Rewind

Creators like Theo Von and Adin Ross are starting to distance themselves from the president they helped propel to the White House

Manosphere podcasters didn’t win Donald Trump the presidency in the 2024 election cycle, but they went a long way to solidifying the president’s support among large swaths of the young men who follow them. Now — nine months into the implementation of the president’s agenda — the same ultra-popular podcasters and streamers who lent their audiences to the president in 2024 are scrambling to break with his government. 

“I really really wish I never got into politics,” Kick streamer Adin Ross recently told his audience. “I just don’t think I’ll ever care enough again for another politician.” 

Ross, who has been repeatedly banned from streaming platforms over his use of hateful slurs, interviewed Trump in August 2024 at the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The streamer encouraged his viewers to vote for the candidate and even gifted Trump a custom Tesla Cybertruck and a Rolex watch. The two bashed members of the traditional press who had grilled Trump’s campaign promises and public statements in past interviews, and gushed over each other. 



Trump’s interview with Ross was perhaps the most overtly sycophantic of the interactions the president had with bro-oriented content creators over the course of the campaign, but it was no anomaly. Now, figures like Joe Rogan, Andrew Schultz, and Theo Von — who all provided friendly, nonconfrontational spaces for the president’s campaign agenda — are, like Ross, retreating from the MAGA movement. 

Comedian Von, host of the This Past Weekend podcast, interviewed Trump the same month as Ross. Trump asked Von about his cocaine use (“That’s down and dirty, isn’t it?”). Von asked Trump what he liked the most about each of his sons. Von would later attend Trump’s inauguration. You could forgive the Trump administration for believing they were on friendly terms wh