Inside how podcasters moved the voting needle with young men ahead of Trump's massive win
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – President-elect Trump turned to podcasts during the 2024 election cycle, rallying support particularly among young men who have trended to the right in recent years and helped deliver Trump’s massive victory.
"I want to thank some people real quick," UFC CEO Dana White declared from the election night podium following Trump’s win, thanking a list of podcasters who spoke with Trump on the campaign trail. "I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Aidan Ross, Theo Von, Boston, Bussin with the Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan."
Ahead of President Biden dropping out of the race, and before facing two assassination attempts and pouring hours of work into seven key battleground states and beyond, Trump joined the popular podcast "Full Send," also known as the "Nelk Boys," for an interview in March 2022. This interview marked his entrance into the podcast world while appealing to a voting bloc of young men. Trump discussed not only his policies and vision for the U.S., but his family and sports, and he allowed voters to take a peek into his life beyond politics.
The Nelk Boys interview touched on Trump’s golf game, his favorite songs, such as "YMCA" and "Hold on I’m Coming," to play on the campaign trail, as well as his thoughts on the Biden administration’s handling of COVID and Russia.
"If you put up this whole interview, let’s see what happens when Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of them take it down," Trump quipped during the podcast, only for the interview to later be pulled from YouTube, setting off a firestorm of condemnation from Trump.
"Whatever happened to free speech in our Country? Incredibly, but not surprisingly, the Big Tech lunatics have taken down my interview with the very popular NELK Boys so that nobody can watch it or in any way listen to it," the 45th president said in a statement released by his Save America PAC at the time.
"In the 24 hours that it was up it set every record for them, by many times," he continued. "Interestingly, on the show I told them this would happen because Big Tech and the Fake News Media fear the truth, they fear criticism about Biden, and above all, they don’t want to talk about the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election, all topics discussed."
Fast-forward to 2024, Trump again joined the Nelk Boys, and a bevy of other podcasts as he worked to rally support among young men, including joining Joe Rogan, who hosts the most popular podcast in the U.S. with 14.5 million followers on Spotify alone and endorsed Trump just a day ahead of the election.
In August of this year, the Nelk Boys debuted Send the Vote on their podcast, which was a massive nonpartisan voter initiative aimed at youth, especially young men.
"Making a post on Instagram or making a tweet, that’s cool," Kyle Forgeard, one of the Nelk Boys, said in a promo video back in August, the Wall Street Journal reported. "But every single one of you guys needs to register to vote, and you need to make your voice heard. Don’t be f---ing lazy, get your ballot in the mail, do whatever you got to do, plan around it."
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Armed with about a $20 million budget, Send the Vote placed ad buys targeting 1.1 million inactive, registered male voters between the ages of 18-34 to vote. The ads reached more than 35 million people, Fox News Digital learned, while countless others also saw the ads via the Nelk Boys’ social media accounts.
SendTheVote.com saw more than 2 million visitors, while 210,000 first-time voters who saw the ads and subsequently voted, and 110,000 people who visited the site requested they be reminded to vote.
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Send the Vote reached more than 140 million people through influencers, nearly 1 million on streamed content, and nearly 7 million people through podcasts specifically, Fox Digital learned. Send the Vote ads were featured on other wildly popular podcasts, including on comedic shows KillTony, Theo Von, Tim Dillon, as well as the sports-oriented podcast "BS with Jake Paul," as well as viral TikTok celebrity Hailey Welch’s "Talk Tuah" podcast.
Send the Vote launched tailgate events during the Penn State vs. Wisconsin game in October, which appealed to young voters in two top battleground states. Volunteers knocked on frat house doors and held a voter registration concert in Atlanta with pro-Trump rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
"Too many people in our country felt like their voice didn't matter and that the barriers to making real change are too big to overcome. The goal of Send the Vote was to tear down those barriers and remind our audience that posting on social media does not count as a vote and they need to physically show up to vote. Sick of how much things cost? Go vote. Tired of unnecessary wars? Go vote - it’s not as difficult as they make it out to be." - John Shahidi, co-founder of "Full Send" told Fox News Digital.
Trump leaning into podcasts this election cycle, as opposed to traditional media interviews, paid off among Gen Z men and millennials. The Fox News Voter Survey published earlier this month found that men aged 18-44 supported Trump at 53% compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 45%.
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In addition to the Nelk Boys, and other podcasters who highlighted Trump, Rogan’s endorsement of the 45th president was viewed as a massive success. The former and upcoming president had joined Rogan on his podcast for a three-hour interview ahead of the election. Harris was offered the same interview, but Rogan rejected her campaign's requests to shorten the interview and move it out of the studio, he previously said.
Trump attended a UFC fight in New York City following the election, and was seen embracing Rogan in a viral video.
On election night when Trump was projected the winner, the UFC’s Dana White celebrated the podcasters who spotlighted Trump to their audiences, adding that "karma" caught up with Democrats.
"Nobody deserves this more than him, and nobody deserves this more than his family does," White said on election night. "This is what happens when the machine comes after you. What you've seen over the last several years, this is what it looks like. Couldn't stop him, he keeps going forward, he doesn't quit, he's the most resilient, hard-working man I've ever met in my life, his family are incredible people.
"This is karma, ladies and gentlemen. He deserves this. They deserve it as a family."