Trump harnessed the power of angry young men – thanks to a brotherhood of online 'gurus'

The recent US presidential election was the first to be decided by content creators. While Kamala Harris enjoyed the public support of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, Trump had something that turned out to be a great deal more powerful: the endorsement of Joe Rogan, Logan Paul, Theo Voss, Adin Ross and someone who calls himself ‘The Undertaker’. You might not have heard of all of these people, but they command audiences of millions via their YouTube channels and podcasts.

Unlike mainstream stars of legacy media, their audiences are made up of acolytes who engage with them not as mere entertainers but as gurus. These men sell a worldview to their largely male audience. That worldview is a broadly conservative one, laced with provocative ‘humour’ and righteous anger. This is content aimed at angry young men: the socially isolated and self-pitying spoilt brats of America who just wish women would stop making them feel bad about themselves and don’t understand why guys aren’t allowed to be arseholes any more. 

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Rogan and the rest of them discovered the size and commitment of this demographic ages ago and have been making millions of dollars out of them ever since. Now Trump has used them to carry him back to the White House. While Kamala was titting about on Saturday Night Live preaching to the converted, Trump was mobilising whole new coalitions via appearances on bro-centric outlets.

People we recognise off telly are not relevant opinion-formers. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé sing songs that people love, but are not inside their fans’ heads on other matters. The same goes for sports and movie stars. Meanwhile, the new brotherhood of content creators are more like preachers: they embed themselves into audiences’ hearts and minds, engaging them deeply on myriad subjects.

Not all speak about politics but they shape values, ideas and social attitudes that correlate with right-leaning politicians’ values. Sure, the ideas they’re selling tend to be populist, sometimes juvenile and often simplistic. But that is why they attract such huge followings. There are left-wing content creators out there but their worldview tends to be more challenging and they seem less able to make the angry and disenfranchised feel better about themselves. 

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Social media and the crumbling state of capitalism have created generations of young men who spend too much time on the internet, struggle to make real-world connections and often end up feeling frustrated and resentful as a result. Trump makes them feel seen. 

Traditionally, the left is rather more earnest, hand-wringing and timid than the right. This means it is harder for them to create the sort of mass-appeal, shock-value content that reaches audiences beyond their existing base. 

People might point out that British comedy has long been dominated by left-wing talent and execs, while BBC news is often accused of the same thing. That might be true but, if it ever had a big impact on mass voter intentions, it doesn’t any more. Younger voters are less married to political tribalism than past generations. Instead, they gather around a set of values based on the rapidly evolving world they live in and vote for whichever party reflects those best.

As we have just seen in America, millions can switch their vote between one election and the next. I suspect we will see the same dramatic swings in British politics in the coming years.

One person who seems to understand this is Keir Starmer, who swerves messy internal party politics in favour of speaking about broad national ‘missions’ that almost anyone can get behind. His government are having to learn fast how to deliver on these missions and it’s been a messy start.

But his election campaign was more like Trump’s than might be immediately apparent: he reached out beyond his base with promises of national renewal and economic growth. He posed in front of Union Jacks, not Labour Party logos. Like Trump, he can see that party loyalties are in decline, just like the influence of the celebs who used to help promote them. All he needs to do is keep flighty voters onside for the next four years. Maybe he should find himself a friendly podcaster.

Read more from Sam Delaney on his Substack.

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