Et Tu, Bro? The Podcasts Turn

Podcast election – that’s how the 2024 US presidential contest is remembered. Because those podcaster bros really helped make Trump 2.0 a reality. In recent weeks and months, though, they seem to be suffering buyer’s remorse.
The Joe Rogan Experience | He holds the #1 spot in US, and globally. He’s been throwing shade on a lot of Trump policies. He’s called out ICE actions: “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where’re your papers? Is that what we’ve come to?” Same with Trump making enemies out of allies: “We’ve got to become friends with Canada again. This is so ridiculous.” But it is with the Iran war, that he’s seriously pivoted from the prez.

“It’s terrifying and it’s exactly the opposite of what we were told, leading into this administration. That it’s going to be America first, right? And no more unnecessary foreign wars…From the outside – like, the rest of the world – you look at this unnecessary aggression by US govt…that’s how you start World War III... Who else thinks it’s a good idea, to just attack a country that isn’t doing anything? They haven’t done anything.”
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von | The idea that people don’t really know what’s going on, that they are being kept in the dark, used to work for Trump. Now, it’s working against him. Theo Von is among those asking why America is acting like it’s “owned” by Israel, or is something like an Israeli outpost, or LLC. “When things are secret, it feels evil.”

He’s also despaired at what’s been going on in Gaza: “I kept thinking like, well, surely America will come in at some point and help and stop this, right?” He’s wondered if he’s a citizen of a country “that does genocides”.
Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant | Schultz laughs the hell out of the liberation case for the Iran war. “I don’t see America, or any country for that matter, having this benevolent history.” It spent trillions to liberate Afghanistan from Taliban, just to give it back to Taliban. He says Americans are furious because they haven’t been told, how the war will benefit them. “I can’t afford to pay for college. I can’t buy a home. I can’t pay for health insurance, and we’re gonna spend billions of dollars on a war in a country I can’t even point out on a map. How is this beneficial to me?”

The Tucker Carlson Show | To match how seriously Tucker is now being discussed as the Republicans’ 2028 presidential candidate, his podcast is the most policy-heavy. Tucker engages with the Iran war in a much more dedicated way than the other bros, and also, mostly, restrains from giggling.

On Israel, Tucker insistently connects the Iran war to how “Bibi visited seven times in one year”. On MAGA promises, Tucker feels that this war is the inverse of America First. He thinks that the Mumbai and Kolkata airports are nicer than LaGuardia – because while bombing other countries’ infra, US is neglecting its own. On the global front, Tucker worries about the loss of America’s moral authority. On the home front, he worries about wartime leadership becoming more authoritarian, as it becomes less popular and more enraged.

Mind you, podcast bros are still not blaming Trump by name. The Voldemort effect holds.