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If Donald Trump’s first term was marked by a rise in skepticism of vaccines and mainstream medicine — sparked by the pandemic, but fanned by the president himself; remember when he suggested injecting bleach? — his second term has seen the very pursuit of health become right-coded.
Trump won that second term in the “podcast election,” so-called thanks to his interviews with Shawn Ryan, Adin Ross, and, of course, Joe Rogan — manosphere media entities that more often feature discussions of MMA and biohacking than American politics. Once in office, Trump appointed as secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a health mystic who loves nothing more than to be seen working out in jeans. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s campaign to make the US military more “lethal” has involved an emphasis on physical fitness and plenty of photo ops of him pumping iron with troops. Together Kennedy and Hegseth have teamed up to launch the “Pete & Bobby Challenge,” a campaign in which they encourage Americans to do 50 pull-ups and 100 push ups. In July, Trump announced he’s planning to host a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
Meanwhile, a broad swath of libertarian to far-right influencers and podcasters have made fitness, specifically muscularity, key to their brands. The YouTubers Logan and Jake Paul have spun their reputation as infamous enfant terrible vloggers to equally bombastic and especially fit stunt boxers. Andrew Tate has made his muscled physique central to his misogynistic content. All three of them have been vocal in their support of Trump.
This connection between male fitness and far-right politics is far from just aesthetic. Researchers have uncovered fascist groups recruiting through gyms. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation recently published a large investigative piece tracking the rise of far-right “active clubs” that are training young men for violence and, per the report, “increasingly moving from online forums to real-world training groups and anti-immigration protests.”
Nearly a year since Trump’s presidential win, as the left and Democratic Party continue to ask how they lost so many young men to the right (a 12-point shift toward Trump among 18-to-29-year-olds from the 2020 election), some are turning their attention to the gym. Leading leftist influencer Hasan Piker is famously jacked. Democratic candidates have started posting videos of themselves working out while talking policy. Meanwhile, the scramble to sway this voting group has even spurred Democratic operatives to launched a $20 million study called “Speaking With American Men.” Can Democrats and the left find the winning message they desperately need to attract young men at the squat rack?
