Eric Trump has confirmed his younger brother Barron persuaded his father to go on a podcast tour as part of efforts to court Gen Z and millennial voters.
Eric, Trump’s second son, said the president-elect’s podcast circuit during the US election campaign contributed “a lot” to his increased vote share among young people.
While Kamala Harris won the overall votes of 18 to 29-year-olds by six points, Mr Trump won 56% of men in that age group, far higher than the 40% of young women who voted for Mr Trump.
The numbers represent a big improvement for Mr Trump among young people compared to his previous elections and suggested a growing political divide between the genders.
Barron, 18, is Donald Trump’s youngest son and was rumoured to be helping his father with his election strategy.
During the campaign, Mr Trump appeared on several podcasts popular among young people, dubbed the “bro” tour in American media.
Those include The Joe Rogan Experience – the biggest podcast in the world – as well as podcasts with internet personalities Theo Von and Logan Paul.
He also sat down with Adin Ross, a friend of Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist who is accused of human trafficking – which he denies – in Romania.
Speaking during a visit to the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, Eric said the podcasts helped his father win over a new demographic.
He told the PA news agency: “He (Barron) was certainly the one that suggested he (Mr Trump) go on some of the very young podcasts.
Politics is a nasty game, and we've seen every angle of it
“Obviously, Joe Rogan is one of the biggest podcasters in the world, so it’s not like this hadn’t occurred to us to go on Joe Rogan, but you know, he speaks to a different demographic in terms of voter, and now he (Barron) did certainly suggest a couple of the more millennial, or even younger generation-style, podcasts.
“Some of those were fantastic.”
Eric said appearances on podcasts may have helped his father doing better with young people at the election.
“My father did incredibly well with youth vote,” he said, “and he picked up segments of the vote that he had never picked up before.
“And I’m sure a lot of that was attributable the podcast circuit that he really committed to.”
Speaking about his own political ambitions, Eric said he would not rule out a future US presidential bid.
“Never say never,” he said. “But I love the business world, I love construction. I love what I’m doing now right now.
“And politics is a nasty game, and we’ve seen every angle of it.
“I became the most subpoenaed person in arguably the United States history for no reason whatsoever other than the fact that they want to use me as way to try and take down my father.”
He added: “It would have to be a decision for the time, it would be a decision for how bad the country is doing at the time.”
President-elect Trump, 78, will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January, 20, taking over from Joe Biden.
