JORDAN KLEPPER: While covering Donald Trump's 2024 campaign,
Downloaded from YTS.MX
I started to notice all sorts of new people
coming into the MAGA tent.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
But what baffled me most was the kids.
REPORTER: Trump, cutting deeply into first time
voters and the youth vote.
This could be a political earthquake.
MAJOR GARRETT: Trump credits a wave of Republican podcasters,
social media influencers for the support that grew
for him in the 2024 election.
Gen Z has turned right.
JORDAN KLEPPER: So is it actually
hip to be Republican now?
It's definitely a vibe.
There's a lot of MAGA energy here?
- Yes, a lot. - Yes, there is.
Yeah?
We want to make a change for our generation.
We don't want any more of the left wing radical ideas.
We want none of that.
What's the vibe like right now with young Republicans?
Oh, we are feeling victorious.
I think it's going to go down in the history books.
It's going to be up there with like the fall of Rome?
Maybe.
You know, us, guys, we do like talking about the Roman Empire.
Love talking about the Roman-- and like doing
the salute too, apparently. - Oh!
Oh, Jesus.
JORDAN KLEPPER: But are they true MAGA believers or is
this just a rebellious phase?
To find out, I'm ditching the Trump rallies
and meeting these young Americans on their turf,
outside the quad, outside the octagon,
and outside my comfort zone on spring break.
I know I'm ready.
These kids are going to love me.
[theme music]
First up, I'm heading to Texas A&M,
one of the largest universities in the US
with over 70,000 students.
So what are the issues pushing so many
young people to the right?
I was very upset that the last administration
let so many illegal immigrants into this country.
Whenever Biden got in, everything went up,
prices, gas, diesel.
I drive diesel, and diesel went up like crazy.
Freedom of speech.
Freedom for everybody, especially
for me and my theology school, just
being able to talk about Christ more often.
My dad was in the military, and I really like military, so.
And all of my friends are going into it right now.
You're of military age.
Mm-hmm.
What if Donald Trump called you up to go invade Greenland?
Then I guess we're invading Greenland.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Clearly, I need to better
understand these kids.
So much like when I was in college,
can somebody please tell me what's cool?
I'm out of touch.
The last time I was on a college campus,
I was playing GoldenEye in the dorm.
- OK. - Do you know GoldenEye?
No, I don't know GoldenEye.
Is being conservative cool now?
I wouldn't say it's cool.
I feel like it's just the right way to do things now.
It's not cool?
It's just morally superior?
Oh, absolutely.
Woke cool?
Pretty annoying, honestly.
Boondock Saints?
You guys still putting posters up of the Boondock Saints?
What?
The Boondock Saints.
America First, cool?
Cool.
I think America First is cool.
Absolutely.
- Gulf of America. - Cool.
Gulf of America.
Boondock Saints 2?
What is-- no, Wolf of Wall Street.
- Wolf of Wall Street. - Wolf of Wall Street is in.
Always been in.
Is it in because we understand it's a satire
or we just like the financial crisis of it all?
I think it's just how much he actually, like,
was able to get away with.
So you see it as a hero's journey?
I think I see it as a hero's journey, yeah.
Good to know.
JORDAN KLEPPER: So there was a lot
I could teach them about American cinema,
but who was there to engage them on their broader concerns
for the country?
Well, today, it was the right wing group, Turning Point USA,
which claims to be the largest and fastest growing youth
organization in America.
And people were pumped to get free shit.
- Did you get that hat here? - Yes, sir.
Charlie Kirk threw it to me. - He starts to throw.
Yeah, he throws 'em all out--
I told him to get on my shoulders and be like,
yo, go ask for one. - Where'd you get it?
I snagged it from whoever was behind me.
You stole it from somebody?
[chuckles]
Boy is that the MAGA shit ever?
There was a little kid who was in the front row,
and he was standing there wanting a hat,
and Charlie Kirk went down and gave him a hat.
Groom 'em when they're young? [laughter]
Right?
It's funny, when I went to college campuses,
they would give free hats to you
to sign up for a credit card, and then
you get a cool free hat.
And then 10 years later, a lifetime of debt.
