearing-in ceremony in February, that number skyrocketed to 105,300 streams, dovetailing to 17,400 and 10,600 streams in the following two weeks.
Wilkins’ numbers plateaued between 6,000 and 7,000 streams until around July 4, when Patel was scrutinized for a joint DOJ and FBI memo saying there was no evidence of a “client list” in the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein files. Online social media accounts began amplifying baseless conspiracy theories that Patel was compromised, accusing Wilkins of being a Mossad “honeypot” to manipulate Patel. (Wilkins adamantly denied the “insanely ridiculous” accusations, and has filed at least three defamation lawsuits against those who made the claim.) During the height of the backlash against Patel and the amplification of the accusation, Wilkins’ music streams peaked at 43,600 weekly listeners.
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She saw another boost of 30,400 streams in the week following right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September. Working with Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, she sang an a capella rendition of “God Bless the USA” at the University of Minnesota. As head of the FBI, Patel was highly visible in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, prematurely posting that the suspect was in custody, telling Kirk he’d see him in “Valhalla,” and sharing images of “anti-ICE” bullets found at the scene.
Wilkins’ weekly listeners dropped to some of their lowest numbers until November, when it was revealed Patel used a $60 million tax-funded private jet for a “date night” with Wilkins in late October. Patel had gone to Pennsylvania to see Wilkins sing the National Anthem at a Real American Freestyle wrestling event, then used the jet to fly to Nashville, seemingly dropping off Wilkins. The discovery sparked instant backlash. Not only had Patel made the trip during the 43-day government shutdown, but he had also repeatedly decried his predecessor for his private-jet use. (FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson said criticism was “disingenuous and dumb.”)
Patel came under fire a few weeks later when it was reported he had assigned a SWAT security detail to protect Wilkins, allegedly screaming at a commander when agents left an assignment accompanying Wilkins to an NRA event early after determining the location was secure. (It is unprecedented for a director’s girlfriend to receive their own FBI security detail, both MS Now and The New York Times have reported. Neither Wilkins nor a rep for Patel immediately responded to a request for comment.)
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As the scandal embroiled Patel for much of November, Wilkins had a record month of nearly 63,000 streams overall. And last weekend, MS Now reported that on at least two occasions, Patel ordered an FBI security detail to escort one of Wilkins’ drunk friends home from the bar — a serious break from what is within the scope of a service members’ duties. (A FBI spokesperson and Wilkins both denied the report.)
Although streaming data for this past news cycle isn’t in yet, the pattern is clear: A week in the headlines for Patel means a solid week for Wilkins.
