President Donald Trump called for a round of applause Thursday at a U.S. airbase in Qatar for one of the comedians who hosted the president on his podcast during his re-election campaign.
Theo Von was in the audience at Al Udeid Air Base as Trump addressed the troops. He was one of several comedian podcasters who helped the president soften his image and reach young male voters through friendly conversations that generally avoided much policy discussion.
“I also want to influence you to clap for a man who is a great influencer,” Trump told the troops who gathered to hear him speak at Al Udeid.
“In fact, my son Barron said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to do an interview with’ somebody I hadn’t heard of, but my son knew very well—he knows everyone,” Turmp continued. “He said, ‘Dad’—this is before the election, you know, we won in a landslide in case you hadn’t known—but he said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von.’”
Trump said that at the time he asked, “Who the hell is Theo Von?” but that Barron insisted they do an interview.
“Theo, thank you very much,” Trump said as the soldiers clapped and cheered. “We had a good time, right? We had a good time. We had like 270 million people that listened, so you know what? I think Barron was right. Thank you for being here, Theo, appreciate it.”
During their interview back in August, Trump and Von had a long back-and-forth about drugs, alcohol, and addiction, with Trump asking the comedian what it was like to do cocaine.
The president also confessed that he had never had a glass of alcohol in his life on the advice of his brother Fred Trump Jr., who died at just 42 from a heart attack that the family said was related to his alcoholism.
“He was a great guy. He was a handsome, very handsome guy,” Trump told Von of his older sibling. “I admired so much about him. He had so much going. He had the look, he had unbelievable personality.”
The video has been viewed 16 million times on YouTube, which is admittedly a very big number, but not quite the 270 million that Trump cited. That would be more than the entire U.S. adult population.
The president’s longtime adviser Jason Miller told Politico a few months later that the campaign had deliberately avoided traditional media interviews in favor of sitting down with podcast personalities.
Barron suggested many of the appearances, leading then-Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump to say the 19-year-old deserved “serious credit” for his dad’s win.
Trump also appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience, Flagrant with Andrew Schulz, and The Nelk Boys channel on YouTube, among others, but the Trump universe seems to have embraced Von in particular ever since the election.
He attended Trump’s inauguration in January, and before joining the president in Qatar this week, he had dinner with Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, during his “Return of the Rat” comedy tour stop in Miami. The couple also attended the show.
During an earlier tour stop in Nashville, Von was caught on video grabbing a man by the throat at a bar, TMZ reported. Witnesses said the man had been antagonizing Von for a while, and the comedian responded with “crushing force.”
