Attorney General Ken Paxton greets then-President Donald Trump as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick follows — Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via REUTERS
A morning discussion on CNN began about once-loyal podcasters abandoning President Donald Trump in the new era of his presidency. It comes at an interesting time after Trump tried to remove several members of the press from the White House. Now, conservative outlets don't want to talk much about him either.
CNN played a supercut of podcasters telling Trump he's "lost touch" with the people and even Megyn Kelly begging Trump to "behave like a normal human."
"I mean, the president 3D chess — shut up!" she yelled into the microphone in April.
A Wall Street Journal report analyzed 70,000 hours of podcasts and found that mentions of Trump have slowed since summer of 2025, but much more after the start of the Iran war.
CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro said that everyone knew this day was coming and that there would come a point in which Trump no longer mattered. She explained that, unlike broadcast and cable television, a podcast stream on platforms has a direct connection to the audience because it shows when they start to click away.
"You can see when your numbers go down," she explained. "And I will tell you that generally speaking, and this is anecdotal, but people are less interested in talking about the president, if only to say, can't he shut up."
The Washington Examiner's executive editor and podcast host Bob Cusack said that it's clear Trump is losing his own audience.
Noel King, co-host of the podcast "Today, Explained," added, "I have a theory about this. As a podcaster, I will speak also anecdotally. People are less interested in President Trump, and I'll tell you why: He is incoherent. He does not make any sense. He seems completely out of touch. And if you don't have anything to talk about other than, like, this 80-year-old man is speaking nonsense, your audience is going to be like, okay, whatever."
One reason podcasters are turning to speak with Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico is that he's "interesting."
"In these podcasts you need — I mean, not in the news — I do something different, but these guys need a hero or a villain. Talarico is good on both, depending on how you feel about him or what you," King continued. She meant that to the left he's a hero and to the right he might be a villain, but both sides have an opinion and want to talk about him or hear about him. That's not the case for others, like Trump.
"I think also Texas is interesting. I think people feel like there's a narrative there," Garcia-Navarro said. "Will Texas flip? You know, who is this character that's come on to the scene? What does this mean for us? You know, he's a Christian that feeds into our audience. He's a person that we can legitimately talk about in a way that doesn't seem damaging to, you know, the psyche or the moral beliefs of the people who might follow."
She added that on the other side, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is "boring as anything ... Ken Paxton has not sat down for an interview at all this cycle. And I will tell you that even people who were wanting to book him are like, can he string a sentence together for more than a few minutes?"