The Year of the Podcast: 5 times Trump’s podcast interviews sidelined liberal legacy media

President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to humanize himself on podcasts with candor and wit is widely credited with helping him win back the White House in 2024.

Since the election, both Republicans and Democrats have analyzed why Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. One key factor that commentators from across the political spectrum can agree on is that podcast interviews It seemed to influence the election more than celebrity endorsements or the liberal legacy media.

The data seems to bear this out, as the Poynter Institute noted that some have even called 2024. “podcast choices,” since both Trump and Harris have appeared repeatedly on programs that reach specific, large audiences.

While Harris’ journey on the podcast circuit has varied from appearances on “Club Shay Shay,” hosted by former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, to the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy,” hosted by former Barstool Alex Cooper, Trump has been on the top. His choice to rely on podcasts, especially male-oriented ones, has paid off with Gen Z men and millennials. Fox News poll of voters released earlier this month found that men aged 18 to 44 support Trump at 53% compared to 45% for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Interview by assistant Kamala Harris with Semaphore after the election included a significant remark about the weakening of the influence of legacy media.

“There’s just no value — to my colleagues in the mainstream press — in a general election, talking to the New York Times or talking to the Washington Post, because they [readers] they are already with us”, the deputy head of the campaign said Rob Flaherty.

From coining a “weave” to joking about a failed attempt on his life, Trump’s 2024 podcasting tour included some memorable moments and demonstrated the media’s growing influence.

Trump tells Rogan about ‘biggest mistake’ of his first term and ‘comedian attitude’

Trump’s late October marathon performance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” has been viewed more than 53 million times on YouTube alone and is believed to have been a turning point in the election. Rogan, known for eliciting raw and direct comments from his guests, did not disappoint when interviewing Trump.

“The biggest mistake,” Trump said of his first term as president, was “picking a few people I shouldn’t have picked,” citing “neocons or bad people or disloyal people.” One specific example Trump recalled was White House national security adviser John Bolton, whom he fired in 2019. Trump said Bolton was useful as a threat to make other countries think, “Man, Trump is going to go to war with us “, but he claimed, “He was with Bush when they stupidly went to the Middle East. They shouldn’t have done that. I used to say that as a civilian, so I always had more publicity than other people.”

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Trump then expressed his amazement at how he somehow gets more publicity than others, inviting Rogan to suggest why.

“I could tell you for sure,” Rogan replied and laughed. “You said a lot of wild s—.”

“Maybe,” Trump replied with a smile. Trump later went on to explain, “You know, it’s funny. You need at least the attitude of a comedian when you’re in this business, this is a very dangerous business.”

Long after the interview, Rogan marveled at Trump’s later guests “the ability to just keep going” in their approximately 3-hour podcast interview without any bathroom breaks. He continued to support Trump in the run-up to the election.

Trump forges ‘weaving’ on ‘Flagrant’ podcast, blasts comedians with Biden jab

Trump appeared on the “Flagrant” podcast hosted by stand-up comedians such as Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, but managed to make them crack up during the interview.

In the interview, Trump slapped President Biden with a backhanded compliment.

“He has one ability that I don’t have — he sleeps,” Trump said as the hosts laughed, later marveling at Biden’s ability “to fall asleep on camera.”

Trump also joked, “Someone convinced him looks good in a bathing suit, and when you’re 82, you’re not usually going to look great in a bathing suit.”

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During another viral moment in that same interview, Trump said: “I don’t ramble,” claiming instead, “I do something called weaving,” a technique he says can go off on a tangent in a conversation, then circle back to the main point.

“You need an extraordinary memory, because you have to go back to where you started,” he said, boasting to the laughter of the host that he “can go so far here or there, and I can go back exactly where I started.”

Schulz later reflected on the interview with his co-hosts that “my reaction was that Trump is winning by a landslide. It’s not even close anymore,” a stark departure from his initial belief that Trump “has no chance.”

On “The Brilliant Idiots,” another podcast Schulz co-hosts with radio host Charlamagne Tha God, Charlamagne got Schulz cracking up with an anecdote about how young men have embraced the podcast. Charlamagne told Schulz that a young black man he knew, but declined to name, reacted to Schulz’s Trump interview with shock, “‘Flagrant’ Will Elect Trump.'”

Schulz burst out laughing: “The interview was fire, bro, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Trump slams Harris on Theo Von podcast, says Biden was forced out

Comedian and podcaster Theo Von interviewed Trump in August, who accepted the invitation after being urged to do so by his son Barron.

This episode of the “This Past Weekend” podcast has received 15 million views since it was posted in August. Trump used his time to trash not only Harris, but the Democratic Party behind her. At the time, America was still reeling from Biden dropping the nomination under extreme pressure from party bigwigs like Nancy Pelosi. Von asked Trump for his theory on what happened.

“It was a coup,” Trump said, later suggesting, “[Chuck] Schumer, Pelosi and a number of other people — the leaders of the Democratic Party,” Trump speculated. “And they did — they threatened him violently, I think. And he wouldn’t come out, remember he said, ‘Only God will get me out?'”

The president-elect also took time to criticize Harris, claiming, “She’s the worst vice president ever, he’s the worst president ever, a deadly combination.”

He went on to call Harris “the worst frontier emperor in the history of the world”, to the point that there are “hundreds of thousands of murderers” in the United States.

Trump jokes with WWE Undertaker about recent assassination attempt

In late October, Mark Calaway, best known as “The Undertaker” of WWE wrestling, interviewed Trump on his “Six Feet Under” podcast, reaching nearly a million views.

Trump spoke candidly about the second assassination attempt on his life that happened just weeks before. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is accused of pointing an AK-47 at Trump while he was visiting the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities said Secret Service agents fired at him after seeing the barrel of his rifle pointed through a chain-link fence one hole in front of where Trump was playing.

“I stand over the punch,” Trump said recalling the incident, before joking, “He could have at least let me put it out, right?”

Trump then credited an “incredible woman” who took a photo of the suspect as he fled the scene of the crime after an exchange of fire with the Secret Service.

“A woman… it can only be a woman, because men might not be smart enough, right?” he joked. “A woman sees this guy running, he runs across the street – now who would do that – it’s a pretty busy street… and she sees him, and she said, ‘He’s suspicious.’ I see people running all the time and they don’t look that hot, but she follows him for a block, he gets in his car, she stops her car, starts taking pictures of his license plates and starts taking pictures of the type of car it was, some kind of van, and she then took pictures and sent them to the sheriff?”

Trump jokes with Logan Paul, challenges Biden to do a long interview as he does

Trump appeared on Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast in early June, where he talked about topics ranging from the war in Ukraine to UFOs, but took time to specifically bash his Democratic opponent for his lack of interviews.

“He couldn’t do this interview,” he said of Biden, who was still the Democratic nominee at the time. “Did you ask him questions like this?”

When the hosts said he hadn’t been on their show yet but would love to host him, Trump seemed to like the idea, prompting the hosts to laugh as he said: “I think you should. You know what chance you have of getting I’d say less than 1%, if you actually looked at it, okay?

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Paul then asked Trump what he knows about UFOs/UAPs, and while Trump said he has spoken to high-profile pilots who have experienced the unexplained phenomena, he remains skeptical. However, one type of alien really concerns him.

“I know there are illegal aliens,” Trump joked. “But these are the ones who come across the border, we have a lot of them. These are the ones I know. When you say ‘aliens’, I say: ‘Are they illegal aliens?'”

The video interview has reached nearly 7 million views at the time of this report.

Fox News’ Brian Flood, Danielle Wallace and Emma Colton contributed to this report.