Right-wing podcasters who boosted Donald Trump in 2024 have turned on him — and some are openly mocking his masculinity.
The Guardian reported Thursday that the so-called manosphere has gone chilly on the president. The far-right Christian podcast NXR declared: “Maga is dead, Maga is gay … Maga is effeminate, Maga is for losers.”
Tucker Carlson, one of Trump’s most prominent 2024 boosters, told listeners the day after the midterms that men who backed Trump expected a strong, manly leader. What they got, Carlson argued, was a self-absorbed president who couldn’t make up his mind and came across less like an alpha male than an ill-tempered old woman.
Just 43% of young white men voted for a Republican House candidate this month, the Guardian reported, after Trump won 63% of them in 2024.
Trump’s name had already been disappearing from right-wing podcasts for months. A Media Matters analysis cited by the Guardian looked at nine manosphere shows that hosted Trump or JD Vance in 2024. Mentions of Trump fell from an average of 35 per episode early this year to five in the weeks before the midterms, the analysis found.
Seth Simons, who tracks comedy’s rightward drift on his Substack, told the Guardian the hosts have picked up that Trump has lost his cultural cachet. In his view, they would gladly back a Republican who doesn’t carry Trump’s political liabilities. Some of the more political hosts, including Patrick Bet-David and Steven Crowder, praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after the election.
Meanwhile, podcaster Joe Rogan’s favorable rating among young men has fallen 11 points and Carlson’s 12, according to the Democratic project Speaking With American Men, Axios reported.
David Sacks, Trump’s former White House AI and crypto czar, acknowledged the damage on the All-In podcast.
“We lost all the podcast bros,” Sacks declared. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I mean, we lost a huge part of our base.”
Days after the midterms, Trump offered UFC boss Dana White the press secretary job, then said he was only kidding. Stephen Miller, who replaced Susie Wiles as chief of staff, told aides that winning young men back would be the focus of his tenure, according to Axios.
