Zach HirschHow Donald Trump leveraged the power of podcasting, streaming, and sports to connect with young men and propel him to a historic victory.
Gen Z guys like myself who were voting in their first, second, or third election came out in big numbers for President Trump. The question is, why? If you listened to the talking heads on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN in the buildup to the election, clearly they didn’t see it coming. What did they miss?
Team Trump Understood Fully Digital Guys
We are the first generation to be born fully post-internet. Over 95% of us had smartphones by the age of 12, and we live out a big portion of our lives on our devices, listening to podcasts, watching streamers, and live sports in our free time. We’re more likely to know what happened on the last episode of Rogan or Mcafee than who was on Saturday Night Live. Politicians’ efforts to reach Gen Z are often misguided and totally off base in many instances. This was not one of those cases. The Trump Campaign paid attention to Gen Z guys. They were smart enough to meet us where we are, listening to our favorite podcasts, watching our favorite streamers, and tuning into Football and the UFC.
We’re familiar with Trump, and Trump embraced those that we’re familiar with.
Donald Trump has been a candidate in every single presidential election that Gen Z’ers have participated in. I was 14 years old in 2016 when I watched Trump come down the golden escalator. In spite of the wild rhetoric, Gen Z guys aren’t afraid of Trump. He’s familiar to us. It’s hard for us to relate to the rantings of Robert Deniro and Mark Hammil warning us that Trump was going to destroy our democracy when we know he served as president for 4 years and no such thing happened. We don’t believe it when the ladies of The View call Trump a racist, we know he free’d our favorite rappers who were locked up on non-violent charges including Lil Wayne and Kodak Black and is supported by some of our favorite athletes including Mike Tyson, Le’Veon Bell and Lawrence Taylor. We do, however, listen when straight talkers like Dana White, Joe Rogan, Dave Portnoy, and Amber Rose, who all endorsed Trump in this election cycle, speak. It started with the Nelk Boys when President Trump appeared on the Full Send Podcast on April 20th, 2023. He kicked it with them, and Trump came off as one of the bros. As the election cycle started to really heat up, Trump’s campaign went all in on its courting of Gen Z guys. On June 13th of this year, less than 5 months before the election, President Trump appeared on an episode of Impaulsive with my friends Logan Paul and Big Mike Majlak. Gen Z guys across the country got to hear Trump, and the guys from Impaulsive live from Mar A Lago dive into some of the most pressing issues and realized that he spoke their language. Leaving no stone unturned President Trump made a very public appearance at UFC 302, arriving to a big round of applause and sitting with UFC Head Honcho Dana White. Trump was coming off as not only relatable but more and more like one of us. Seeing a former president and current candidate popping up in our favorite places seemed like it was starting to swing any of my previously undecided friends.
Trump Gets Shot and Finishes Strong
On July 13th, while speaking at a rally in Butler Pennsylvania, Trump survived an assassination attempt by turning his head at the last possible second and suffering a flesh wound to his ear. Despite having been shot and draped in Secret Service Agents, he stood up to the crowds roar moments later and began to chant “fight, fight, fight.” Trump had earned a whole new level of respect amongst Gen Z as the ultimate G. Major media personalities and even the director of the FBI lost whatever remaining level of credibility they had left with Gen Z guys when they denied the President had been shot after we had all witnessed the event with our own eyes. What else had they told us that wasn’t true? Just a few weeks after the failed assassination attention, on August 5th, he appeared on Adin Ross’ stream. This would end up being Adin’s most watched stream ever peaking at 587,000 viewers. Days later, Trump would do a “space” on X with Elon Musk that went on for three hours, where nothing was off limits, and they discussed a wide range of topics. Even my friends who didn’t listen to it at least heard a couple of clips of Trump with the world’s richest man. Trump tapped into the magic of the football season and its hold on Gen Z guys like myself and attended the college football game of the year between SEC Rivals Alabama and Georgia. Trump, the former owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals who has long been associated with Generals and Georgia Bulldogs superstar Herschel Walker received a great reception from the Tuscaloosa crowd. Twelve million of us got to see President Trump watching the game with us on ABC and ESPN’s streaming platforms. He followed up the Georgia Alabama game by appearing on Barstool Sports’ Bussin’ With The Boys and Andrew Schultz’s Flagrant podcast before appearing live in Pittsburgh for the NFL showdown between the Steelers and the Jets watched by over 20 million fans on NBC. Just over a week before Election Day, Trump sat down with Joe Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience for his final and most important appeal to the Gen Z demographic. President Trump and Rogan discussed a variety of topics from national defense to the economy and social issues for over three hours. Kamala Harris turned down an offer to appear on Rogan, which in hindsight appears to be a mistake. After Trump appeared on his show, Joe Rogan, who had previously endorsed Bernie Sanders in the last election, gave a full endorsement to Donald Trump. Rogan the unofficial podcast king and long associated with combat sports, crude comedy and just about everything Gen Z guys like was the icing on the cake may have helped seal the deal for any Gen Z guys who were still on the fence.
Trump’s Appeal to Gen Z Works
Trump’s strategy paid off big time. He dominated the electoral map with 312 points and carried the popular vote by over 5 million votes. Gen Z guys of every ethnicity, background, and religious group all came out stronger than ever for Trump in the 2024 election. How much did Trumps embrace Gen Z and meeting them where they are help? Twitch stats revealed that Trump received over 71% of all mentioned related to the presidential race on the streaming service. This confirmed that his embrace of streamers, podcasters, and sports had paid off and helped propel him to a historic victory.