Bombshell Deep Dive Shows MAGA Podcasters Ditching Trump en Masse

(The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)

A bombshell deep dive into nearly 70,000 hours of political podcasts found that MAGA podcasters are increasingly avoiding mentions of President Donald Trump — with references to his name down nearly 70% from their peak ahead of the 2024 election.

The Wall Street Journal analyzed 147 political podcasts using their own AI tool. While liberal shows have continued discussing Trump at roughly the same rate, conservative podcasts have moved sharply in the opposite direction.

And that shift has only accelerated during Trump’s second term. Since the U.S. launched the war in Iran in late February, monthly mentions of the president on conservative podcasts have dropped another 30%, according to the Journal. Some hosts have openly criticized the conflict, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson taking it further by publicly breaking with the administration.

Trump mentions on conservative podcasts peaked at roughly 39 per hour around the 2024 election before tumbling to about 11 per hour by Sept. 20, according to the Journal’s analysis.

The trend comes even as Trump and Republican leaders have sought to make him a central figure in the party’s midterm campaign. Trump recently urged supporters at the GOP midterm convention to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”

So, you might ask, what is MAGA media talking about instead?

One increasingly prominent subject, according to the Journal, is Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who is running against Republican Ken Paxton. Talarico has become the most frequently mentioned Democrat on conservative podcasts tracked by the paper aside from former presidents, surpassing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) this month.

These mentions of Talarico — dubbed “Talafreako” by Republicans — surged in the run-up to the GOP midterm convention, peaking at nearly two mentions per hour during the gathering.

Conservative podcasters have also devoted significant attention to the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three children. Her trial ended in a mistrial this month after jurors could not reach a verdict, with mentions on conservative podcasts spiking around the same time.

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