Trump vs. the Influencers |
Trump took to social media to torch podcasters Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and Alex Jones, raising questions among today’s Editors panelists about the extent to which these figures have real political sway.
“That’s what I think is the most fascinating fact about all these influencers sort of outside of the Trump relationship,” says Dan Foster. “I don’t think there’s ever been a medium whose relationship with its audience functions precisely this way. I think a lot of the people that listen to these folks do it for pure entertainment, but it’s not like the Rush Limbaugh audience where they’re all politically on the same page and they like the bombast and they find that part sort of independently funny.”
Dan believes listeners of these influencers’ shows “don’t quite take seriously what these podcasters are saying, but they do on some sort of gut or some sort of directional level. I don’t think there’s ever been anything quite like it.”
Listeners’ relationships with these hosts “sits somewhere between sincerity and irony. It sits somewhere between literal agreement and belief and entertainment,” says Dan.
“As a result . . . I don’t think it’s going to have that much of an impact on Trump because I think a lot of these . . . listeners are very comfortable sitting through three hours of Joe Rogan or Theo Von or Tucker Carlson, and then going back to voting for Trump and his allies.”
The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.