On the day before the 2024 presidential election, two of the most powerful media figures in the world sat down for a conversation that confirmed the course of American history had indeed changed.
It was a conversation between billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who famously bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and rebranded it ‘X’, and podcaster Joe Rogan.
‘Thank you so much for buying Twitter,’ Rogan said on the eve of the election. ‘I’m not exaggerating when I say you changed the course of history.’
Rogan explained that Twitter’s censorship and the de-platforming of controversial figures and corporate bans because of ‘hate speech’ under it’s ultra-woke former ownership were not only ruining the platform, but impeding free speech in America.
‘We were headed down a path of unprecedented censorship and narrative control,’ he said to Musk.
The pair would speak for three hours. Afterwards Rogan, who has at least 35 million regular listeners, endorsed Trump for president and in doing so became America’s new political kingmaker.
But it was the pair’s commitment to free speech and the fight to end censorship on social media that started this journey.
Rogan is at the top of growing list of podcasters who share the same beliefs and whose political influence has exploded of the course of the 2024 campaign.
Trump’s role in their rise should not be under-estimated.
When Trump was first president, he was obsessed seeking praise from the New York-based traditional media, but when he wasn’t treated fairly, he turned viciously on their coverage.
The so-called ‘establishment media’ branded him racist, sexist, angry, and erratic, and painted him as a hapless figure wrecking havoc in the White House. He denounced them with the new iconic phrase as ‘fake news’.
After announcing his third campaign for president in November 2022, his media opponents went even further, branding him as a fascist, Hitler-like figure who would jail his opponents, ignore the Constitution, and end Democracy forever should he be elected.
But the Trump campaign knew they didn’t need them any more and devised a new way to get their message out.
Their plan was to re-introduce the cultural sensation celebrity version of Donald Trump, the incredibly normal and funny billionaire who likes McDonald’s, golf, and making great deals.
The guy you’d love to have a beer with (besides the fact he doesn’t drink).
To do so, Trump’s campaign co-chair and now chief of staff Susie Wiles turned to political strategist Alex Bruesewitz, a 27-year-old social media star hired by the campaign in the summer to help with youth outreach and communications.
The Trump campaign wanted the community to meet the ‘real’ Trump, the man who could sit around the dinner table engaging with his staff, cracking jokes, and even teasing them as they talked about life and politics.
To do that, Bruesewitz began sending the message to the podcast community.
Trump was prepared to bring his star power to them.
‘The idea was: We are going to talk to the people who are disaffected by the mainstream media, that have tuned out from the mainstream media, who now get their news and entertainment from these podcasters,’ Bruesewitz told DailyMail.com.
Trump and political strategists had already found value working with political podcasters like the Ben Shapiro Show and Dan Bongino, in addition to traditional hosts like Brian Kilmeade, Sean Hannity, and Hugh Hewitt.
But Bruesewitz wanted to go further.
He wanted in with the growing group of comedians and entertainers who are uncensored, funny, and rapidly building young audiences in the many millions – among them Trump’s 18-year-old son, Barron.
Bruesewitz worked with Barron on a list of interview ideas, explaining to Trump the new media landscape that had millions of loyal followers.
The power of this new media community had already been recognized by shrewd promoter and UFC CEO Dana White.
White and his team offered them VIP access to the fights to help spread the word about their entertainment value.
Awestruck podcasters found themselves ringside with some of the biggest celebrities in the world.
At the same time, Trump was also routinely stopping by the UFC fights, impressed by the roar of approval he received each time he walked into the arena with Dana White.
He was frequently joined by Fox News media star turned podcaster Tucker Carlson and rocker Kid Rock.
On the sidelines, he would shake the hands and meet some of these newly influential figures, who gladly snapped selfies with Trump and then shared them on social media.
It was there that Trump first shook hands with Joe Rogan, sparking immediate buzz that perhaps they would meet again in his podcast studio before the election.
Trump started doing interviews with some of the names that traditional political operatives had never heard of: Adin Ross, Theo Von, Logan Paul, WWE star Mark Calaway, known as the ‘Undertaker,’ comedian Andrew Schulz and The Nelk Brothers.
No topic was off limits. Raising children, the Israeli war in Gaza, abortion, the JFK files, Bitcoin, cocaine, and even the movie Braveheart.
‘We let them riff and Trump is so great in that format,’ Bruesewitz said.
Trump was also enjoying himself.
‘Alex is a good kid,’ Trump told comedian Andrew Schulz on his ‘Flagrant’ podcast, giving a shoutout to Brueswitz.
‘He’s a big name influencer, I don’t know if he’s in this league.’
Trump told Schultz and co-host Akaash Singh that Bruesewitz had praised him as number one influencer in the world, citing his hundreds of millions of followers.
Schultz agreed, putting Trump in the same sphere of influence as Rogan and Kim Kardashian.
The crew moved quickly to the subject of how Trump was a master a branding, coming up with snappy nicknames for his opponents.
‘You gotta pwmmmm,’ he said as the hosts doubled over with laughter.
Clips of Trump’s podcast interviews, also broadcast on YouTube, would go viral on X, where they would cut through the often shrill and tedious political conversation during the election campaign.