Yes, sir. [chuckles]
Similar.
JORDAN KLEPPER: So who is this hat-tossing Pied Piper
wooing kids to the right?
MAGA darling, Charlie Kirk.
I love Charlie Kirk.
I listen to him just about every single day.
Everybody knows who Charlie Kirk is.
If they don't know the name, they know the face.
JORDAN KLEPPER: And he's reaching millions
with these pearls of wisdom.
White college indoctrinated women will
ruin America if we let them.
Most college degrees are meaningless,
and most of you guys are being totally scammed by being here.
I'm sorry, if I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like,
boy, I hope he's qualified.
What makes Charlie Kirk so effective on a campus
like this?
I just think it's all the--
the research he's done, all the statistics
that he has to back it up.
I think he just really knows his stuff.
- The guy is consistent? - He's consistent.
He's like, TikTok. I love TikTok.
Three months ago, I hate TikTok.
[chuckling]
So his consistency can flip here and there.
JORDAN KLEPPER: But even if Charlie Kirk doesn't seem
to believe the things he says, for some students,
he was the only one speaking to their concerns.
A couple of years ago, I started finding more people
because I got so tired of this not
being able to speak my mind.
So I needed to find people that actually
knew how to say things to--
I'm forgetting the words.
I'm sorry.
You needed somebody to be more articulate for you?
Yes, because you see me like, right now,
I can't put words together.
So--
You're looking for somebody to put words in your mouth?
Yes.
Gotcha.
Well, not-- not like that exactly.
Well, that's what I was doing right there.
Yes.
What I'm talking about is what Charlie
Kirk kind of does inside. - Yes, yes.
Yes.
He puts the words in your mouth?
Yeah, making enough sense for me, so I memorize what he says,
then I can freely say it too.
Exactly.
So basically, his words become your own?
Yes.
- His thoughts become your own? - It's awesome.
JORDAN KLEPPER: And some of those beautifully
crafted words play great as clickbait online.
What is a woman?
It's not a trick question.
What is a woman?
He always asks liberals like, what is a woman?
Yeah, we literally saw it like 5 or 10 minutes.
You got to see a live what is a woman.
Finally, he was like, all right, give me your definition,
what is a woman?
How do you define what a woman is?
I think it's just genetics.
I go with, like, a woman is somebody who sues Donald
Trump for sexual assault.
[laughter]
JORDAN KLEPPER: 31-year-old Kirk and the billionaires who
fund him are successfully influencing young minds
and making those young minds skeptical of anyone else trying
to influence young minds.
Beto O'Rourke has been to campus probably
like five times, and I don't know
why he's still coming here.
- It feels like groomers. - Yes.
You have somebody like Beto O'Rourke.
You have like an adult man come to a campus
trying to groom somebody around his own political ideology.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
- It shouldn't happen at all. - No, it shouldn't.
That's why it's refreshing to have somebody like Charlie Kirk
come to campus and bring his like,
30-year-old mentality here to shape the minds of tomorrow.
Yes, sir.
JORDAN KLEPPER: It seems like these Aggies were pledging
the fraternity of MAGA.
And since no one invited me to any keggers,
it was time to ditch these nerds
and hang with the jocks outside an Ultimate Fighting event.
Did you guys hear who's coming? - Donald Trump!
- Trump's coming. - Yeah!
[exclaiming]
JORDAN KLEPPER: After the break.
So Trump did unexpectedly well with the young voters,
but he killed it with the bros who shifted roughly
15 points to the right.
There's only one place in the world to find out why--
[upbeat music]
--a UFC event in Miami where the sun is shining,
fists are flying, and the energy is jacked.
How are you feeling?
Oh, I'm fucking lit, baby.
Did you guys hear who's coming?
- Donald Trump! - Trump's coming.
Yeah! [exclaiming]
JORDAN KLEPPER: That's right.
And because it's America, tonight's main event
is the commander in chief bringing
his cabinet bros ringside.
Yeah, Donald Trump in the building.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hide the women and kids.
Yeah, I know, right.
Goal is to get close enough to see him, to say,
yo, Donald, look at my shirt.
Yo!
Yeah.
