How Trump’s America Is Changing Pop Culture

A year into the second Trump administration, popular culture continues morphing to match the moment. From Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ad and GQ interview to fan reactions following Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” and the Trump-themed NBA YoungBoy tour, stars and their audiences are working out where the lines are now. The Popcast hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli were joined by their colleague Ross Douthat, an opinion columnist and the host of the video podcast “Interesting Times,” to discuss how culture and politics collided in 2025. 00:01:50 Intro to the NYT podcast team up 00:04:55 Trump and popculture 00:06:12 Cultural consolidation 00:09:09 Sydney Sweeney’s genes/jeans 00:14:30 Gender, conservatism, and Taylor Swift 00:24:50 Celebs and the republican label 00:27:20 Trump and rap music 00:30:20 Conservative coalitions 00:35:40 Historical context 00:37:30 Cancel culture, Red Scare and Nick Fuentes 00:44:15 Project vs performance 00:56:03 Super Bowl 00:59:10 Snack Time! Follow Jon: https://twitter.com/joncaramanica https://www.instagram.com/joncaramanica Follow Joe: https://twitter.com/joecoscarelli https://www.instagram.com/joecoscarelli/ Listen to every Popcast ever https://www.nytimes.com/popcast Every episode of Popcast (Deluxe) on YouTube https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDeluxe Popcast Discord! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDiscord Popcast Facebook! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastFacebook Popcast t-shirts & stickers http://itsthepopcast.myshopify.com Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n More from The New York Times Video: http://nytimes.com/video