Since 2020, President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns have pushed influencers and content creators into our political media ecosystem. The Biden administration invited these creators to policy briefings on issues important to young people, and they tagged along on the campaign trail—you know this, I’ve reported on it in the newsletter before.

Trump’s answer to this captured grassroots energy has long been his stranglehold on conservative news outlets, on cable and online. But his online support was largely dominated by groypers, conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, and white nationalists lurking in obscure forums.

Trump would acknowledge them with a wink and a nod on occasion, but it wasn’t until this year that his digital outreach expanded—and became a pillar to his campaign. The groypers haven’t necessarily gone away (my colleague David Gilbert can tell you that much), but a fresh professional class of podcasters and influencers, willing to platform Trump’s message with little pushback, grew outside of them.

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Yesterday, I wrote that Trump’s presidential victory was cementing a new era of campaigning online.

Joe Rogan and the other Trump-aligned podcasters have millions of followers that tune in to their shows weekly, if not every day. The industry has grown and changed dramatically since the last presidential contest, eclipsing the traditional media in viewership in some cases. This size and power is a legitimizing force, despite the racist and misogynistic rhetoric some share with the manosphere.

And it appeared to work.

“Theo Von and Andrew Schulz did such a fun and unique job of getting President Trump to kind of open up a little bit more and show a different, more fun side to him. Before he was doing those interviews, the media was able to shape this picture of Donald Trump that just is not who he is. They portrayed him as an angry person,” Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump campaign adviser, tells me. “Through these podcasts, people were actually able to hear his compassion, and I don’t think that traditional media has ever given him the ability to do that, because I think traditional media thrives better off of conflict than conversation.”

Now, the podcasting industry has grown into a more than $25 billion industry. Influencer marketing has become a $250 billion industry as of last month, according to Forbes and both are likely only to grow larger in the coming years.

Like the Democrats, Republicans now see the value in collaborating with these creators and plan to bring them under their red tent for many elections to come.

“We need to actually create a bench of folks who can continue to promote conservative ideals online,” CJ Pearson, cochair of the Republican National Convention’s youth advisory council, tells me. “That can continue to reach young people where they are, where the traditional media can’t. And I think it’s going to be something that we’re going to be leaning on, not just this cycle, but in 2026 and 2028 and many more election cycles to come.”

There are going to be a lot of takes in the coming days and weeks about what went wrong for the Harris campaign. But one thing I’m confident about? The election, and the future of the political influencer, has forever changed as we know it. Now, they’ll be organized and operating under a new Trump administration as well.

The Chatroom

As of writing this, I’m running on three nonconsecutive hours of sleep. I’m sure you’re not at your bushiest either. So for this week, I want to hear all of your thoughts and frustrations about the election. Unload on me and we’ll regroup next week.

Send your thoughts to [email protected]. K, love you, bye! ❤️

WIRED Reads

• Far-Right Donald Trump Supporters Celebrate His Victory With Violent Memes and Calls for Executions: On Truth Social, Patriots.win, and Gab, many of Trump’s supporters are calling for military tribunals and mass executions of the president-elect’s political rivals.
• States’ Abortion Rights Wins May Be Short-Lived Under a Second Trump Term: Seven states successfully passed ballot measures protecting abortion rights in the US this week. While Trump has not endorsed a national abortion ban, his incoming administration could make it more difficult for people to access abortion care even in states that adopted these protections.
• Groypers Gave Illegal Hot Dogs and Burgers to Trump Voters: In Phoenix on Tuesday night, a group of America First groypers and other Republicans were handing out hot dogs and burgers to Trump voters outside of a polling station. It was illegal.

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What Else We’re Reading

🔗 Kareem Rahma’s American Dream: Kareem Rahma, the creator behind the popular TikTok series Subway Takes, filmed a video with Harris earlier this year. It didn’t go as planned and was later scrapped. (The New York Times)

🔗 All The Big Tech leaders Congratulating Donald Trump: Big tech CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg are congratulating Trump on his victory, committing to work with the man who Emma Roth aptly points out threatened to throw some of them in jail. (The Verge)

🔗 What Trump’s Win Means for Silicon Valley: Cristiano Lima does a great job of laying out how the incoming Trump administration could regulate Silicon Valley tech companies. He covers everything from committee assignments to policy issues like data privacy and antitrust. (The Washington Post)

The Download

Leah, Tim, and Tori recorded the WIRED Politics Lab podcast today about how Elon Musk may have helped hand Trump his victory. Listen to it here.

That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.