The bro-casts are barely talking about Trump or hosting his allies ahead of the midterms

Widely credited with aiding Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, the bros of the podcast world appear to have largely abandoned the president and his allies in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms. In fact, 9 of the leading “bro-casts” that interviewed Trump or his running mate during the 2024 race have not hosted the president at all in 2026; Vice President JD Vance has appeared only once. The 9 shows have also barely mentioned the president ahead of this year’s midterms, averaging less than 5 mentions of Trump per week by early October.

Axios reports new polling shows the favorability of 2024 Trump-aligned podcasters like Joe Rogan cratering among their male audience. Public opinion polling has also shown that young men have turned sharply away from Trump after helping him win the White House in 2024, when Wired reported “Trump used these podcast appearances to both humanize and mythologize himself.” But in 2026, as the mostly young and male listeners of these podcasts are seemingly abandoning Trump and other Republicans, these critical shows have held back their support as the president has increasingly made the midterms about himself.

Media Matters assessed the guests and discussions of 9 right-leaning podcasts that hosted Trump or Vance in 2024 — Flagrant, Full Send, Impaulsive, Lex Fridman Podcast, PBD Podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Tim Dillon Show, Shawn Ryan Show, and This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von — from January 1 to October 7, 2026, to gauge their level of engagement in this year’s midterms. We found these podcasts have largely backed away from Trump and his allies in 2026 after supporting him in 2024.