Dave Portnoy. Theo Von. Joe Rogan. Those are just a few of the big-name podcasters and talk show hosts who were seemingly instrumental in securing the youth vote for President Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 election. But in the last few weeks, all three men have criticized Trump for his handling of various issues — from the war in Gaza, to international tariffs, to mistaken deportations. These podcasters have become known for their undeniable influence on the young American male — and are frequently praised by young, right-leaning men for rejecting political correctness. So are their critiques of Trump the first few cracks in the manosphere? And if they jump ship, will their fans follow?
Joe Rogan — a comedian, UFC commentator, and host of his namesake podcast The Joe Rogan Experience — is known for his longform interviews (most of his episodes are around three hours). Rogan has a whopping 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 16.4 million subscribers on YouTube, and hosted Trump in October 2024. Despite saying he doesn’t affiliate with either party (“I consider myself an American,” he said in a January podcast episode), Rogan has voiced right-leaning views on issues like COVID vaccines and transgender women in sports, and on the eve of the election, he endorsed Trump (and Elon Musk) on X.
However, in his March 29 episode, Rogan slammed Trump for the first time since the election. He specifically called out the Trump administration’s handling of mistaken deportations and deportations without due process, referencing the viral story of a Maryland father being wrongfully sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador despite having a protection order, which ICE blamed on an “administrative error.” Rogan also referenced the detainment and imprisonment of a gay Venezuelan makeup artist on account of his tattoos, which ICE reportedly deemed gang-related. “You’ve got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting lassoed up and deported and sent to El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said. “It’s horrific.” He’s also criticized Trump’s picking fights with Canada over trade.
Theo Von, a mullet-clad stand-up comedian from Louisiana (with 102 thousand followers and 61 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify) who garnered an audience for his laidback interviews and Southern everyman personality, is another podcaster who interviewed Trump during his campaign, on his podcast This Past Weekend. Von never explicitly endorsed Trump, but he did attend his inauguration in January. However, in his podcast episode from March 5 that featured guest Candace Owens (a controversial conservative social media personality herself), both Owens and Von criticized the administration’s position on the war in Gaza. Von specifically called out the viral “Trump Gaza” video, which portrayed an eerie AI-generated depiction of Gaza with golden Trump statues, children playing, and Musk making it rain dollar bills. “People are saying it’s obvious that you can’t go and annihilate and genocide this culture and make them disappear, and then [for] Trump to come on top of it and say they’re gonna build … a lazy river?” Von questioned.
Most recently, founder of Barstool Sports and social media personality Dave Portnoy — who endorsed Trump in the months leading up to the election — shared some choice words about Trump’s slew of tariffs that were announced April 1. “Trump has put his tariffs all over the place … and everything’s in the sh*tter because of it,” Portnoy said. “I’m down 7 million bucks.” (Her Campus reached out to the White House for a response to the criticisms from Portnoy, Rogan, and Von but didn’t hear back in time for publication.)
These podcasters’ comments might be reflective of a general discontent with Trump that many people on both sides of the aisle have voiced in the past few weeks — with the left coming out for the April 5 Hands Off protests in over 1,400 locations around the country, as well as some major figures in the Republican party like senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul denouncing Trump’s tariffs. But whether or not Gen Z fans in the manosphere (the term used to describe the media landscape dominated by masculinity and misogyny that these podcasters, while not as extremist as others, still fall under) will also break from Trump is hard to predict.
The latest Gallup poll from March, which compared Trump’s approval ratings from 2017 and 2025, saw a six point increase in approval from both men and 18-29 year olds who responded. Granted, this data was collected pre-tariffs, which may have already changed a lot of people’s minds, but Trump’s stances on Gaza, immigrants, and DEI have remained largely the same throughout his presidency, and don’t seem to be dealbreakers to those who responded to the Gallup poll. While Rogan, Von, and Portnoy’s viewership and devout fanbases don’t seem to have taken any major hits following their criticisms of Trump, their speaking out has garnered some negative attention from their fans on social media.
One user, @chriscastillo1248, took to the comment section of Rogan’s episode criticizing the deportations to call out the host for “coming off progressive as hell.” They added, “I mean do you brodie but damn you starting to switch up.”
But some positive feedback from these moments indicate that not all of the broadcasters’ fans are in lockstep with Trump, nor do they expect these hosts to be. “I’m so glad Candace and Theo have called out Trump and his stance on Gaza,” said user @geeunit831 in the comment section of Von’s episode with Owens. “We need more conservative voices to do the same.”
As seen throughout the past few months, the Trump administration is unpredictable, and it’s hard to say whether or not these podcast bros will continue in their critiques of what the president is doing, or go back to their right-leaning hyper-masculine business as usual. While their statements against deportations, tariffs, and war are certainly noteworthy, they’ve been very careful to critique only specific actions and not his presidency as a whole — something that would likely ruffle far more feathers in the manosphere. But like many things going on in the government right now, it seems only time will tell if these guys continue to stray from Trump — and whether their conservative youth base will follow them.