How YouTubers pushed young male voters to Trump (with receipts)
+ Gamergate 2.0, pocket cheese, NYT on The Rizzler, MrBeast is hiring, and a Twitter exec reveals why Vine *really* failed
I’m finally back home in L.A. after a week in D.C. covering some events around the inauguration. I’m playing major catch up since I haven’t been home since December. In the meantime, I published a feature on the big TikTok-sponsored party hosted by pro-Trump influencers in Rolling Stone. The event was a who’s-who of the Gen Z right wing internet and Alex Bruesewitz, the Trump advisor who served as the key architect of the incoming president’s influencer strategy told the crowd: “There would be no celebration tonight if it weren’t for the commitment of our keyboard warriors.”
The whole inauguration made it clearer than ever that amassing and retaining online influence is central to the MAGA movement’s success.
How popular YouTubers pushed young male voters toward Trump
Bloomberg published a stunning investigation detailing exactly how a cadre of top male influencers helped swing the election for Trump. The outlet reviewed over 2,000 videos from nine prominent YouTubers, streamers and podcasters and analyzed two years of transcripts to see how the creators and their guests discussed politics.
As I’ve written before, Trump’s inauguration wasn’t just a political moment, it was the culmination of a decades long seismic shift in the media landscape (my book, Extremely Online, documents this shift). Traditional media gatekeepers have been replaced by YouTubers and podcasters, especially for young, predominantly male voters.
Bloomberg’s investigation into the content being published by big YouTubers reveals a pattern of pro-Trump messaging sandwiched between entertainment-focused content consisting of “free-wheeling discussions of sports, masculinity, internet culture, gambling and pranks,” making it more digestible for apolitical audiences.
The strategy worked. Young men, who overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020, swung hard to the right in 2024, with over 50% backing Trump. Guests like Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, and Elon Musk boosted messaging promoting hardline masculinity, distrust in institutions, and criticism of gender politics and vaccines. These messages resonated heavily with a generation of young people who have felt overlooked and disenfranchised.
Some key stats from the Bloomberg story:
Of the 903 podcast guests tracked over the past two years, only 12% of guests were women.
Voting was the most frequently mentioned political topic among highly viewed videos, with mentions appearing in 37% of episodes.
In half of those videos, hosts raised questions about elections, including casting doubt on the democratic process and results of the 2020 election.
Anti-war messaging was discussed in 33% of highly viewed videos.
In eight out of nine shows, hosts/guests painted Trump as a peacekeeper.
Transgender identity was mentioned in 29% of videos.
Hosts/guests portrayed trans people as aberrant and reinforced ideas of a gender binary.
30% videos discussing trans identity also mention children.
In 15% of videos mentioning trans identity, hosts also mentioned sports, arguing that it’s inappropriate for trans and intersex athletes to compete.
Other frequently mentioned topics included institutional medicine (27%), the economy (27%), and immigration (25%).
Trump’s appearances across the shows were the No. 1 episodes by view count for the majority of the programs tracked by Bloomberg.
9 episodes featuring Trump collectively garnered over 113 million views.
Second behind Trump were:
Andrew Tate: 80.6 million views
Tucker Carlson: 49.7 million views
Elon Musk: 38.4 million views
Most channels had few, if any, political guests until just before the election.
Politicians and pundits comprised only 15% of total guests but accounted for 30% of the most-viewed episodes.
From Bloomberg:
Above all, the broadcasters described American men as victims of a Democratic campaign to strip them of their power — a comforting message to a disspirited audience. These days, young men are lonelier than ever, with those aged 18 to 23 the least optimistic about their futures, and having the lowest levels of social support. Trump and his allies showed up for young men in the places where they were already spending their time — and supplied them with answers.
Trump is expected to continue prioritizing the broadcasters once the administration gets underway, treating them like an “alternative press corps… Trump’s personality and history are compatible with the programs’ messaging on masculinity, according to Alice Marwick, director of research at the Data & Society Research Institute. “It’s like, don’t be ashamed of your base manly desires. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty, don’t let anyone take you down,” she said. “You should be proud and strong, and you should also go after the people criticizing you.”
Trump’s often-combative messaging also aligns with what succeeds on YouTube.
“The easiest route these days to viewership is by creating enemies,” said Mike Majlak, a co-host of the Impaulsive podcast, in July 2023. “It’s me against the world. I’m the little guy standing up for what’s right, against the corporations, against the government greed, against Chuck Schumer. If you want to find a white knight, look to me. I’m your f - - - ing guy.”
A year later, Trump was a guest on Impaulsive, calling immigrants “terrorists” and stating that if he had been president, “the Russia attack on Ukraine would have never happened.”
I highly suggest reading the full article and checking out the visualizations. You can also read Bloomberg’s methodology and dig into their data on Github.
Doxxed, harassed, and silenced: The fallout of Gamergate 2.0
Remember Gamergate? It's happening again. Thousands of online extremists and male video game fans, emboldened by Trump’s win, have launched a new campaign to drive women and others from marginalized backgrounds out of the gaming and journalism worlds.
