Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that the UFC president, Dana White, was to become his press secretary.
asserted
president → announce → ?
The US president hoped the creator of Power Slap, a face-slapping league which one of the world’s leading neurologists called “a sport inconsistent with the intelligence of humans”, might be the right man to deliver his daily rebuttals to the media.
uncertain
one → hop → media
Trump later backtracked on the appointment, saying he was “only kidding”, yet it is easy to understand
asserted
it → backtrack → appointment
he might be pining for White’s muscles, trash talk and thirst for athletic violence.
uncertain
he → pin → violence
White is representative of the way Trump transcended politics in 2024 to become a celebrated figure in the manosphere, the loosely defined cluster of male content creators who have a direct line to America’s bored and aggrieved young men.
asserted
who → transcend → men
On the night of the 2024 election, White stood at the victory podium reading out “thank yous” to the formerly heterodox podcast bros who came out for Trump: “the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan”.
asserted
who → stand → Boys
Trump ended up winning 63% of young white men that night, unheard of for a Republican politician.
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Trump → end → politician
Two years later, it’s a different story.
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it → ’ → ?
Republicans lost young white men badly in the 2026 midterms: only 43% voted for a Republican US House candidate.
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% → lose → candidate
So what went wrong?
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what → go → ?
Did the manosphere lose its ability to persuade young voters, or did its most influential figures simply lose faith in Trump?
asserted
figures → lose → Trump
Analysts may debate the precise contours of the manosphere, but its 2024 incarnation emerged from the alignment of three existing groups: the hard-right Maga media universe of Tucker Carlson, Shawn Ryan and Dan Bongino; the mainstream “brocast” comedy world dominated by figures like Rogan, Theo Von, the Nelk Boys, Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz; and a darker, overtly misogynistic online underworld led by Andrew Tate, Sneako and Nick Fuentes.
uncertain
incarnation → debate → Tate
Together, these factions allied to stoke male grievance with gay jokes, casual racism and rape apologia.
asserted
factions → ally → jokes
They also normalised or openly championed Maga politics with their platforms, even if some like Fuentes also criticised Trump for not being far-right enough.
asserted
some → normalise → Trump
After Trump was elected, the manosphere relished in its own soaring cultural influence.
asserted
manosphere → elect → influence
Tony Hinchcliffe, who said that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage” during a 2024 Trump rally, landed a huge Netflix deal for his Kill Tony comedy show.
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Rico → say → show
Rogan and Von had the two most popular podcasts in the US (out of Rogan’s last 50 guests, 49 have been men).
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49 → have → guests
The Nelk Boys, who prior to their support of Trump were best known for YouTube videos like Farting in a Black barbershop prank!, scored an interview with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, almost two years into his genocide in Gaza.
asserted
who → know → Gaza
Fuentes didn’t vote for Trump, because he said Trump was “owned by the Jews”.
asserted
Trump → vote → Jews
Nevertheless he celebrated Trump’s win by tweeting “your body my choice”, a grotesque inversion of the pro-choice slogan that signaled an expectation of systemic subjugation of women.
asserted
that → celebrate → women
Since then, chapters of young Republican groups at US college campuses have been taken over by Fuentes-affiliated “Groypers” who preach a more virulent antisemitic, pro-misogyny, ethnonationalism than even Maga.
asserted
who → take → Maga
And Fuentes’s channels have brought in progressively bigger donations, according to the Washington Post.
uncertain
channels → bring → Post
But as Trump’s popularity waned, especially as the public mood shifted on Israel’s war on Gaza, and after the US-Israel war in Iran began, so did the manosphere’s infatuation with him.
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infatuation → wan → him
Von said in April that Trump’s policies around Iran were “fucking baffling” and suggested he had been compromised by the “dark government” in Israel.
uncertain
he → say → Israel
Mariel Barnes, assistant professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs who researches manosphere spaces, says that some podcasters were opposed to the Iran War for one unexpected reason.
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podcasters → research → reason
“They immediately began talking about conscription, which has no basis in fact,” Barnes said.
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Barnes → begin → fact
“The US is not going to implement the draft to fight a war with Iran, but the manosphere has always seen the draft as deeply inequitable because it doesn’t draft women.
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it → go → women
And they hate that.”
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they → hate → that
As the midterms approached and Trump’s unpopularity deepened, some podcasters stopped talking about him much at all: analysis by Media Matters for America of nine manosphere podcasts that hosted Trump or JD Vance in 2024, including Rogan’s and Von’s, found that mentions of Trump dropped off from an average of 35 per podcast episode at the start of 2026, to just five mentions in the weeks leading up to the midterms (and most of the mentions came from the Patrick Bet-David podcast, which is more hardcore Maga than shows like Rogan’s).
asserted
which → approach → Rogan
On the comedy side of things, these voices abandoned politics and went back to talking about pop culture and sports.
asserted
voices → abandon → culture
But Seth Simons, who analyses comedy’s rightwing bent on his Substack, Humorism, says some things remain unchanged.
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things → analyse → Substack
“It’s true that a lot of these guys have stopped talking about Trump, but they haven’t abandoned the politics that led them to Trump in the first place,” Simons said via email.
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Simons → ’ → email
“Just the other week Andrew Schulz praised Nayib Bukele, the Salvadorian dictator, for his mass incarceration policies.
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Schulz → praise → policies
In his Patreon-only episode reacting to the midterms this week, Tim Dillon wished that Trump had pursued a “smart” immigration policy, basically skipping the ICE theatrics and simply deporting “the 10 million people that came in under Biden”.
asserted
that → react → Biden
What has changed is that “these guys have correctly detected that Trump isn’t cool any more”, Simons continued.
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Simons → change → ?
“They’ll happily rally behind a GOP candidate free of Trump’s baggage.”
asserted
They → rally → baggage
, calling them “low-T” (as in testosterone) or “trans”, it seems the manosphere no longer sees Trump as butch now that his candidates lost.
asserted
candidates → call → butch
The day after the midterms, Carlson told his listeners: “a lot of men who voted for Trump two years ago imagined that this was a masculine, vigorous leader.
asserted
this → tell → Trump
But then … here’s a guy who’s vain and venal and indecisive … he seems more like a bitchy old woman than an alpha male.”
asserted
he → ’ → male
The far-right Christian podcast NXR, for example, announced: “Maga is dead, Maga is gay …
asserted
Maga → announce → example
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
