The present study addresses the urgency to describe the representational traits and discursive practices set in motion in the novel construct of the independent, anti-political, mediagenic actor. It is herein accepted that the emergence of the latter introduces a dynamic political phenomenon at the intersection of populism, anti-politics and the performative affordances of the new digital technologies. The case-study presented herein demonstrates that the centering of the ‘people’ constitutes a key element of the anti-political positioning and the communicative style of the mediagenic actor. The analysis adopts a CDA framework with a view to identifying the linguistic functions that enable the speaker to reiterate the pure ‘people’ vs corrupt ‘elite’ antagonism. The microtextual analysis examines the categories of transitivity, modality and presupposition and the findings indicate that this particular style entails ideological work as it is discursively re-enacted and digitally performed.