Alyssa Mercante is one of the journalists who has had her life destroyed by these attacks. After reporting on a right wing crusade against a video game consultancy involved in DEI efforts, she became the target of an aggressive harassment and smear campaign.
Alyssa joined me for my latest episode of Power User to talk about how and why the mainstream media throws women journalists under the bus, how these misogynistic hate campaigns ultimately have major political consequences, and what people can do to fight back. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch here!
Another Barstool podcast departs
The Barstool podcast Bussin’ With the Boys is leaving Barstool after getting an offer for more money from a sponsor. Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, two former NFL players who co-host the sports show already owned all o the IP to their show and have their own staff working on the show who they will continue to keep on.
I think this entire event shows once again how crucial it is to retain full ownership and control over your work. If Bussin’ With the Boys didn’t already own their IP and produce the show on their own show, they could have been in a messy Call Her Daddy type of situation, or been forced to accept far more money than they were worth.
What I’m reading
At the Summit: The last days of Davos
“I wanted to see whether globalization was dying, dead, or might yet recover from the blow delivered to it by a concatenation of historical events.” - Harpers
Addison Rae Took Over TikTok. Now She’s Coming For Pop
She became a social-media superstar thanks to killer dance moves and an overflow of Southern charm. Can she reinvent herself as a pop supernova — and earn respect along the way? - Rolling Stone
Right-Wing Dark Money Pushed For Trump’s World Health Organization Exit
Nonprofits funded by rich right wing donors have been working to undermine global health. - Important Context
How LinkedIn became a creator goldmine
Once known solely for résumés and recruiters, LinkedIn is now brimming with authentic stories, career tips, and big-name brand deals. - Fast Company
More fun stuff
People are selling phones with TikTok downloaded on eBay for thousands of dollars.
Velveeta launches Vel2Go, a nacho cheese packet you can carry around in your pocket for when you want to suck down Velveeta cheese.
Elon Musk admitted to cheating in video games.
Meta is planning Oakley Smart Glasses and a new high-end, $1,000 model with a screen and wrist control. It’s also again weighing launching a smartwatch, exploring an AirPods rival with cameras, and working on its first AR glasses for 2027.
Zuckerberg is hearting AI slop images on Facebook from a spam account that posts amputated children.
The New York Times Magazine has published a thoughtful examination of The Rizzler.
MrBeast is hiring for a slew of jobs based in his Greenville, NC headquarters.
In light of the TikTok ban, former Twitter exec Lara Cohen spilled the tea on why Vine failed and how Musical.ly/TikTok capitalized on Vine’s music and creator monetization missteps.
After Musk spent months hyping a new “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” it turns out the whole thing will just be a new name for the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which was established under Obama.
NFL teams aren’t allowed to use Bluesky.
Blake Lively’s team has evidence that Justin Baldoni is paying content creators to release Pro-Baldoni content.
More than 50 subreddits ban X links to protest Musk’s Nazi salute “hand gesture.”
If you have expressed “negative sentiment” toward insurance companies on social media you could be on a government watch list.
"Free Palestine" is now considered a symbol of hate speech on TikTok as the company caves to political pressure to be more pro-Trump in order to avoid a ban.
Theo Von and the Paul brothers have squashed the beef after the comedian accused them of kicking over his chair moments before Trump’s inauguration causing him to fall to the floor.
The co-founder of Vine and HQ Trivia, who hasn’t posted on social media in years, returned to X to pump a scammy memecoin.
The man who bought a 5lb bucket of horse electrolytes from a tractor supply company so he could create his own “horserade” and not have to spend so much money on Gatorade has posted blood test results showing he’s healthy. The man hoped taking the horse supplements would help him “never get hungover again.” “I am the #boss . Sipping on half of a horse dose and I feel great. My skin is fucking tingling,” he posted.
MrBeast’s stunt to buy TikTok is being overseen by the brother of Trump’s AG pick.
White supremacists and MAGA livestreamers are using the L.A. wildfires to solicit donations, juice social media engagement, and recruit new followers.
Meta is offering creators up to $50,000 in cash bonuses to keep producing content for Instagram Reels.
Sexyy Red is beefing with MLK’s daughter after the rapper posted an AI generated photo of herself with MLK.
Linktree bought out a billboard in Times Sq to encourage people to stream Heidi Montag’s song after her and Spencer Pratt’s home burned down in the wildfires.
Chinese Trump tells American TikTok refugees to stay on RedNote.
New peer reviewed study in JAMA finds women are at significantly higher risk for Long COVID (permanent organ, immune, and bodily damage from Covid) compared to men. There are currently zero cures for the permanent damage Covid does to the body, most with Long COVID are disabled for life and vaccines (which you should get bc they’ll help you not die) do not prevent Long COVID. So MASK UP! You can order cute N95s here.
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Obsessed with the nacho cheese sauce packets. I want someone to use one in front of me.
Why link to Jane's screenshot of Lara's post, and not Lara's actual post on Threads?