2024-08-06 06:25:02
He’s getting the perm and doing tricks on it.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty
Adin Ross is not a name one might expect to come up in a conversation about the 2024 presidential election. Ross, 23, is a Twitch streamer who first became famous for playing NBA 2K online with LeBron James’s son before he was banned from the platform after a repeated use of slurs. As he has grown into his fame, the Gen-Z streamer has grown more conservative, hanging out with Andrew Tate and hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his stream.
This is the platform that Donald Trump chose for his first media hit of the week. On the livestreaming service Kick, where Ross has hosted his stream since being removed from Twitch, Trump walked out to 50 Cent’s “Many Men” as a small audience applauded in a room in Mar-a-Lago where the cameras were set up. “Do you know what livestreaming is?” Ross asked Trump.
“More or less,” Trump answered. “It’s the new wave.” In the hour-plus interview, Trump went through his usual stream-of-consciousness stump speech. Ross, a little over his head, was unable to contribute to the conversation beyond lines like, “That’s really sad to think about” or “Damn, that’s crazy to think about.” Trump did manage to direct a few lines to the young audience tuning in. “Youth tends to be Democrat,” he said, but unlike past elections, the country “can’t wait 50 years” for this demographic shift. “Make the move now, all of you young people,” he said to the 450,000 people tuned in. Ross, feeling generous, gave Trump a Rolex and a Tesla Cybertruck with a full MAGA vinyl wrap. He forced Trump, in his own home, to meet other guys whose job is video games. In the parking lot next to Trump’s new ride, they did Trump’s weird little hand dance.
It was an interesting choice for Trump to appear on an edgelord gamer’s stream at a moment when his campaign desperately needs to shift the momentum in his favor. But Republicans have been dipping into the demo of conservative-leaning podcasts by and for Gen-Z guys for some time now. Last week, vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance appeared on a podcast with the Nelk Boys, a group of Canadian influencers who rose to fame by doing Jackass-lite pranks and partying all the time; they have since become a must-stop visit for Republican politicians trying to get in front of fratty young voters. (In his hour with hosts Steiny and Kyle Forgeard, Vance talked about getting the call from Trump that he would be his next VP choice while his son wanted to talk to him about Pokémon. “Shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu,” Vance joked, unpleasantly, that he told his son. “This is the most important phone call of my life. Please, just let me take this phone call.”) Trump himself appeared on the Nelk Boys’ podcast back in 2022 in an episode that YouTube removed because Trump went on a rant about false election-fraud claims, which is a violation of the company’s policy.
Trump has yet to reprise his Nelk Boys appearance, but it looks like more is on the way from the Canadian group whose videos include “We Corrupted an Amish Person!” and “Andrew Tate Stole Our Girl at the Club!” Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Nelk Boys are involved in a $20 million PAC called Send the Vote. The group will target the “growing movement of young people across this country rallying behind a pro-freedom, pro-America agenda,” as its business partner told the Journal. Events include voter-registration drives at sports events and Ultimate Fighting Championship–adjacent parties in which attendees must prove they are registered to vote to get in. For what it’s worth, UFC president Dana White appears to be the common thread between Trump and these young conservative men with talk shows. “Shout-out to Dana,” Ross said on Monday. “There’s nobody like him,” Trump added.
It’s too early to say if the plan will work to mobilize young male voters who may be moving toward the Republican Party. But at least Donald Trump appears to be having fun so far. This summer, he’s gotten to golf on a stream with 30-year-old pro Bryson DeChambeau and talked about the world of combat sports with YouTuber and budding wrestling star Logan Paul. As many people have noted, his video with Paul was one of the only times we’ve seen Trump earnestly laugh in a long while.
