President Donald Trump‘s 2024 campaign playbook—using longform podcast interviews to sidestep the mainstream media—is now a cornerstone of his administration’s communication strategy.
In this second act of the Trump administration, traditional media rules have been shelved. Longform podcast appearances have supplanted legacy television interviews as one of the main tools for the administration to get out its message, with cabinet-level officials logging hours behind microphones with friendly hosts, laying out policies and strategy with minimal confrontation.
Cabinet-level officials like Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Brooke Rollins and Marco Rubio have each recently stepped into the podcast spotlight, unpacking the Trump agenda in conversations often stretching beyond the one-hour mark—a rarity given the typically tight schedules of political figures.
Here are some of the biggest moments over the last week:
Steve Witkoff on ‘The Tucker Carlson Show’
Trump’s special envoy and chief negotiator sat down with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson to outline the administration’s foreign policy approach, emphasizing a muscular, personalized form of diplomacy — while also making news for how he spoke of Vladimir Putin.
“I sit with the president, and we talk often about what the end game is—where does he want to get to?” Witkoff said. “Once you decide where you want to get to, then it’s all about tactically figuring out what that pathway is.”
Witkoff, who described himself as the first U.S. official to enter Gaza in over two decades, portrayed the administration’s peace efforts as grounded in realism. “Gaza has been decimated,” the one-time real estate investor told Carlson. “There’s no place to put footings if you’re going to build buildings.”
When asked about communicating with Hamas, Witkoff replied: “You have to trust the Qataris. If I didn’t, then it would be really problematic not meeting with Hamas.” He emphasized Qatar’s role as a mediator in the conflict, adding, “They don’t ask for much. They fund everything.”
Witkoff also addressed criticism that he is overly sympathetic to foreign despots, calling it “preposterous.” Reflecting on media criticism, he added, “I began to get like President Trump—not caring what people said.”
On Russia-Ukraine diplomacy, Witkoff revealed he met directly with Putin on Trump’s behalf.
“I liked him,” Witkoff said. “I thought he was straight up with me.” He described Putin as “gracious” for accepting the meeting and noted the Russian leader had commissioned a portrait of Trump by a local artist, which he delivered personally.
“I came home and delivered that message to our president and the painting, and he was clearly touched by it,” Witkoff said. “This is the kind of connection we’ve been able to reestablish through, by the way, a simple word called communication.”
Scott Bessent on All-In
On the popular All-In Podcast, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat with the hosts to discuss the administration’s economic overhaul as a deliberate reset of government scale, energy policy, and monetary strategy.
“The first time I went in to see him, he said, ‘Scott, how are we gonna get these debt and deficits down without causing a recession?’” Bessent recalled. “That illustrates where his head was at.”
He laid out a “three-legged stool” approach: cutting government spending, loosening financial regulations and reshaping trade to favor domestic manufacturing. “We’re going to de-lever the government through spending cuts. We’re also going to ‘shedgulate’ the financial system,” he said.
He criticized the previous administration’s stimulus policies, claiming they eviscerated the middle class. “Not only did inflation go up, but the Everyman Index [an unofficial measure of inflation that comprises the things people buy most often] was up over 30 percent, 35 percent,” he said. “If you didn’t have assets, your costs went up, but your wages didn’t.”
To address affordability, Bessent emphasized cheap energy, deregulation and incentives for onshoring manufacturing. While the administration’s tariff policy remains highly controversial, he defended their strategic use. “It’s not about blanket protectionism—it’s economic realignment.”
“We’re trying to bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and reinvigorate the middle class,” he added. “We can’t compete with labor like China, so we’ve got to crush the energy price.”
Bessent also advocated creating a federal sovereign wealth fund, calling it a generational investment tool. “We want this to be a legacy,” he said. “If we have energy leases, if we own federal land—we’re going to make it productive.”
Howard Lutnick on All-In
The All-In show, hosted by Silicon Valley investors Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg, also landed an interview with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick discussed his role on the administration’s economic team, backing a sweeping overhaul of regulatory structures and emphasizing private sector efficiency over government bureaucracy.
Tasked with overseeing government efficiency efforts in collaboration with Elon Musk‘s DOGE initiative, Lutnick said the administration prioritizes speed and disruption. “If you don’t move fast, the vested interests will weigh you down,” he said.
He described Washington’s inertia as systemic. “You’ve got six-month contracts that have been renewed for 20 years,” he said. “We’re not talking about little things. We’re talking about hundreds of billions.”
Lutnick also defended the creation of a national crypto reserve, one of the administration’s most controversial financial policies. “If the dollar collapses, we need an alternative,” he said. “You want to be positioned for the future, not the past.”
Rejecting criticism that the fund would be exposed to the volatility of the crypto market, he said, “It’s not about betting on Bitcoin. It’s about signaling that the United States is ready to lead.”
On the sovereign wealth fund, he added, “They’ve got sovereign wealth funds that invest in American companies. Why don’t we have one that invests in us?”
Lutnick backed tariffs and trade restrictions as tools of leverage. “This isn’t free trade. This is fair trade,” he said. “You can’t be the only sucker at the table.”
Expanding Podcast Strategy
Trump’s podcast-centric media strategy, first deployed during the campaign, was spearheaded by senior adviser Jason Miller. In an interview with Politico, Miller said he “wanted to make sure this is going to be all Trump, all the time. We want to make sure it’s headlines, stories, and issues that we want to be talking about.”
Before the recent appearances by Witkoff, Bessent, and Lutnick, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins participated in a detailed interview on Agri-Pulse Open Mic, a niche farming podcast, in early January. During the 40-minute discussion, Rollins outlined rural policy priorities that would be unlikely to see the light of day in national media outlets.
Later, in February, amid escalating controversies—including heated debates with Colombia over deportation flights and friction with Panama regarding control of the Panama Canal—Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided a high-profile interview on The Megyn Kelly Show. Rubio’s appearance quickly became one of the month’s most replayed political podcast episodes.
Taken together, these appearances underscore the administration’s messaging strategy for an era in which a single podcast interview can reach a larger audience than all the network evening newscasts and cable news channels combined.
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