by Talgat Kabdygali
1. Introduction
A trucker on I-70 flips Trump twerps flying off CNN who now have nothing good to talk about and tunes into Ben Shapiro’s incineration of the Left’s most recent mess. From Ohio to Floria, a factory worker skips Hannity’s safe, scripted monologue and tunes into Steven Crowder offering truth bombs. And that is the sound conservative media’s future will be in. At the end of February, 2025, right wing podcasts are doubling, while traditional cable news stagnates. The podcasting world has allowed the conservative movement to find its voice as Shapiro, Rogan, Charlie Kirk, and Steve Bannon all speak freely, mobile and independent
The shift is seismic. And when Fox News was one of the main conservative strongholds, it plateaued. At the same time, Republican leaders leave the corporate media platforms and flock to other platforms to speak directly to their base. The trend is being driven by Donald Trump himself, making guest appearances on top podcasts, showing how successful it is when the conservatives divorce themselves from the proper network format and instead deliver the dialogue in raw, unscripted form. This article will look at how the GOP’s most well-known voices have recently started podcasting, what makes the medium attractive to the right.
2. The Rise of the Podcast Right
At 2025, the figures speak the unadulterated truth. But those who consider conservative podcasts as a challenger to the traditional media will find that the pods are steadily dominating. Such hypothetical but quite reasonable estimations are five million listeners per Ben Shapiro’s daily show, ten million downloads being the result of Joe Rogan’s episode with Trump (Dale, 2024). Podcast by Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA has grown two-fold since 2024 and Crowder who is an influential figure on Rumble and Spotify more influential than cable news channel.
It is high time that more attention is paid to podcasting because the right is at its prime in this format. They are relatively cheaper to produce, can be accessed easily, and do not have to worry about the controls placed on them by traditional media networks. The right feels irritated with the media, so they listen to hosts who say what many do not hear on cable news, do not align with the left, and rile up the base (Desk, 2024). Though Fox News remains fixated on its respective funding sources and headline anchors, podcasting is the antithetical model that makes listeners feel as though the personalities they listen to are their own.
Meanwhile there is a CNN anchor giving another self-righteous monologue about ‘insurrection’, while Shapiro is explaining the latest failure of the Democrats with clarity, wit, and energy that turns casual audience into die-hard supporters (Dale, 2024). It is not just a trend that more and more people turn to the conservative podcast, but it’s a movement.
3. Trump’s Airwave Assist
Well, there is arguably no person who fully appreciates the value of saying it as it is than Donald Trump. By 2025, he is still an active member of conservative media with posts on Truth Social and CNN with call-ins on Fox News; moreover, he has a podcast (Desk, 2024). Whether making shocking statements on Joe Rogan’s program or debating with the head of Turning Point USA, Trump uses the means that boost his voice most effectively.
This shift is no accident. This occurs especially in the social media platforms where Trump is free from reinforced intermediaries of corporate media. For instance, on Rogan’s show he can preview midterm 2026, make fun of the mainstream media, rally supporters and all this without being interrupted by producers or perfectly timed commercials (Mastrangelo, 2024). Through these platforms, Trump does not only address his viewers, the audience listens and then reacts by sharing clips on the social media and thus, supports the passion that was behind his victory.
The rationale is apparent: Republican politicians are emulating it. These individuals include, for instance, a Senator, JD Vance who has become a frequent guest at Steve Bannon’s War Room show, Ron DeSantis who releases policy teasers on The Daily Wire’s network and various other conservative opinion leaders who guide the course of national discourse minus the need for direct engagement in cable stations (Desk, 2024). The current fixes on podcasts as the source of the GOPs reaffirms the role of Trump in endorsing and popularizing the media medium.
4. The Left’s TV Tomb
Although much of this show is right wing in nature, the left continues to remain in the twilight of television. MSNBC is a media network, which seems to be on the decline as its primetime audience is barely exceeding 500,000 (Dale, 2024). Consequently, McCarthy-like rants of the charismatic homosexual harmonic in the form of a professorial monologue no longer dominate contemporary society in the same way that they once did; particularly when contrasted with the format offered by those right-wing podcasts.
Rather, the problems for the left are structural. Such is the liberal thought process that is grounded in third tier media outlets which require a professional facade rather than an actual conversation. They seem to think that people of America are interested in highly choreographed storyboards, preplanned and polished controversies (Mastrangelo, 2024). On the other hand, the right is revelling in a style that is naked, actual, and committed. In such a manner, Crowder’s uninhibited way of doing comedy and making commentaries is more comfortable with the working populations than yet another opinion on paper from the New York Times.
It is only a year later that one can see clear grievous facts, such as the aftermath of the 2024 elections. With the help of his guest friends, MSNBC hosts were trying to debunk anything tied to the 2020 election, when Charlie Kirk was already preparing for a future election in 2026.
5. What It Means for the GOP
The growing conservative media is not simply(byte) by byte a phenomenon of the new media age but a tactical strengthening of an ideological position (Mastrangelo, 2024). The GOP finally has a direct connection to its base that can be grown to a much larger audience, cannot be shut down, and does not report to Silicon Valley like Big Tech wants.
Expect this trend to grow. This must seem imaginable that major Republicans will start their own podcast networks, an update of weekly or daily by the leaders (Mastrangelo, 2024). Just picture Trump’s America First Podcast with Trump giving a vox pop to millions without the help or hindrance of Fox or CNN. It is there waiting for the right to come and harness the network that is has put in place.
For conservative readers, the underlying message is quite straightforward: the future of the conservative movement lies in the broadcasting not in a cable set-top box. To ensure that the right continues to create quality and balanced content, the public should consume more independent media products and often switch to them as a regular activity.
6. Conclusion
In 2025, the podcast revolution of the GOP is in full swing. As Fox tries to stay relevant, MSNBC clutches onto its last batch of viewers, while increasingly powered by a conservative high tide, Trump, Shapiro, Kirk, and Crowder are leading the pack, speaking to millions and showing how the right can flourish without the traditional media.
References
Dale, D. (2024). Fact check: 32 false claims Trump made to Joe Rogan. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/27/politics/fact-check-trump-rogan-podcast/index.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025].
Desk, T.W. (2024). Why Donald Trump’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast could decide the race. [online] The Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/donald-trump-joe-rogan-white-house-kamala-harris/articleshow/114591075.cms [Accessed 1 Mar. 2025].
Mastrangelo, D. (2024). Trump, Rogan interview tops 38 million views. [online] The Hill. Available at: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4959974-joe-rogan-trump-interview/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025].