(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Donald Trump’s appearances on popular independent podcasts is being credited as one of the key factors contributing to his landslide 2024 presidential election victory—with his appearances with younger streamers leading to his best-ever performance with voters under 30 years old.
According to an election retrospective from Time Magazine, Barron Trump was a key factor in influencing what shows his father appeared on.
Time’s deep-dive on Wednesday said that Trump tasked a 27-year-old campaign staffer named Alex Bruesewitz in July to formulate a list of online podcast personalities for interviews.
“I have a list of podcasts I wanted to pitch you on,” Bruesewitz reportedly said, to which Trump responded: “Have you talked this over with Barron?”
"Have you talked this over with Barron?" he asked, referring to his 18-year-old son.
"No, sir," the young staffer told him.
"Call Barron and see what he thinks and let me know." (3/8)
— Eric Cortellessa (@EricCortellessa) November 6, 2024
At that time, Bruesewitz said he hadn’t talked to Barron, and so Trump hung up the phone on him. “Call Barron and see what he thinks and let me know,” the President told him.
“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,” Time wrote.
As Headline USA reported in August, Trump’s appearance with Ross went viral, especially among the male Gen-Z population. Within minutes of hosting, Ross, who holds the record as the number one channel on the streaming service Kick, noted that he had already broken the site as a result of high traffic from viewers.
At the end of the interview, Ross surprised Trump with a gift outside Mar-A-Lago—a wrapped MAGA-themed Tesla Cybertruck.
“That’s an Elon,” Trump said after seeing the vehicle.
After Ross’s show, Trump went on the shows of Logan Paul, Theo Von and Joe Rogan to finalize his campaign heading into Tuesday.
“The campaign made a deliberate decision to avoid most traditional media interviews,” Time reported.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
