Born in Los Angeles, he worked on various Republican campaigns throughout the United States in the 1990s. In 1996, he worked with Arthur Finklestein on Benjamin Netanyahu's successful bid for Prime Minister of Israel. After managing Charlie Christ’s unsuccessful campaign for Florida senator in 1998, he moved to Israel, full-time, working on Netanyahu’s 1999 campaign. He later broke with Netanyahu but remained deeply involved in Israeli politics, working for Israeli politicians including Ariel Sharon, Avigdor Lieberman, Nir Barkat and Naftali Bennett.
In 2003, Birnbaum formed a partnership with Arthur Finklestein, working politicians on both the left and the right, including Chancellor of Austria Alfred Gusenbauer, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Sergey Stanishev, Prime Minister of Romania Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi, President of Serbia Boris Tadić, Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He also briefly served as an advisor to the Ben Carson 2016 presidential campaign.
Birnbaum served a key role in the Soros conspiracy theory, in collaboration with Finklestein ahead of the 2014 Hungarian presidential elections. Most recently, he helped conduct surveys for the Azerbaijani dictatorship ahead of the 2024 parliamentary “elections” after the country’s recent ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians.
