Joe Rogan, Barstool Sports, Nelk Boys, Andrew Schulz, Ben Shapiro, Dave Ramsey, Lex Fridman, Shawn Ryan, Theo Von, Adin Ross, Logan Paul — that is the TikTok “For You” page of millions of 19-year-old males. It is also the list of the social media influencers who have hosted former president Donald J. Trump on their channels over the last four months. That overlap is no coincidence. In the final stretch before the 2024 Presidential Election, The Trump Campaign is targeting one particular demographic: young men.
The Manosphere: Explained
The laundry list of content creators above includes live streamers, comedians, a political commentator, a military veteran, a personal finance guru, and an academic. Despite this broad array, these figures are unified by their tangential relation to an online movement known as the manosphere — a community of male influencers loosely connected by a shared desire to promote men’s self-improvement. In championing new-age masculinity, the manosphere encourages young men to attain wealth, hone their physical fitness, and embrace traditional gender roles. Given the nature of this content, even the most mainstream and well-known figures within the community — Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, for example — publish to audiences that are 80% to 90% male.
Perhaps unknowingly, this community of young men united as a counterculture in response to social progressivism’s assimilation into popular culture. As the feminist, LGBTQ+, and #MeToo movements have gained traction over the past decade, masculinity has faced criticism, blurring the line between its healthy and toxic forms. Left wondering what it means to “be a man,” many young men have found solace in idolizing manosphere magnates who endorse principles of strength, confidence, and discipline.
Andrew Tate, the most famous of these internet chauvinists, rose to celebrity status in 2022 through his flashy supercar display, storied kickboxing career, and lewd discussions of women. An archetype “alpha male” figure, Tate had repeatedly expressed support for Trump and his policies before receiving a lifetime ban from all major social media platforms amidst sex trafficking charges. While not all of Trump’s base male voters support these creators or consider themselves “red pill”— a Matrix-inspired epithet for those who distrust the government and hold contempt for women’s rights — nearly all of those entrenched in the manosphere align themselves with right-wing policies. Praise for the “nuclear family,” the rejection of LGBTQ+ identity groups — specifically transgender individuals — and an overarching desire to return to the past are all points of ideological intersection between red pill content consumers and Americans who don red hats.
Media Methodology
As the Election Day countdown clock ticks to zero, Trump has chosen to sacrifice dance time on the campaign trail for deep conversations in the soundbooth. The choice to prioritize a “bro show” over his own rally in a battleground state might not exude political savviness, though beyond the clickbait, this decision exemplifies a novel political strategy out of his camp.
Trump has long espoused the notion that mainstream news outlets propagate “fake news” — an insult he leveled against established journalistic organizations on over 2,000 occasions during his time in office. Given his frayed relationship with legacy media, Trump has long sought out alternative methods of disseminating information to his base: first, via Twitter, then after Jan. 6, Truth Social.
Eight years after he converted virality into candidacy, Trump has realized that utilizing other influencers’ platforms is a far more successful approach than posting on his own.
By the date of publication, the full-length versions of the 11 aforementioned podcasts featuring Trump have racked up over 82 million views on YouTube alone. While these podcasts are first published as dense, long-form conversations, their key moments, comedic exchanges, and controversial quotes are quickly clipped and reposted as short form videos across all major social media platforms — accumulating millions of impressions in the process.
This social media tactic offers Trump access to far more viewers, a sympathetic platform, and increased liberty; it’s far harder to sensor thousands of clip pages across multiple platforms than one loudmouth on Twitter.
On a deeper level, Trump’s appearances on “bro shows” may be an attempt to meet young male voters where they’re at. According to a Harvard Youth Poll conducted in March of 2024, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, and Facebook are up to four times more popular news sources for voters aged 19-25 than traditional media outlets such as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. This preference towards social media is understandable, given that only 10% of 18-29 year-old respondents trust mainstream media.