What do you hope his reaction is to that?
Well, if he sees me, I hope maybe he comes up to me
and taps me out. - Yeah.
Get in there.
You want to be in charge of the Department of Education?
Not me, man.
It feels like a president coming to a fight,
giving off some real Caesar vibes.
Do you imagine he's going to come in there
and give one of these to the fighters?
No? - No.
Tariffs?
No tariffs.
CROWD: We want Trump!
We want Trump!
JORDAN KLEPPER: The UFC has 40 yearly live events,
640 million fans, broadcasting into 900 million homes.
So what is it about this blood sport that connects
the fans and the fighters with the most
powerful man on the planet in such a spiritual way?
You don't watch MMA at first, you get baptized.
I saw it once and I felt like I got circumcised.
Totally honest.
I felt like a smaller man in that room.
JORDAN KLEPPER: This is combat sports journalist, Luke Thomas,
an expert in the world of MMA.
What is it?
What makes these fighters right wing?
Training martial arts to defend yourself
is like 10% of it.
It is really about defining yourself.
It's about learning who you are.
These are massively transformative for people.
And you begin to learn lessons about self-reliance,
discipline, order.
You're getting people sometimes 16 years of age, early 20s.
These are sometimes people that don't have hardcore ideas
about how the world works.
I think that they're building out political ideologies
from these personal lessons.
They're training, and they're discovering who they are.
And it's like, oh, I'm the kind of person
who really wants ICE to deport a third grader to Ecuador?
What they would say is, I don't
want to hear any excuses for why
things go wrong in your life.
I think we've had a lot of beta males representing
our country for a while.
The Republican Party led by Trump has really, like, said,
enough's enough.
They don't want no whiny baby.
PC liberals that are like, put
on their makeup and dance to the YMCA and bitch
about not winning Emmy's. - Yeah, yeah.
Oh, no, that's Trump.
Trump does that.
But--
I wasn't paying attention.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Trump's relationship
with the UFC world started with the UFC
CEO and President, Dana White.
Dana White has said he's had a relationship with Donald
Trump that goes back to their early days
when he and his partners took over the UFC.
JORDAN KLEPPER: A controversial figure known for,
among other things, attacking his wife,
underpaying his fighters and creating
a monopoly in the sport.
A monopoly, which is the best.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Which might have helped
motivate White to campaign on behalf of Daddy Trump at MMA
live events, MMA podcast and the Republican
National Convention.
You can see what the UFC gets out of it.
There's going to be no antitrust enforcement.
And the other side, look what Trump gets.
He gets this political constituency fed to him.
He gets to have his image laundered.
DANA WHITE: Trump is the most resilient human being that I
have ever met in my life.
You see what he's doing with the tariffs.
- Oh. - Yeah, yeah.
He plays hardball.
I think he's just a badass.
And all the UFC people are just badass.
Take any of the greatest fighters of all time,
Trump is number one.
But like he's fighting for the American people.
- Donald Trump is a fighter. - Yeah.
And he refused to tap out of the 2020 election.
That's a fighter.
OK, well.
If you are one of these young kids who
has some heart and some grit and some determination
and you want to win, there's never been more opportunity
than there is right now.
JORDAN KLEPPER: I was seeing a pattern.
Young men are seeking a model of manhood,
but the only ones successfully offering it to them
seem to range from wife slappers
to outright Hitler stands, like one
of this night's big fighters.
- Bryce Mitchell. - Bryce Mitchell.
What's his deal?
That's one of the rowdy characters.
Yeah?
He's rowdy like occasionally he swears?
A little bit more rowdy than that.
He talks about the man with the mustache.
He talks about Hitler?
Correct.
Like, boo Hitler?
He said he wanted to go fishing with him.
Oh.
I honestly think that Hitler was a good guy
based upon my own research.
I really do think before Hitler got on meth,
he was a guy I'd go fishing with.
He fought for his country.
He wanted to purify it by kicking the greedy Jews out
that were destroying his country
and turning them all into gays.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Wow, he just hit the bigotry trifecta.
I'm sure it turned off all his fans.
We went to the press conference yesterday.
It was like crazy because we thought
people were going to boo him.
