For President Donald Trump, the campaign trail to his 47th presidency really began eight months before he announced his candidacy. On March 9th, 2022, Trump made the first of many podcast appearances with the “Donald Trump x Nelk Boys” episode of the Full Send Podcast. The Nelk boys, four prank Youtubers turned podcasters, spoke with Trump about the current Biden administration, which had just entered its second year, and the retraction of troops from Afghanistan. Trump’s critique of Joe Biden was scathing and unflinching, a theme that would repeat itself throughout his campaign. This podcast appearance eventually grew into a full-blown partnership between President Trump and Nelk, with the boys posting pro-Trump advertisements on their social media accounts, interviewing JD Vance, President Trump’s running mate, and even appearing onstage with him at a rally. To the average American voter, this podcast appearance and Trump’s friendship with the Nelk boys would not seem consequential, but to the keen observer, this moment could very well have been the catalyst for Trump’s victory, and the factor that distinguished him from both Kamala Harris and former President Biden. 

In between his first podcast appearance and the summer of 2024, President Trump continued to make waves among a community of staunch supporters. With his indictment on March 25, 2023 and the ensuing, viral mugshot in August, his claims that the Democratic party was influencing the courts against him rang loud for millions of Republicans. For his supporters, the mugshot was not that of a federal criminal, but of a political martyr. During this time, he also began to attend Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matches where he rubbed shoulders with entertainers and athletes. By going to the events where the untapped voters and cultural influencers were, he began to solidify himself in the masculine, “Bro” culture.  

After an interlude in 2023, President Trump’s campaign began to pick up steam.  While he utilized the usual methods of candidates, he also delved into the realm of podcasts once again. His first appearance on the 2024 circuit was on influencer Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive. Though they discussed multiple facets of his campaign including the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the war in Gaza, and Biden’s ineptitudes, they also discussed cultural events like Trump’s new Tik-tok account, the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight, and his thoughts on Elon Musk. Logan Paul and his brother Jake have been the face of “Bro” culture since they got their start over a decade ago, and by going on Logan’s podcast, President Trump opened the door for many young men across the country to see him in their preferred medium of entertainment. After this first appearance, he went on to be interviewed on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, The Lex Fridman Podcast, Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, Bussin With the Boys, and, most notably, The Joe Rogan Experience which has been recognized as the most listened-to podcast of 2024.  

The correlation between Trump’s new media endeavors and his win are no coincidence. As The Civics Center Found, roughly 54% of the vote from Americans ages 18-24 was for Kamala Harris while in 2020, that same age group brought in 59% of the votes for Joe Biden as per the Pew Research Center. Another poll by The Civics Center found that men ages 18-29 voted for Trump by 49%. Though these are all purely statistics, and they can be left up to interpretation by analysts and citizens, it is clear that the vote of the “Bro” culture was significant in placing President Trump in a higher position for a key demographic of voters. In fairness to his opponent, Harris did go on a number of women-centered podcasts, most notably the Call Her Daddy podcast in which she discussed key voter concerns like abortion and her history as a prosecutor.  

The saturation of President Trump in the podcast, entertainment, and masculine media space was a strategy that worked very well for him. Unlike Harris who places priority on demographics that historically had voted for the democratic party, Trump reached out to a community that until this election season, had felt unrepresented and unmotivated to vote.  Acting as a strong, vitalic leader in contrast with former President Biden’s weakening persona, President Trump gained the support of many young men in America and won the support of the majority of American people.