What's the Joe Rogan's effect in Trump victory?
It's not just about content creators and influencers anymore... Are podcasts and long-form non-traditional channels the future of elections and campaigning?
“I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.”
— Dana White during Donald Trump victory speech
Quick takeaways:
- , Chief correspondent at Business Insider, commented on X: “Lots of talk around here about Twitter's influence on the election. Some talk about TikTok.Zero discussion about YouTube. Even though, at a minimum, YouTube is where The Young Men watched all of those podcasts.”
“While Trump and Vice President [Kamala] Harris leveraged a mix of traditional and new media channels to reach young, minority voters, the scale of Trump's outreach was bigger and broader,” explain Eleanor Hawkins and Sara Fischer in Axios. “To reach young or disengaged voters, Trump opted for long-form podcasts and nontraditional media channels. Trump's appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast received more than 46 million views on YouTube, while Vice President-elect JD Vance's interview garnered more than 15 million views. Trump continued to target young male voters by giving interviews to podcaster Theo Von, Barstool Sports' "Bussin' With the Boys," Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast and appearing on a Kick livestream with controversial streamer Adin Ross — which at its peak had over 580,000 viewers.”
In her latest post in
, talks about and describes “a well oiled pipeline for conservative influencers: young TikTokers, YouTubers, livestreamers, or podcasters are discovered, developed, and pushed to larger platforms, often with the financial backing of conservative billionaires or organizations on the right who have long recognized the content creator industry a valuable means of shaping public opinion and policy.” She also adds how the “extremely collaborative,” and cross-pollinating conservative content creator ecosystem, with “widespread financial backing,” is rapidly gaining credibility “because influential Republican figures like Trump are willing to engage with them, appear on their podcasts, speak to them for their newsletters, or guest on their livestreams.” Taylor points out: “There is simply zero equivalent to this massive infrastructure on the left.”
Suzanne Kianpour of
writes: “Unlike celebrity endorsements, which have lost their pull, independent creators and podcasters now sway modern voters by discussing the issues that matter to them: inflation, foreign policy, and economic instability. Research from the University of North Carolina found that micro-targeted campaigns on platforms like Instagram and YouTube strongly influenced younger and minority voters—groups often overlooked by traditional media.”- , Chief correspondent at Business Insider, commented on X: “Lots of talk around here about Twitter's influence on the election. Some talk about TikTok.Zero discussion about YouTube. Even though, at a minimum, YouTube is where The Young Men watched all of those podcasts.”
“You can’t understand Trump’s win without understanding what young men are doing online,” writes Rebecca Jennings in Vox.
- of Time points out on X: “Trump's campaign strategy was to target young men who mostly interacted with politics through edgy bro podcasts and social media. In July, campaign manager Susie Wiles tasked a 27-year-old with spearheading Trump's podcast circuit: Alex Bruesewitz […] and senior adviser, Danielle Alvarez. […] The podcast strategy was set in motion. Like with all things Trump, he relied on trusted family to serve as an arbiter within his operation and guide his strategic decision-making. In this case, it was Barron [Trump].”
- talks about “a new era for campaigning online” in Wired. “One of the Trump campaign’s most promising strategies, they believed, was to drive up the margins with medium and low propensity male voters. To do so, the campaign took Trump away from the television cameras and in front of podcast mics, setting a new standard for how to run a campaign online.”
“Young people, more than older voters, typically rely on people in their communities whom they trust,”
, Director of Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, told Jon Schuppe and Kalhan Rosenblatt at NBC: “That could help explain the influence of internet personalities, like Rogan, who interviewed Trump for his podcast and endorsed him on the eve of the election. […] If you are a Joe Rogan listener and you feel inspired by the interview and want to talk to others about it, that has a real impact.”“Trump’s shift to newer media platforms over traditional outlets fits seamlessly with his longstanding, combative relationship with the press, one that’s been fraught since the 2016 election,” write
and in AdWeek. “One of Trump’s biggest hits is the Joe Rogan podcast, which […] reflects the shifting media landscape. As traditional outlets become more fragmented, […] large swaths of the public have turned to platforms like Rogan’s, bypassing established networks like CNN. This shift is further fueled by the decline of local news outlets, many of which have been swallowed up by conglomerates, leaving behind a void in community-centered reporting—something audiences are now finding in spaces like podcasts.”
What did Elon Musk say about Donald Trump’s digital and podcast strategy?
“I think this really makes a difference because people like Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is great, and Lex Fridman’s and the All-In podcast,” Elon Musk told Tucker Carlson. “To a reasonable-minded, smart person who’s not like hardcore one way or the other, they just listen to someone talk for a few hours, and that’s how they decide whether you’re a good person, whether they like you.”