They cheered louder for him than they did for John Silva.
For the Nazi guy?
Yeah, for the Nazi guy.
Hitler's bad. OK, everybody?
That's great.
You know, but I want Bryce Mitchell to win.
I want him to knock his ass out.
- Hitler is bad-- - Yes.
--but not a deal breaker.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Now, I'm not saying a MAGA-fied UFC will
lead every young man into Nazi trout fishing,
but I am saying with an unhealthy devotion to Trump
and a glorification of violence,
they could end up like this man, Scott Fairlamb.
What is it about MMA that the MAGA faithful love?
I mean, let's-- let's be real.
I think it's the violence.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Now, based on appearance,
Scott Fairlamb may look like a combination of a former Pro MMA
fighter and a January 6 attendee,
but in reality, that's exactly who he is.
Did the cross in solitary on Christmas. with a staple.
You tattooed yourself with a staple?
And coffee and Vaseline, burnt Vaseline.
I gotta tell you, you got to get on Etsy.
JORDAN KLEPPER: But back to the youth and violence.
I've seen a big uprise in the younger age demographic.
I just think it's a time where we're seeing so much violence,
maybe that parents are getting their kids
involved at an earlier age.
So they can defend themselves should something come awry.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Though, the line between self-defense
and what MAGA world has described as a normal tourist
visit is blurred.
So where were you on J6?
Well, I made it to right here.
That was the rotunda, but when I saw the hundred plus
photographers, I turned around and walked
my ass right back out. - Pull back here.
I was like-- - You were in my armpit.
I was right there. I was right there.
Started here.
And then I ran down your armpit,
and I got on the accelerator around your cock.
[laughs]
JORDAN KLEPPER: And while I was grabbing the first train
out of town, Scott was using his MMA
skills in the real world.
He pled guilty to punching a DC Metro Police
officer in the face, although he
says there's more to the story than meets
the eye, the eye of thousands of cameras and investigations.
Obviously, there were paid Instigators,
agitators and motivators that were in that crowd.
They were manipulating people?
Absolutely.
How did they manipulate you to punch a cop?
Now you're just trying to be funny.
That makes no fucking sense.
Do you not see your actions as violent that day?
I see it as self-defense.
JORDAN KLEPPER: A refrain I've heard from many J-Sixers.
Few of them see themselves as perpetrators of violence.
They're victims, literal choirboys,
especially when they were locked
up together late at night.
ALL: [SINGING] In air
I was one of the guys that started the National anthem
every night at 9 o'clock.
That J6 Choir.
Mm-hmm.
That's us singing through the phone.
- That's you? - Yes.
What were you, soprano?
JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, the J6 Choir is a real thing,
and they sound exactly how you think they'd sound.
[SINGING]: Still there!
I don't want to be critical of the J6 Choir,
but the harmonies were mid.
Let's hear yours. Go.
Let's hear your rendition.
Let's go.
[SINGING] Oh, say can you see.
It's not bad.
That's not bad.
[SINGING]: By the dawn's early light.
What so proudly we hail at the twilight--
["THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER" PLAYING]
JORDAN KLEPPER: OK, we don't have
to listen to any more of that.
Maybe it's time to dip into the lighter side of nationalism.
Spring Break Gulf of America.
Let's go.
JORDAN KLEPPER: After the break.
It was becoming clear that the MAGA youth were
different from conservatives of the past, fewer policies
about taxes, more policies about owning Libs and bringing
guns out when the sun's out.
And that was never more evident than on the shores of Trump's
first big accomplishment.
Spring Break Gulf of America.
Let's go.
The name Gulf of America, it just
means fucking freedom and peace and liberty and happiness.
Fucking freedom, peace and liberty and happiness.
That's what it means to me, man.
The drinks taste a little bit colder.
Sun's a little brighter.
Yeah.
Really awesome that he named it the Gulf of America.
This is the Gulf of America.
- This is the Gulf of America. - To everybody.
To everybody.
Except for the rest of the world.
Yeah, they got their own oceans.
It feels amazing.
It feels like the greatest country.
It feels like the greatest ocean.
The Gulf of America, it's amazing.
