He might be the unsung hero of the Trump campaign in 2024. When things began looking the darkest for the former president’s return to the White House, 18-year-old Barron Trump stepped in to become a key player, urging his father to go on podcasts to attract a younger generation of voters.
Barron, a college freshman and first-time voter, helped steer the former president’s team toward an unconventional media strategy and on Tuesday night it all paid off, reported The Washington Examiner.
The former president’s youngest son is clued into all the hottest podcasts for Gen Z men, including This Past Weekend with Theo Von. When a staffer came to President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign to talk about making a podcast appearance, he asked if the plan had been run by Barron. The strategy ultimately resulted in the former president making more than a dozen podcast appearances en route to his Tuesday victory.
The Joe Rogan Experience, hosted by Joe Rogan, and Impaulsive, hosted by Logan Paul, were two of the biggest shows Donald Trump appeared on. The shows, which cater specifically to younger men, have hosts who may make politically incorrect jokes that toss them out of the mainstream but make them central to a key bloc of voters.
Donald Trump’s interview with Paul and his brother, Jake Paul, lasted nearly an hour and has garnered 6 million views — all thanks to a
Two months later, the former president appeared on a Twitch stream with 24-year-old Adin Ross, during which he shared with Ross how big of a deal he is with young voters.
“My sons told me about you,” Donald Trump shared on the stream. “They told me about how big —Barron, he said, ‘Dad, he’s really big.’”
The former and future president notably spent three hours speaking with Joe Rogan while Kamala Harris refused to accept the interview.
In the early hours of Wednesday at the Trump victory party, UFC CEO and ally Dana White gave the influencers involved in his campaign a shoutout, praising the influence of prominent online personalities, including Joe Rogan, Adin Ross, and the NELK Boys, during President-Elect Donald Trump’s victory speech in Florida.
The moves made all the difference, according to The New York Post.
“Vice President Kamala Harris’ extensive youth outreach failed to materialize in the voting booth — as the usually solidly Democratic voting bloc came out in large numbers for President-elect Donald Trump.
Among those in the coveted 18-29 age group, Harris beat Trump 55% to 42%, a margin of just 13 points, according to estimates from exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool.
This represents a significant underperformance compared to President Joe Biden’s 2020 election showing, in which he took the youth vote by a sturdy 24%, besting Trump 60% to 36%.
Overall, Trump gained 6% among Gen Z voters — those born between roughly 1997 and 2012 — while Harris slid by 5%.”
Axios noted that Trump’s success with younger people shows that the MAGA movement may have more lasting power than previously thought. It will likely be up to whoever follows the new president to lock in these voters as lifelong Republicans.
Who knows? Maybe Donald Trump has just opened the door for his youngest son to get into politics someday.
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