It’s too late to say sorry now: The Manosphere and Trump

Against the backdrop of the Iran war which he started, Trump has never been more unpopular. His approval ratings are at an all-time low according to Reuters and Ipsos polling, and there has been mass uproar in recent months surrounding his involvement with Jeffery Epstein, his ICE agent’s murder of protestors, and countless other controversies like his threats to invade Greenland.

However, if we go back to November 2024 and the months leading up to it, it seemed to be a popular trend in some online circles to back Trump. Many popular podcasters and influencers platformed him and endorsed him online, such as Adin Ross, Andrew Schulz and Theo Von. All these men have recently tried to distance themselves from Trump, which certainly seems ironic considering they were a part of the reason for his 2024 election success in the first place.

To be endorsed by these online figures was all a part of Trump’s election strategy, which was aided by his son Barron. The strategy was clearly a success, as Trump won among men under 50 this time round, with younger men also happening to be the target audience of many of these podcasts and live streams. And all of these can be considered to be a part of, or at least adjacent to, the online Manosphere (which has had some of the most extreme elements of it recently highlighted by a Louis Theroux documentary) based on their audiences.

Joe Rogan may perhaps be the best example of the influence given to Trump by podcasters, as Trump took hours out of his day to appear on an episode his show ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ which currently sits at 61 million views on YouTube.

These people were more than happy to platform him, endorse him and laugh and joke with him on their podcasts and streams when given the opportunity to hop on a trend and reap the financial benefits of the views that Trump gave them, but now that he is deeply unpopular it is no coincidence that they are backtracking to no longer be associated with someone who may bring down their precious view counts

Rogan described Trump as “the biggest there is” when endorsing him just before the election and gave him a platform to speak in a more casual and conversational manner about his policies to an audience comprised of mostly men.

Similarly, Adin Ross did a stream on Kick with Trump while wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat which garnered 500,000 live viewers. Theo Von and Andrew Schulz, who both also have big platforms in the comedy space, hosted Trump on their podcasts and outlined their intentions of voting for him.

However, in July 2025 Schulz said on his ‘Flagrant’ podcast that he regrets voting for Trump, and that he is doing “the exact opposite of everything I voted for” by funding wars instead of stopping them and increasing the deficit instead of cutting it. Adin Ross then expressed a few months later that he wished he “never got into politics” because “so many people just tie me to it.” Joe Rogan has also criticised Trump’s immigration and ICE policy calling it “crazy” and an “overcorrection,” and called Trump’s decision to strike Iran “insane based on what he ran on.” To complete our list of backtracking, Theo Von has also denounced the Trump administration for using a video of his on social media endorsing deportation without his consent.

While it is nice to see these public figures denounce Trump’s most inhumane and dangerous policies, their criticisms seem more like hollow and meaningless backtracking than they do genuine changes of heart. It was always clear on the immigration issue, for example, that Trump would be taking a hard line on deportations, and based on his past Presidency where he raised tensions in the middle East by withdrawing from the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal, it was always nonsensical to believe that he would be a President based on peace.

These people were more than happy to platform him, endorse him and laugh and joke with him on their podcasts and streams when given the opportunity to hop on a trend and reap the financial benefits of the views that Trump gave them, but now that he is deeply unpopular it is no coincidence that they are backtracking to no longer be associated with someone who may bring down their precious view counts.

This is why their apologies come off as being extremely hollow and ironic, because they do not seem motivated by genuine regret based on their timing. Trump has always done unpopular things, yet they helped him get elected to get views, but now when he is an incumbent struggling in the poll ratings, they don’t want to be associated with him anymore

It is laughable to hear these men suggest that everything Trump is doing now is not what they voted for or endorsed, acting as if they were ignorant to what he would do once he got into office. Maybe they didn’t know the intricate details of what Trump would do, but they certainly knew that he was a convicted felon who had been promoting bigotry for years, and a highly volatile figure capable of extreme policy, yet were still fine with associating with him and helping him out nonetheless.

Despite what they may want you to think, none of these influencers are ignorant when it comes to their reputations, associations and growing their view counts; they would not have been able to have such big and successful platforms if they were. They know exactly what brings attention to them, and they were fine with endorsing the same man they are now criticising when it was beneficial to them. Now that it seems like the more popular opinion to dislike Trump (his net approval rating went into the negatives in March 2025, proceeding to decline for the rest of the year), they are criticising him in order to keep their views from falling by association.

This is why their apologies come off as being extremely hollow and ironic, because they do not seem motivated by genuine regret based on their timing. Trump has always done unpopular things, yet they helped him get elected to get views, but now when he is an incumbent struggling in the poll ratings, they don’t want to be associated with him anymore. Perhaps instead of doing this half-hearted backtracking, they shouldn’t have endorsed Trump in the first place. Maybe it could have harmed his votes among young men and stopped him from being able to enact all these policies they find so deplorable and insane.