Why young conservatives are turning on Trump | Trump’s America: The Content Wars
The online right helped put Donald Trump back in the White House. Now it’s turning on itself.
In episode two of Trump’s America, 9News US Correspondent Reid Butler goes inside the content wars. On phones and university campuses, the right and the left are racing to redefine themselves before the midterm elections, and things are getting ugly.
Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Joe Rogan are the faces of America’s “new media”: an army of podcasters with enough political sway to help win elections. In this economy, engagement is the currency, and opinion often beats fact.
No one did more to take that style onto campuses than Charlie Kirk. Now Reid returns to Provo to meet Kai Schwemmer, a rising conservative creator trying to carry the movement forward. Kai’s verdict is blunt: the right hasn’t consolidated since Kirk’s death, and more extreme voices like Nick Fuentes are rushing to fill the void.
The fault lines are showing. Multiple issues are splitting the MAGA base, especially the young men who swung hard to Trump in 2024. At a Republican event in Bakersfield, California, young conservatives tell Reid they feel let down. Some say first-time voters are turning away over Iran. Others still back the President but believe he has “bad people in his ear.”
Meanwhile, the conservative stars are brawling so publicly it’s starting to feel like the Real Housewives. Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz clash on air, Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly trade insults, and Cruz warns that antisemitism is gaining real purchase with young people on the right.
In Las Vegas, activist Zee Cohen-Sanchez of National Ground Game is trying to do for the left what Turning Point USA did for the right. Her Un**** America tour takes progressive politics onto campuses to debate conservative students head-on. Her strategy? “When they go low, we go lower.” She believes young men aren’t buying Trump anymore, and that the Democrats can win them back if they get their act together.
The 2026 midterms will reveal whether the movement that swept Donald Trump to power still stands behind him. The race is on, not just to win elections, but to decide what the right and the left actually stand for.
CHAPTERS | KEY MOMENTS
0:00 The new media kingmakers
2:44 Provo, Utah: meet Kai Schwemmer
3:18 The “Prove Me Wrong” playbook
4:00 The killing of Charlie Kirk
5:36 A movement without a leader
5:52 Nick Fuentes and the far right
6:38 Zee Cohen-Sanchez and the Unf*ck America tour
7:52 Is the right moving further right?
8:14 Same-sex marriage and abortion
9:40 Is MAGA losing steam?
10:21 Bakersfield, California
11:10 The Epstein files
13:07 The war in Iran
15:07 Israel and the America First split
16:06 Tucker vs Shapiro: the podcast civil war
16:56 Can the left win back young men?
17:38 The midterm verdict
18:17 Next week: The American Dream
▶ Watch Episode 1, Trump’s America: The Divided States: https://youtu.be/Qm1WGWiJDf0
▶ Next week: Trump’s America: The American Dream
Trump’s America is a four-part digital documentary series from 9News Australia, following US Correspondent Reid Butler across a deeply divided nation in the run-in to the 2026 midterm elections.
Subscribe to 9News Australia for more documentaries, investigations and breaking news.
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