Each time Trump went on a podcast, the episode would temporarily skyrocket to the top of the charts, prompting others to reach out for an interview.
Other more cerebral hosts , such as Lex Friedman, Patrick Bet-David, and billionaire venture capitalist David Sacks’s ‘All in Podcast’ did interviews.
An interview with ex-Navy Seal Shawn Ryan on his podcast opened up Trump to a massive community of military and ex-military listeners.
Even podcasters who were traditionally more liberal like former VICE star Tim Pool, who is disaffected by the left’s embrace of censorship, appeared open to Trump’s message.
Trump also joined the podcasts of longtime media figures such as financial advice guru Dave Ramsey and Dr. Phil McGraw.
Benny Johnson, a Buzzfeed exile started his own show blending politics and memes into a show that routinely drew members of Trump world to react to the latest news and online trends.
Other exiled television news stars like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson entered the podcasting format and found the community overwhelmingly welcome to their perspective.
Carlson was famously fired from Fox News at the height of his career in April 2023, despite being a ratings and influence juggernaut. In response, he shifted easily to the podcasting platform, where he could interview guests for hours, unencumbered by time limits and interruptions.
Kelly’s podcast exploded during the election as fans of her television career were delighted to discover a more raw version of the famous Fox News broadcaster.
The language was more salty, and Kelly was now offering her unvarnished opinion and taking shots at celebrities like Taylor Swift for endorsing Kamala Harris.
Kelly’s almost Trumpian attacks frequently went viral driving more viewership to her show.
The podcast community was delighted. The fact that former world-famous television stars were appearing as guests on their podcasts were validation that they were more influential than ever.
Trump was having so much success on podcasting platforms that the Harris campaign felt they were missing an opportunity.
Realizing that Harris was struggling with young people, the campaign started opening up Harris to more opportunities.
The vice president made waves after she announced an appearance with the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast hosted by Alex Cooper, known for her freewheeling and uncensored sex and relationships discussions.
Harris, however, struggled with the format. Her answers were typically too scripted, as she leaned on old answers to new questions.
Harris also reached out to black podcasters, as the campaign realized she was still struggling to earn the support of black men.
While Trump was free and open to any topic of discussion, Harris and her team were guarded with preconditions and topics that were off limits.
It showed.
‘Trump was authentic and normal, Kamala Harris was scripted and fake,’ Brueswitz said.
Some of the podcasters followed up by openly professing their endorsement of Trump for president, which were far more valuable to the campaign than the empty endorsements of a Hollywood actor or a pop star.
Carlson had already endorsed Trump and spoken at the Republican National Convention in the Summer.
Just days before the election, however, Carlson hosted the former president in Arizona for a two hour discussion about his plans for the country.
Kelly even went so far to attend a Trump rally and share her enthusiastic endorsement for Trump.
‘The people who build their following with social media have such an understanding of their followers and such a connection with them that when they go out on the limb and say I’m for Donald Trump and I think you should too, a lot of them follow,’ Bruesewitz said.
But despite Trump’s success in the new medium, the long-anticipated interview with Joe Rogan and the ex-president had yet to materialize.
The path to Austin, Texas
Rogan and Trump had circled each other for years.
Rogan famously revealed in July 2022 that he had turned down multiple interview opportunities with Trump, because he did not want to be seen as helping him win an election.
‘I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form,’ he said in a podcast conversation with Lex Friedman.
‘I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once — I’ve said no, every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,’ he said.
In subsequent podcast conversations, Rogan mused that he might be interested in interviewing Trump after he had become president.
‘It would be interesting to hear his perspective on a lot of things,’ he told fellow podcaster Patrick Bet-David in August 2023.
But the relationship between the two media titans almost blew up entirely.
After Rogan praised Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. when he was still running for president, many interpreted his comments as an endorsement.
‘He’s the only one — he doesn’t attack people, he attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent,’ Rogan said, calling Kennedy as ‘only one that makes sense to me.’
Trump reacted quickly to the news.
‘It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024,’ Trump posted on social media.
Rogan fans were stunned that Trump would react so poorly to the comment, risking the chance of alienating him from a possible interview and his loyal legion of fans, who were not necessarily Republicans.
But Rogan clarified his comment noting that while he was a fan of Kennedy, his praise should not be considered an endorsement.
‘I also think Trump raising his fist and saying ‘fight!’ after getting shot is one of the most American f***ing things of all time,’ he wrote, extending an olive branch to Trump.
Ten days before the election, Trump finally arrived to Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas for the long-anticipated sit down interview.
The episode aired Friday evening, kicking of a weekend of reactions to the free-flowing three hour conversation just as Rogan preferred.
The episode drew more than 47 million views on YouTube and over 25 million listens across Spotify and other platforms, spawning millions more views in clips that went viral.
But Rogan was not finished.
After he completed his final interview of the 2024 election season with Musk he had one final thought to share.
‘He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,’ Rogan wrote on social media. ‘For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump.’
The rest was history.
When it was clear that Trump won the election, Dana White took the stage during his victory celebration in the early hours of Wednesday morning to emphasize the next generation in media.
‘I want to thank the boys Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ with the Boys. And last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,’ he said.
‘And thank you, America.’