Mark Cuban blames social media algorithms for Trump's 'gangsta' appeal to young men
Harris campaign surrogate and "Shark Tank" investor Mark Cuban derided social media for popularizing former President Trump with young male voters.
On Thursday, Cuban spoke to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace about the state of the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump, shortly after giving a speech at a Harris rally in Wisconsin.
"You spend a lot of time in what Sarah Longwell calls ‘the manosphere,’" Wallace observed. "Let’s just take us through the pitch you’re making to men who are sort of disaffected from politics, don’t really see themselves as a traditional Democrat or Republican but think there’s something in Donald Trump for them."
Cuban replied by mocking how many men are drawn to Trump through the machismo of his style, rather than his platform.
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"Yeah, I mean, I have talked to people who said they like Trump because he’s a ‘gangsta.’ Not a gangster, a ‘gangsta,’" he said. "I’m like, that’s why you’re going to vote for him?"
Cuban argued that the world is different from how it was 8 years ago and even 4 years ago in terms of how "we’re truly addicted to our social media. I have had three kids, 15, 18, and 21, and it’s just that scroll, scroll, scroll."
This process, he says, is a pipeline for men to be fed "aggressive," Trump content.
"For guys, in particular, you start with football, you go to another sport, you see women, and then all of a sudden you’re seeing something that is aggressive. It could be an Andrew Tate, it could be whoever, and that leads you to getting content, memes in particular, for Donald Trump," he said. "When you see those memes repeated hundreds and hundreds of times a day, you can’t expect them to all of a sudden start reading to find out if it’s true, to find out if the information is accurate."
He underlined his point, "It’s just nonstop repetition and that influences their decision-making, and so the campaign, and we have talked about it, has got to come up and reverse-engineer these algorithms and come up with a response."
"One of the purveyors of those algorithms," Wallace noted, is X owner Elon Musk, recalling that Cuban has sparred with him online.
"I think he’s one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs ever. He’s an amazing engineer, but he’s the world’s biggest troll," Cuban said.
Cuban's Wisconsin campaign appearance on Thursday came as Musk stumped for Trump in Pennsylvania.