In June, Trump’s campaign posted a tiktok of Trump and influencer Logan Paul. The two stood glaring at each other, their noses inches apart.
And then something rare happened: Trump laughed. @realdonaldtrump Face off with @Logan Paul ♬ Way down We Go – KALEO
Both of them dissolved into laughs, in fact – Paul gave a delighted, “Yo, yo, I’m scared, bro!” There was even something approaching a hug. The point of all this was to promote a Trump interview on Paul’s podcast and YouTube show.
It was all part of Trump and JD Vance’s months-long tour of podcasters and influencers — almost all of them men, many of them young. The conversations are often friendly and chatty. In multiple interviews, Trump has shot the breeze with hosts about the UFC and boxing.
In one memorable exchange, Paul asked Trump if he had ever been in a fistfight. Trump’s answer, after a long pause: “Probably not.” According to the Trump campaign, the goal with this media strategy is simply to reach as many people as possible…not specifically men.
But…that IS who they’re getting, and it comes as young men have pulled hard toward Trump. That has opened up a gender gap among young voters – who just so happen to have low voting rates. So maybe, the thinking seems to go, a few conversations about UFC can give the young men specifically a kick out the door.
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