Inside how podcasters moved the voting needle with young men ahead of Trump’s massive victory

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – President-elect Trump turned to podcasts during the 2024 election cycle, rallying support, particularly among young men who have drifted 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 podium on election night after Trump’s victory, thanking a list of podcasters who spoke with Trump on the campaign trail. “I’d like to thank the Nelk Boys, Aidan Ross, Theo Von, Boston, Bussin with the Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and mighty Joe Rogan.”

Before President Biden dropped out of the race, and before he faced two assassination attempts and destroyed hours of work in seven key battleground states and beyond, Trump joined the popular podcast “Full Send,” aka “Nelk Boys,” for a interview in March 2022. This interview marked his entry into the world of podcasts while appealing to a voting bloc of young males. Not only did Trump discuss his politics and vision for the United States, but also his family and sports, he allowed voters a glimpse into his life beyond politics.

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Kid Rock, Dana White and Elon Musk accompany President-elect Trump as he waves during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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.

Nelk Boys attend the Los Angeles premiere of Columbia Pictures’ “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” at TCL Chinese Theater on May 30, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)

“If you put this whole interview up, let’s see what happens when Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of them take it down,” Trump joked during the podcast, only for the interview to later be pulled from YouTube, sparking a firestorm of condemnation from Trump.

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“What happened to free speech in our country? Unbelievably, but not surprisingly, the Big Tech maniacs have taken down my interview with the very popular NELK Boys so that no one can see it or in any way listen to it,” the 45-year-old said. president. in a statement released by his Save America PAC at the time.

“In the 24 hours it had gone, it broke all the records for them, many times over,” he continued. “Interestingly, I told them on the show that this would happen because Big Tech and the Fake News Media fear the truth, they fear criticism of Biden, and above all, they don’t want to talk about the rigged 2020 presidential election, all topics discussed. “

Fast forward to 2024, Trump rejoined the Nelk Boys and a number of other podcasts as he worked to rally support among young men, including joining Joe Rogan, who hosts the most popular podcast in the US with 14.5 million followers on Spotify alone. and endorsed Trump just one day before the election.

Joe Rogan greets President-elect Trump during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

In August of this year, the Nelk Boys debuted Send the Vote on their podcast, which was a massive non-partisan voter initiative aimed at young people, 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 needs to register to vote and you need to make your voice heard. Don’t be lazy, get your ballot in the mail, do what you need to do, schedule it.”

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Armed with a budget of about $20 million, Send the Vote places ad buys targeting 1.1 million inactive, registered male voters ages 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 saw the ads and subsequently voted, and 110,000 people who visited the site asked to 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. The Send the Vote ads were featured on other wildly popular podcasts, including comedy 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.

Podcast host Joe Rogan previously told President Trump that he has become so popular with Americans because of the “wild s—,” he says. (Screenshots/The Joe Rogan Experience)

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 House doors and held a voter registration concert in Atlanta with pro-Trump rapper Waka Flocka Flame.

“Too many people in our country felt that their voice didn’t matter and that the barriers to making real change were too great to overcome. The goal of Send the Vote was to tear down those barriers and remind our audience that posts on social media doesn’t count as a vote and they have to show up to vote. Are you tired of unnecessary wars? – John Shahidi, co-founder of “Full Send,” told Fox News Digital.

Trump’s leaning into podcasts this election cycle, as opposed to traditional media interviews, paid off among Gen Z males and millennials. The Fox News Voter Survey released 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 highlighting Trump, Rogan’s endorsement of the 45th president was considered a major success. The former and incoming president had joined Rogan on his podcast for a three-hour interview ahead of the election. Harris was offered the same interview, but Rogan refused 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 after the election and was seen embracing Rogan in a viral video.

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On election night, when Trump was projected as the winner, the UFC’s Dana White celebrated the podcasts spotlighting Trump for their audience, adding that “karma” was catching up with the Democrats.

“No one deserves this more than him, and no one 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, that’s what it looks like. Couldn’t stop him, he keeps going forward, he doesn’t stop, he’s the most one tough, hardworking man I ever met in my life, his family are incredible people.

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“This is karma, ladies and gentlemen. He deserves it. You deserve it as a family.”