Donald Trump's narrow victory in the 2024 presidential election owed part of its success to the Manosphere — a loose assortment of anti-feminist groups and influencers known for their intense disdain for political correctness and "woke" ideology. Exit polls and post-election analyses found Trump's strongest gains came among young male voters — precisely the audience this network of podcasters and streamers reaches. But according to Democratic insider Sidney Blumenthal, a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, many of the Manosphere influencers who helped propel Trump into the White House are now turning against him.

Writing for The New Republic, Blumenthal explained: "The Manosphere emerged in the 2024 campaign as an innovative component at the center of Trump's political machine — a network of podcasters, influencers, and shock jocks serving as a pipeline to young men, exploiting their social and economic anxieties, particularly by targeting them with crude misogynist messages serving as vicarious defiance against an oppressive, woke feminist culture…. It became instant conventional wisdom that the bros' allegiance to Trump would be a permanent factor in American politics for a generation or more to come."

Blumenthal noted that President Trump's son Barron Trump aggressively courted the Manosphere.

The former Clinton adviser pointed to podcaster Joe Rogan as a key example of Trump's growing problems with the movement. Rogan was an enthusiastic Trump supporter in 2024 — his show is one of the most-listened podcasts in the world, his nearly three-hour interview with Trump in late October 2024 drew tens of millions of views, and he endorsed Trump on the eve of the election — but he has since become a frequent critic, lambasting the president on everything from the Jeffrey Epstein files to immigration raids to the war in Iran.

"Trump's Iran war has shattered the once-awestruck projection of him as the invulnerable alpha male," Blumenthal observed. "'There's no one like that guy,' said Joe Rogan. 'It's the only reason why he survived all the s– – they tried to put him through.' Now, symptomatic of the breakdown of Trump's once-seemingly granitic support along generational and ideological lines, Rogan calls the war 'crazy,' 'insane,' 'nuts'; says Trump has 'betrayed' his followers, and that Trump is blithering along with 'no clear way to resolve this at all.' Trump has gone haywire. He is the arsonist igniting the bonfire of the Manosphere."

Blumenthal noted that "for many of the Manosphere performers," the Iran war "was the decisive event that shifted their tone from adulation to betrayal."

The break could carry significant political consequences. Republicans will defend a narrow House majority in the 2026 midterms, when every seat is on the ballot. "If the Republicans lose the midterm elections, in part having alienated the constituency that returned Trump to the White House, the Manosphere will become the subject of an intense congressional investigation," Blumenthal wrote.

He added: "Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the Republican Chairman James Comer requesting a formal probe and specifically subpoenas of communications from the Department of Justice, the State Department, the White House — and, by name, Barron Trump."