Trump’s Election Win Buoyed by Sports and Lifestyle Podcasts

Donald Trump celebrated his win for the presidency on Election Night in a speech at the Palm Beach Country Convention Center, thanking campaign staffers and acknowledging supporters in the early A.M. crowd before inviting friend and UFC boss Dana White to the podium.

White congratulated Trump and the Trump family before closing his remarks, which lasted about 45 seconds, with a note of appreciation.

"I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With the Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan," White said, citing the long-form podcasts where Trump made appearances during his campaign. White didn't immediately respond to request for comment on his remarks.

Trump won 60% of the white male vote in swing states, according to exit polls conducted by NBC , and he evenly split the young male vote (ages 18-29). NBC News reporter Gadi Schwartz said that many Arizona State University students she spoke with on election night cited Trump's appearance on Rogan's podcast as a deciding factor on who they chose to vote for. Some said if Vice President Kamala Harris came onto the show, they would have voted for her.

On Oct. 25, as early voting had begun in most states, Trump appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, the podcast hosted by the UFC voice and comedic actor. Trump stayed on the show for the full three hours, musing on an array of topics from tax policy to his claims of 2020 election fraud and the potential for life on Mars. The episode was Rogan's best-performer of 2024, amassing more 35 million views on YouTube within the first three days of airing live.

Bussin' With the Boys is hosted by ex-NFL players, while Rogan does commentary for White's UFC. Politics became a topic of the podcasts only late in this campaign cycle, but their wide reach and impact have displaced traditional media as a means to reach voters.

Rogan, who only formally endorsed Trump two days before Election Day, lamented the fact that Harris chose not to accept an invitation to come to his studio in Austin, TX, and that she would only appear for an hour. His show's audience is 81% male and 56% under the age of 34, according to a 2023 YouGov survey .

The Joe Rogan Experience is the biggest podcast in the U.S. and Edison Research, a leading company in the audience measurement space, has consistently ranked JRE as the top podcast by total audience in its quarterly rankings. In March, Spotify announced that JRE has 14.5 million followers on the platform, nearly three times more than TED Talks Daily and larger than the next three shows combined.

Bussin' With the Boys has a tiny fraction of JRE's profile—though its Barstool Sports sibling podcast, Pardon My Take, ranks as the top sports podcast multiple platforms, according to Chartable. As a football-only show, Bussin' rises and falls due to its seasonality.

Hosted by former NFL players Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, the show ranks ninth among football podcasts on iTunes in the U.S. and 37th among all sports podcasts . For Spotify, Bussin' ranks 23rd among all sports podcasts .

Podcasting isn't a new medium anymore nor is its clout on the political stage, extending back to the first Trump presidency when liberal-leaning shows like Pod Save America took aim at the Republican's policies.

Harris' media blitz also featured shows out of the legacy media purview, especially those targeted to minority audiences. The vice president appeared on one sports-related program, All the Smoke, which is hosted by former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes. Her appearance on the show, which has 1.02 million subscribers on its YouTube page and 929,000 followers on Instagram, was part of an appeal to black men who reportedly had their reservations about supporting a woman for the Oval Office.

While their choice of shows could not have been more different, both Trump and Harris aimed to appeal to young people who didn't consume as much legacy media as their predecessors. Generation Z has proven to be even more difficult to reach through traditional means for sports providers , let alone politicians.

With assistance from Dan Bernstein .

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