Former President Donald Trump made an unexpected campaign stop Thursday, appearing on controversial YouTuber and professional wrestler Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast.
During the episode, which contained a roughly 45-minute interview, Trump urged young voters like Paul’s followers to vote for him over President Joe Biden, who he said had a “less than 1% chance” of joining Paul’s podcast. Paul has extended an invitation to Biden to come on the show, too.
The “Impaulsive” interview tracks with Trump’s continued push into social media as the November election nears. As some young voters have begun to question their allegiances to Biden, Trump has started to appear on popular podcasts and other new media venues. In the past several years, Trump has made appearances with conservative podcaster Tim Pool and YouTubers the Nelk Boys. He joined TikTok at the beginning of the month and his second post was with Paul, filmed shortly after their podcast wrapped.
Paul has been one of the most successful and profitable YouTubers since 2013. He has more than 23 million subscribers and his podcast episodes frequently surpass 1 million views. Recent “Impaulsive” guests include comedian Kevin Hart, football player Patrick Mahomes and former wrestler John Cena.
Paul asked Trump a number of questions about pop culture, including whether he has knowledge of aliens’ existence (Trump said it’s “very possible”) and if he thinks his younger brother Jake Paul will beat Mike Tyson in an upcoming fight (Trump said Tyson’s age could affect his chances).
Trump also commented on the emergence of artificial intelligence and deepfakes that have been used to create fake videos of him advertising scams, calling the technology “really powerful stuff.” Trump said he has met with tech leaders, including Elon Musk, to discuss the possibilities of AI. He said that the U.S. needed to take the lead on the technology, expending as much energy as required to compete with China. Trump also said that AI could replace speechwriters, including his own.
Musk reshared the podcast interview on X, where Paul posted it in addition to YouTube.
Trump, who was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May, also gifted Paul a T-shirt with his mugshot on it. Paul commented that Trump’s support had risen following the conviction, and Trump said he was able to raise millions of dollars afterward.
After pivoting to professional wrestling in 2018, Paul was signed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2022. He and his brother are two of the top-ranked fighters in the U.S. Paul co-founded the popular drink company Prime with fellow YouTuber KSI the same year.
During a trip to Japan in 2017, Paul infamously filmed the body of a man who died by suicide and uploaded it to YouTube. It was one of the largest controversies in the platform’s history at that point. Paul was one of the highest-paid YouTubers that year, as well as in 2018 and 2021, according to Forbes.
