On YouTube, progressive influencers fight against the ‘Trump regime’ and the ‘traditional’ Democrats

« Paniek welsh Trump and his regime on this Sunday. » A slightly graying man with glasses looks penetratingly in the camera, he spits out of the video of Meidastouche. YouTube Then shows three campaign emails from Trumps team that have to prove: « This Trump regime is sick, nauseating! »

Presenter Ben Meiselas and his brothers Jordan and Brett have been continuously present on the front page of Politiek YouTube with their podcast and YouTube channel Meidastouch. Since the 2024 presidential campaign. In hard subscriber figures they are not yet close to the Trump-friendly Podcaster Joe Rogan. Meidastouch has 4.5 million subscribers, Rogan 19.5 million. Nevertheless, the podcast was downloaded more often in February than Rogan’s, according to market researcher Podscrobe. The success is probably partly due to an aggressive media strategy, in which small pieces of each podcast are cut and shared elsewhere. Not only on YouTube, but also for example via the X-account of Meidastouch employee Akyn Torabi.

Yet there is more to the progressive flank of the American media world. The rise of Donald Trump has been feeding a network of independent YouTube channels and podcasts aimed for resistance to the US president for ten years now. They are increasingly critical of the mainstream media, and what some YouTubers mock the Establishment Democrats Calling the traditional Democrats. The Youtubers think that living in a world that no longer exists: a time when you could assume that the counterparty was essentially reasonable.

Hard against hard

In videos with screaming heads they want to show how it should be: « The legal order can don’t care Trump supporters » (The David Pakman Show3 million subscribers) and about the democratic party leader in the Senate: « Chuck Schumer is a disaster » (The Majority Report1.7 million subscribers). Hard against hard, fast, much and furious. They channel the anger that many progressives feel in the United States.

Since his decision, Schumer has certainly been a popular target with the Republicans about a budget law. WTF? Chuck Schumer goes down for the Republican Party, « headlines a video of Meidastouch. « If you vote for this law, then you are complicit, » Ben Meiselas fulminates. « I want you to know where I am. »

It was not that fast in the early days of the new American progressive media. It was even downright pleasant. Sports and pop culture site The Ringer In 2016, three former speech writers of Barack Obama from – Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor – invited a weekly in the run -up to the presidential elections insider to make about political news. Nobody expected Trump to win. Listeners of Keepin ‘It 1600 Maked live how the three men slowly collapsed during the election night. After a few months of reflection, the three ‘Podbros’ Ringer left and started their own progressive media network, Crooked Media.

Their podcast Pod Save America is now the blueprint for progressive podcasting America, and the men have great political influence. They are no longer pleasant. They caused a fuss by speaking out last year against the candidate of Joe Biden. When the Kamala Harris campaign team later wanted to explain why things went wrong, they did not opt ​​for a large newspaper or television channel, but for the Favreau, Lovett and Vietor table.

Cross -fertilization

Since 2017, the number of progressive podcasts and YouTube channels are rapidly increasing in their wake. With something for everyone. While Crooked Media attempts to reach the light-progressive middle The Bulwark (1.1 million subscribers) on the lost ex-republican voter who has finished Trump. The popular live streamer Hasan Pauler (1.5 million subscribers) says Donderbits from a socialist angle. Prefer a kind of talk show format with callers? The soft -mocking Sam Seder van The Majority Report (1.7 million subscribers) has been working on the road since 2010. For those who go too far, there is the friendly, youthful face of Brian Tyler Cohen (4 million subscribers).

They all saw an increase in the number of subscribers in recent months. According to The New York Times took the number of listeners from Pod Save America With 70 percent. Cohen and Maidast Get tens of thousands of subscribers every week. With the income, the Meiselas brothers have now been able to hire a team of twelve people.

The ties between the large channels are increasingly cited. Brian Tyler Cohen regularly records videos with Tommy Vietor Van Pod Save Americaex-republican Tim Miller van The Bulwark Like to be invited as a guest speaker. The cross -pollination is becoming increasingly clear: the once hyper -codified Pod Save America Now regularly throws militant fragments out of their podcasts on YouTube.

This makes this movement more and more visible, also for Republicans and the party prominents who are happy to criticize the podcasters. Elon Musk fell Hasan Piker last week publicly on x. A number of courageous democratic politicians are now also outside Pod Save America Can be heard regularly in podcasts and videos.

New wind

They see a new wind in the YouTubers, which they like to pursue. The Democratic senators Chris Murphy (72,000 subsones) and Adam Schiff (182,000 subsones) reset their own YouTube channel and are now following the Meiselas line. In a stream of angry videos with titles such as « Donald Trump is already coming away with it? » And ‘Schiff reveals Trump’s most recent horrible plan’ Schiff speaks to the public from his office in Washington. The popular lower house member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a militant presence on Tiktok and Instagram (8.9 million followers) for years. Together with the also popular Senator Bernie Sanders, she travels through the country for very well-attended protest events. Democrats such as Senator Cory Booker (26,000 subscribers) and the independent Senator Angus King (99 subscribers), who choose a more moderate course, see that their videos are low in the algorithm.

The question remains whether this is the start of a new movement within the Democratic Party, perhaps even a resurrection of progressive politics, or whether it will continue to blow off steam. The influencers themselves are skeptical. Livestreamer Hasan Piker received CNN shortly after the presidential elections over – They wanted to know if he could be the ‘Joe Rogan from the left’. « I don’t think the Democratic party can podcast from this crisis, » Piker sighs in the item. « Joe Rogan stood behind Bernie Sanders years ago. Just go see why we lost him. »

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