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Theo Von \/ YouTube<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nDonald Trump has appeared on a slew of shows with huge audiences of young men, sitting for interviews with influencers, comedians and podcasters outside the usual political media. What\u2019s his strategy?<\/b><\/p>\n About 15 minutes into Donald Trump\u2019s conversation with comedian Theo Von, the chat veered into territory not usually heard in a stump speech.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a great brother who taught me a lesson, don\u2019t drink. Don\u2019t drink, and don\u2019t smoke,\u201d the former president said. \u201cI admired so much about him\u2026 And he had a problem with alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in recovery for most of the past 10 years,\u201d Von replied. \u201cDrugs and alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump seemed genuinely interested.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is worse?\u201d he asked. The pair went on to chat at length about addiction and the drugs industry.<\/p>\n Politics wasn\u2019t entirely absent – within a few minutes Trump was back alluding to his grievances against the \u201cdeep state\u201d and the voting system – but the friendly chat was a prime example of a larger campaign strategy.<\/p>\n Trump has done a series of interviews with podcasters and alternative media that together comprise a concerted effort to reach young men.<\/p>\n Although the tactic isn\u2019t new – for months, stretching back to last year, Trump has been appearing on alternative, male-dominated media outlets with big audiences – it\u2019s taken on a greater importance in the final stages of this election.<\/p>\n In August the Trump campaign told reporters that they are targeting a key group of voters that makes up just over a tenth of the electorate in swing states. They\u2019re mostly younger men, and mostly white, but the group includes more Latinos and Asian-Americans than the general population.<\/p>\n And they believe they can reach these often fickle voters by putting Trump on shows hosted by people like Von, internet pranksters Nelk Boys, YouTuber Logan Paul and Adin Ross, a livestreaming gamer who has repeatedly been banned from sites for violating rules on offensive language.<\/p>\n The Nelk Boys are reportedly spearheading a voter registration drive on behalf of Trump which they hope will reach like-minded audiences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Although they may not exactly be household names in the world of mainstream media, these podcasts have audiences of millions. Von\u2019s Trump interview has nearly 14 million views on YouTube.<\/p>\n Polls indicate the political gender gap among young people has widened since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee in July. Overall the vice-president seems to be pulling more young people into her camp – but her support among young women has risen faster than her support among young men.<\/p>\n Recent research by the Harvard Youth Poll indicates 70% of women under age 30 support Harris, while 23% plan to vote for Trump. Among men in the same age group, 53% back Harris and 36% support Trump.<\/p>\n Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, part of the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, says that the political gender gap mirrors larger social divisions which have left many young men feeling like few politicians are looking out for them.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump is very good at turning things into zero-sum games,\u201d Mr Cox says. \u201cYoung men are trying to understand their place in society that is rapidly evolving, as a group they are struggling more academically, they have mental health challenges and rising rates of suicide.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are very real concerns and there\u2019s a sense in the political realm that nobody\u2019s advocating for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s podcast tour is not so much a question of policy, Mr Cox says, and more about \u201cshowing up\u201d and talking with a different style to a different crowd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The attempt to switch up the vibe is apparent in his recent podcast interviews, where the mostly relaxed former president leads with chat about golf and mixed martial arts and Maga-world policies – Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan that often refers to an America-first approach – are assumed to be good common sense rather than controversial topics to be picked apart and debated.<\/p>\n Before the addiction chat on Von\u2019s show, Trump praised Ultimate Fighting Championship competitors including Dustin Poirier, displaying more than a casual knowledge of the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cBoy, I’ll tell you, he’s a warrior,\u201d Trump said, \u201cThe man he was fighting was tough\u2026 as that fight went along, he just got stronger and stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n Von did not push back – and in fact eagerly agreed – when Trump made a host of unsubstantiated and erroneous statements about voting, immigration and the border, including claiming that \u201chundreds of thousands of murderers\u201d had entered the country.<\/p>\n On the podcast circuit, there\u2019s plenty of messing around, but sometimes the hosts seem awestruck, deferential or even nervous. Before one chat, the Nelk Boys videoed themselves chugging cans of their own-brand boozy seltzer to calm themselves down before Trump walked into the room.<\/p>\n But their audiences aren\u2019t demanding tough questioning or detailed policy positions.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of young people are not looking for hard news,\u201d says Mr Cox. \u201cTheir first interests might be crypto [currency] or video games, and the politics comes later – through the side door, not the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are other signs that Trump is making a hard pivot towards male voters – for instance filling the Republican National Convention stage with the likes of Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and UFC chief executive Dana White, instead of being introduced – like he was at previous conventions – by his daughter, Ivanka.<\/p>\n Judging from the comments on the podcast interviews, many viewers and listeners already back the former president, but getting them out to the polls may be the real challenge.<\/p>\n Voting rates among young people lag behind overall, and young men tend to vote at slightly lower rates than young women. <\/p>\n The Harris campaign is also making a podcast play of its own, aimed at young women. The vice-president recently appeared on the popular sex-and-relationships pod Call Her Daddy, where she too faced less-than-aggressive questioning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Garrett, a Logan Paul fan from Houston in his early 20s, runs his own YouTube channel under the name Spy Jay.<\/p>\n He said he finds Paul\u2019s brand – \u201cbeing a Maverick\u201d – appealing, and before watching the interview he had an overall positive view of Trump, calling him \u201ca patriotic nationalist who wants to restore the country back to an improved state from before\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the persecution he’s facing, while there’s a relentless intention in the media to rewrite who he is and what he stands for, implies a greater evil at play,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that makes me feel more inclined to be open-minded about voting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching Trump on Paul\u2019s podcast – the internet star asked Trump if he\u2019d ever been in a fight – and Trump\u2019s interview with Adin Ross, only confirmed his views, Garrett told the BBC.<\/p>\n Garrett said he thought young Americans were increasingly tuning into politics, and that Trump is tapping into alt-media spaces \u201clike no other candidate has before\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSo whether it’s a good strategy or bad, it is going to reach quite a few of the young folks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Responses online to the video have been broadly positive. \u201cNo one can convince me Trump isn\u2019t just a bro when it comes down to it\u201d said one, while another read \u201cLove or hate Trump, but he definitely knows how to make an interview entertaining\u201d.<\/p>\n But some experts question whether Trump has much room to grow his voting base among heavily male subcultures, where he has long had support.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump already seems to have captured the manospheric and hypermasculine over-25s, so this is a late stage and rather desperate attempt to become relevant,\u201d said Jack Bratich, a media professor at Rutgers University who studies the male-heavy online spaces known as the \u201cmanosphere\u201d.<\/p>\n Extremely online young men were very active during the 2016 election campaign, when political memes and extreme message boards like 4chan burst into prominence, says Bratich.<\/p>\n The situation is very different eight years later, he says, with \u201cno identifiable right-wing youth-based online political movement\u201d getting heavily involved in this year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n However, he notes there is little risk and potentially large rewards for Trump.<\/p>\n Whether it pays off will depend on convincing young men who don\u2019t tend to get involved in politics to log off and head to the polls. <\/p>\n Like so many other things in this election, plays for younger voters are full of unknowns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Banner](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/aac5\/live\/1bb10550-87d3-11ef-81f8-1f28bcc5be15.png.webp\")
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/d866\/live\/604f85b0-8698-11ef-822c-a50726bfda2e.jpg.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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