Look at this. Look at this.
It feels so good.
It makes you almost forget the stock market
was down 800 points yesterday.
JORDAN KLEPPER: But perhaps I was missing the name
changes, soft power benefits.
You know, you say like, maybe like, hey, do
you want to go on a late night walk
right on the Gulf of America?
Are hook-ups easier this year during spring break?
I feel like it's definitely easier to connect
on a patriotic side of things.
A patriotic side of things.
And under a Trump administration,
now there's some sexy ambiguity.
Whether it's chlamydia or measles, who knows?
[laughter]
I mean, you said it, not me, but yeah.
JORDAN KLEPPER: While the beach bros celebrated,
like so many of Trump's actions,
this one fell short with some of the fairer sex.
I do not believe that this is the Gulf of America.
I believe that it's the Gulf of Mexico.
There are way more important issues that we should
be focusing on right now.
I can't do neuroscience research.
My research funding is gone, and that's really sad.
OK, that is sad.
But can I remind you that that's now
called the Gulf of America.
Yeah.
That doesn't fix anything. - It's so wrong.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Of course, in Florida,
there are those already proudly sporting the uniform.
So I spoke with a few members of the Tampa
Bay Young Republicans.
The name change to Gulf of America, is that important?
Oh, definitely, yeah.
I think everyone has a generational shift.
You know, you had the baby boomers,
they went through the World War II, they had their thing.
You know, I think our generation,
the big thing is having our stamp on the world is OK.
So the greatest generation took Normandy,
and this generation took the Gulf of America?
Yes, sir.
JORDAN KLEPPER: But before I start imagining
these young MAGA soldiers storming
the shores of clear water with canteens full of sex
on the beach, I needed to know what
are their actual core values.
We want a small government oversight.
We want strong economy.
Strong families, and a love for the nation.
We're kind of just pushing towards a world where those--
those different things, such as men
being women in different sports,
we see girls are getting injured
all the time in high school sports and all that.
So when it comes to women's sports,
you're approaching this from like, we need to respect women?
- Yeah. - Right.
Yeah.
I mean, in a lot of senses, it seems like women
are being kind of deleted.
So you guys recently invited Andrew Tate to come
and speak to your group.
We said we'd be open for him.
JORDAN KLEPPER: The Tampa Bay Young Republicans
made national news when they formally
invited Andrew Tate to speak to their group, this Andrew Tate.
The former kickboxer turned influencer accused
of assaulting and choking his girlfriend in California
and on trial in Romania for alleged sex trafficking.
If a woman is going out with a man,
she belongs to that man, that's his woman.
So she wants to do OnlyFans, she owes him
some money because she's his.
What discussion did you want with Andrew Tate?
So it's not really a discussion we want with him.
We just want to get different opinions out there--
Clicks.
--and then reach out to our--
get, obviously, clicks.
100%.
I mean, the more people that are looking at us, at Tampa Bay
Young Republicans and also seeing
the kind of conversations that we do
have, the better it is for our organization.
But they're looking at you because you invited
an alleged human trafficker.
Were Jake and Logan Paul, too, likable for an invite?
- They're not likable. - No?
So, like, what was it?
What was the conversation you wanted
to have with Andrew Tate?
I don't want to sit here and give
someone that has inappropriate values a platform.
Not your goal.
You're just like, let's give Andrew Tate a platform.
Tell me about, like, choking a bitch, should I get from behind
or should I approach from the front?
It's not like we're here supporting
any of that gross rhetoric.
That's not something--
No, but-- but do you understand you are?
Most of the members said that they
did not want Andrew Tate on. JORDAN KLEPPER: Sure.
So then he never came on.
So it's kind of-- it seems kind of weird
that you're on here just kind of pressing us about Andrew
Tate when the majority of Tampa Bay Young Republicans
said, hey, we don't want him here,
and then he never came on.
That would have been for attention to spark discourse,
but it didn't happen.
Here's the deal, you're in the discourse now.
You utilized his name and fame to grab
attention towards the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.
And now here we are in it, and it
feels as if you want to distance
yourself from it, which to me feels
a lot like the MAGA movement.