Voter Outreach
Trump’s media marathon represents not just a novel vie for political attention, but also a concerted campaign effort to mobilize a base of young, male voters — many of whom will be eligible to vote for the first time or will choose to vote for the first time this election cycle. Historically, 18 to 29 year-old men have been the most unreliable voting cohort, though Trump’s team hopes to change that narrative through civic engagement efforts. The most prevalent of these programs, Send the Vote, is a nonprofit voter participation organization with sponsorships from the Full Send podcast, as well comedian Theo Von and recent internet sensation Hailey Welch, more commonly known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl.” Send the Vote claims to be a non-partisan entity, though its co-founder Taylor Budowich manages MAGA Inc., the primary super PAC supporting Trump.
During the introduction to the Full Send Podcast episode with Trump, lead host Kyle Forgeard encourages his viewers to register to vote through sendthevote.com, then commands, “get up off your f—— a— and actually vote.” Forgeard also claims that the initiative “mak[es] sure your vote is actually counted,” which appears to be a reference to the “stop the steal” narrative from the 2020 Election cycle, though neither the podcast host nor sendthevote.com offers any explanation as to how that aim will be accomplished.
Where’s Kamala?
The Democratic party, too, understands the weight of the male vote; selecting a midwestern “grandfather figure” who served in the Army, coached high school football, and hunts pheasants in his free time was no accident. Aside from her running mate pick, however, Vice President Kamala Harris has done little to appeal to male voters. While Trump racks up millions of views cracking jokes alongside the hottest influencers of the social media era, Harris has made most of her media appearances on flagship outlets such as 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. When she does venture into the pop culture realm, she attends shows supported predominantly by women, such as Call Her Daddy with Alexandra Cooper, The Ellen Show, and The View. From a celebrity endorsement standpoint, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo have publicly expressed their support for the Harris-Walz campaign, resulting in millions of impressions on predominantly-female fan bases.
The sole portion of the male vote that Harris has pursued is Black men. Magic Johnson’s endorsement, a radio town hall hosted by Charlamagne tha God, and a drop-in conversation at a Philadelphia barbershop were all campaign efforts targeted at Black men. Former President Barack Obama has also spoken quite strongly on the campaign trail for Harris about the necessity for Black men to overcome their opposition to a Black, female president. Despite the cultural prominence of these figures and the political weight of their support, these endorsements lack the very feature Trump’s campaign hinges on: youth. In stark contrast, the Harris-Walz campaign’s closest attempt at courting young voters is an endorsement from Lebron James — the oldest player in the National Basketball Association.
Divided by Default
Many women feel estranged from the Republican ticket after Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court Justices who later stripped women of their reproductive rights and his running mate JD Vance’s “childless cat lady” comments -– which Taylor Swift mocked in a recent Instagram post. Given this sentiment of political disenfranchisement, the Republican Party was forced to play a frat boy’s favorite hand in Texas hold ‘em: all in. But in this political game of cards, the party could only deploy jacks and kings, no queens.
Trump’s last-minute social media spree has drawn attention to the gender divide, though this phenomenon is contextualized by a much larger trend. The most recent Harvard Youth Poll suggests that the gender gap nearly doubled after the Democrats moved Harris to the top of the ticket, widening the current gender gap in partisan preferences to 20 points — Harris leads by 30 percentage points among registered female voters under 30 years old, compared to only 10 points among their male counterparts.
While 18 to 29 year-old registered male voters favor Harris, the data on unlikely voters tells a different story. Among these political wildcards, young males who “definitely will vote” favor Harris by 17 percentage points, while Trump leads by 11 points among those less likely to cast a ballot.
The Final Stretch
Republican vs. Democrat. Conservative vs. Liberal. Red states vs blue states. Men vs. women. Old vs. young. The modern American political scene has become increasingly polarized along characteristic lines. Though the compounding snowball of gender-exclusive campaign strategies and an ever-widening gender gap raises the question: is this an election of parties or genders? To Full Send Podcast host Kyle Forgeard, this election is “our last chance.” Though for many in his majority-male audience, it will also be their first chance. The outcome of the election, the efficacy of politicizing social media influencers, and the precedence of gender-driven political campaigns all seem to hinge on whether or not those viewers turn out as voters.
