Barron Trump played this secret role in Donald Trump’s victory
The magnitude of Donald Trump’s landslide victory stunned the political world.
Trump had an entire team working to optimize his campaign for victory.
And Barron Trump played this secret role in Donald Trump’s victory.
Barron Trump masterminds podcast media strategy
Donald Trump is a known media master.
Trump won the 2016 campaign in large part because he dominated the media conversation by taking any interview with any outfit.
Trump is a creature of the New York tabloid culture, so he is extremely comfortable bantering with reporters.
In 2024, Trump took a different tact.
Trump passed on interviews with leftist media shows like 60 Minutes or the Sunday shows.
Instead of letting leftwing reporters debate him on platforms with declining audiences, Trump adopted a new strategy.
Trump appeared on podcasts popular with young males such as podcasts hosted by Joe Rogan, Theo Vonn, Andrew Schultz, Lex Friedman, and Adin Ross.
The clips of these shows went viral on X and TikTok reaching millions of voters who don’t get their news from traditional media.
Trump’s campaign bet it could expand the electorate by turning out young male voters who don’t vote in every election, but could turn out with Trump on the ballot.
But the secret to Trump’s podcast strategy resided right at home.
And that was Barron Trump.
Barron Trump organizes podcast interviews
Time Magazine reported that Trump aide Alex Bruesewitz wanted Trump to make the rounds on podcasts and proposed the shows Trump should appear on.
Trump told Bruesewitz that he needed to run the proposed show list by Barron Trump to see if Barron thought they would be good forums for his father.
Time Magazine reports:
“I have a list of podcasts I wanted to pitch you on,” Bruesewitz said. Trump stopped him there. “Have you talked this over with Barron?” he asked, referring to his 18-year-old son.
“No, sir,” Bruesewitz said.
“Call Barron and see what he thinks and let me know,” Trump said, and abruptly hung up. Bruesewitz reached Barron later that day and learned that he was particularly fond of Adin Ross, a provocateur mostly known for collaborating with celebrities on live-streams of video games, such as NBA2K and Grand Theft Auto. They agreed that’s where Trump should start. The podcast strategy was in motion.
The strategy pays off
Donald Trump won a landslide victory because he improved with every group across the board.
But Trump really ran up the score with young men.
In the 2020 election Joe Biden beat Trump 53 to 41 with men aged 18 to 29.
This year exit polls showed Trump leading Kamala Harris 49 to 47 percent.
That edge owed in large part to Trump being the one candidate who met young men where they are and spoke to them on the media they consumed.
Donad Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan racked up over 40,000,000 views in less than a day.
Trump’s appearance on shows like Rogan’s didn’t just provide viral social media content.
The interviews translated to votes that helped Trump over the top.