That was an Instagram post that said, do you
guys want Andrew Tate here?
- That's not what it said. - It's not?
No, no, that's not what it said.
It said it said we formally invite
him to speak to our group.
We want to see what's going on,
like, hey, why are you coming here?
Are you expecting to do the same thing here?
Is it, hey, we know we can get away with stuff?
What's the reason he thinks he can come here?
Because there's people here who
want clicks so badly that they'll be like,
come and talk to us.
I mean, everyone-- everyone likes clicks, everyone likes--
everyone likes their 30 seconds of fame, you know.
Any regrets about inviting Andrew Tate?
You know, you know the saying any publicity
is good publicity? - Yeah.
It's not.
That's not true.
Have you planned your Roman Polanski
film festival yet or just--
Not-- not at this point.
It'd be interesting to see who our next controversial speaker
will be.
The opportunities are going to continue
to present themselves.
But if R. Kelly gets out of jail, a little bit of advice,
don't have him on.
Got it.
[intriguing music]
JORDAN KLEPPER: These guys are struggling
because they got pulled into the MAGA
game of racing for clicks.
But unlike the President of the United States,
they still have a nagging sense of morality.
So you guys still are anti-human trafficking?
- 100%. - 100%.
JORDAN KLEPPER: In fact, most of the people we talked to
were kids with good intentions looking for a path,
but were given a playbook by popular, wealthy right
wing influencers.
So how does the left compete in this space?
Is there a Joe Rogan on the left?
Oh, God.
JORDAN KLEPPER: After the break.
JORDAN KLEPPER: The spaces for young people,
both physically and online, are dominated
by right wing personalities.
The Tates, the Kirks, the Whites are all present in a way
that the left just isn't.
It's gotten to the point where
the left has absolutely no relationship to this audience.
Period.
What if they try, I don't know, sponsorships?
UFC 315 sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
I think that's a mistake.
There's just-- the young men are
being radicalized through this process,
and it's like, that can't--
that can't be the answer.
Don't just look around and be like, well, this
is a terrible problem and it seems intractable,
I guess I'll just walk away and like, you know,
I'll see what happens later.
Dude, bad shit will happen if you do that.
Democrats, get in the fucking ring.
Get in the fucking ring, you bitches.
JORDAN KLEPPER: One person who is in the ring is Hasan Piker.
Piker has 2.8 million followers on the streaming
platform Twitch.
He manages to work out like a bro
and have intellectual sit-downs with Bernie and AOC.
All this has liberal media asking if he is
the connection to the youth.
I'll follow you on Instagram and see you talking
about what's happening in the news,
but also see you working out.
Like, you also are communicating
to people through working out.
Yeah, through grunts.
How do you see the left communicating with,
like, young men in this-- this time of the manosphere?
The left could, I don't know, talk to dudes
without vilifying them.
There's a lot of anger, resentment,
not having any hope for a future,
never being able to retire, never being able to own a home.
All of those things are-- are very much of the core identity
for-- for the next generation.
JORDAN KLEPPER: The left needs to face the fact
that for the youth of America, what is appealing
is not a moral superiority, but it's
fun shit like swords, anime, and taking
down the billionaire class.
I represent the feelings and opinions
of a lot of people that are just like, you can have fun,
it's OK to have fun.
How do you balance being a mature adult
and also embrace anime boobs?
I mean, anime boobs are awesome.
[chuckles]
Is that sort of the line that the left needs to walk?
Yeah, I--
I think people should get health care
and also I like watching anime.
Sometimes it has boobs in it, and that's cool.
This is very confusing.
How is Cory Booker supposed to navigate this?
The Democrats are never going to reach out
to a younger generation if they have
to understand these nuances.
Yeah.
Well, you're not wrong.
["THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER" PLAYING]
JORDAN KLEPPER: In the end, young people
just want what everybody wants, leaders who connect with them.
That's the good news.
The bad news is there's a lot of these guys
lurking out there.
So while the left searches for ways to reach
out to the voters, they lost.
I'll do my best to bring peace and harmony
[SINGING]: O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
We've got to take this on tour.
I was gonna say, do you know any Woody Guthrie?
[chuckles]
No