Happy Monday!

This week marks one year of Yap Year, but I’ll get a little more sentimental on Thursday. Thank you all for reading me every week! I am truly appreciative. 

For today, I watched Jake Paul’s interview with Donald Trump so you don’t have to. On one hand it made me uneasy, but the dated feeling of it also made me feel almost hopeful. I don’t necessarily think the podcast/manosphere influencer route will work to grow support for the president in 2026. I’m not sure if Trump can combat the reality of public approval with these cushy media placements the same way he could before, although he certainly is trying. 

Also in this newsletter, a couple pieces on Chinamaxxing, post-Oscars bits, and more.

We now know why Jake Paul was at Donald Trump’s rally in Kentucky last week. He was there to interview the president for his YouTube channel. 

This Jake Paul video title suggests that he asked Donald Trump everything, but this interview was a whole lot of nothing. At least, it was nothing of substance for most people. For Jake and Trump, this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. 

We saw Trump lean quite heavily on the manosphere’s biggest stars — Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Andrew Schulz, to name a few — during his most recent presidential campaign. For those unfamiliar, the manosphere is the amorphous, right-leaning male media ecosystem that has elevated misogynist influencers, anti-woke rhetoric, and incel forums into mainstream culture. However, the podcast bros that helped get Trump in office are not necessarily MAGA loyalists nor are they very firm in their politics in general. As such, we have seen the very people who supported the president turn on him because of his policies on immigration, his military operations in Iran and Venezuela, and his handling of the Epstein files. 

But not Jake Paul, who has his own political ambitions for the future. He said so himself in this interview and literally asked the president for advice on how to start a political career. The conversation was as follows: 

Jake Paul: “I see myself wanting to get more into this world. I believe it’s the biggest way to create impact and change in America.”

Donald Trump: “Would you ever run for office?

Jake Paul: “I think so. That’s why I’m asking for some advice.”

Donald Trump: “I didn’t know how to do it.”

Very reassuring words from the president, as usual. Jokes aside, I didn’t understand why this interview was even happening for the first half of the video. It almost felt outdated, like this is something that would have — should have — happened only in 2024. The conversation was absolutely out of touch with reality. Unlike the manosphere podcasters — and I hate to give them any credit at all — it seems like Jake doesn’t see a problem with anything the president has done this year. He didn’t push back on Iran nor did he really question the administration’s immigration crackdown. There was a moment when Jake asked: “Are you guys targeting the bad actors specifically? Because I believe there’s so many amazing people who have come to the country who are awesome immigrants.”

Trump stated that his Department of Homeland Security was “really looking for the bad ones,” launching into his usual spiel about murderers and criminals. We know that DHS and ICE have racially profiled and indiscriminately detained immigrants, including children, tourists, and even U.S. citizens. Jake, of course, did not bring this up, refusing to challenge the president in the slightest. 

Halfway through, as if the president was reading my mind, he said: “So, what is this show all about? Tell me. And I'm doing this out of respect for you because I'm the president of the United States.”

I did not even have to think about it for one minute before Trump gave me my answer: “I'm sitting here with Jake and I'm saying, ‘You think Joe Biden would do this interview?’" 

No, I didn’t think that the president was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. But this sentence, in addition to Jake’s brief mention of his political aspirations, brought things into focus. Trump needs to look like the relatable, open president again because he has lost a lot of the support and goodwill he cultivated during the election. Jake told Trump that his willingness to talk to influencers “is why you connected with the youth in 2024.” Well buddy, it’s not 2024 anymore.

The president has seen some of his worst approval ratings ever, not just on immigration or foreign policy but also affordability. He is particularly losing with Gen Z after winning big with them in 2024. A recent Economist/YouGov poll from early February found 67% of 18 to 29 year olds disapprove of Trump. So, who better to help him tap back into the youth than Jake Paul?

Trump needed a platform to flex his muscle with no pushback and Jake gave it to him. Admittedly, I doubted Jake’s online relevance when I saw this video because he isn’t really a YouTuber anymore. I quickly realized I was mistaken after he amassed nearly 3 million views in three days. Taking a look at the comments, it appears that most of Paul’s viewers either don’t really care about politics or they’re unfazed Trump supporters like him. Although, many of them also remarked on how Jake didn’t seem in control of the interview.

I suppose this interview did exactly what Donald Trump and Jake Paul wanted it to do. Trump supporters are glazing them both in the comments, saying what a great job this interview was. The president had his version of reality reinforced while the YouTuber-turned-boxer got a blank check endorsement for whatever political office he chooses to run for in the future. Meanwhile, the viewers got a bunch of unchecked lies spewed at them. As usual, most of the reactions to this video are split between party lines, so depending on what reality you live in this might hit differently.

For fun, here are some of the other interesting, sometimes ridiculous, moments from this video (I legit laughed out loud at some of these):

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music lately, specifically artists I consider to be of this post-hyperpop boom.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.