Why TikTok Dominated 2024 Campaigns | Alex Bruesewitz DSH #1132

Summary

Digital Social Hour: Why TikTok Dominated 2024 Campaigns | Episode #1132 Summary

Release Date: January 21, 2025
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Alex Bruesewitz, Advisor to President Trump and CEO of X Strategies

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Introduction of the Guest

In this episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly welcomes Alex Bruesewitz, a prominent advisor to former President Donald Trump and the CEO of X Strategies. The conversation sets the stage for an in-depth discussion on the pivotal role TikTok played in the 2024 campaign cycle and delves into broader political and social issues.

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TikTok's Dominance in the 2024 Campaigns

Alex Bruesewitz opens the discussion by advocating for TikTok as a strategic platform for political campaigns. He challenges the prevailing negative narratives surrounding TikTok, attributing them to orchestrated threats aimed at undermining its potential.

Alex (00:30): "I don't necessarily believe the narratives being spun up about the dangers of it, if you will, because I know how the city works."

He highlights TikTok's unparalleled reach and effectiveness, stating that the platform allowed campaigns to engage billions of users organically.

Alex (11:53): "We reached billions and billions of eyeballs on TikTok and for, like, no spend."

Alex contrasts TikTok's success with the lukewarm performance of Instagram Reels, suggesting that strategic investment and authentic content are key differentiators.

Alex (10:56): "Maybe dancing. But no, with all jokes aside, I'm in favor of TikTok."

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Critique of the Democratic Party and Its Candidates

The conversation shifts to a critical analysis of the Democratic Party, where Alex expresses strong dissatisfaction with the party's candidate quality and overall strategy.

Alex (01:27): "Everybody with a functioning brain said it was better under Donald Trump, and that's why he's back."

He criticizes Democratic figures like Tim Walls, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and former President Obama, arguing that they lack the inspirational leadership necessary for effective governance.

Alex (01:59): "I feel like they probably wouldn't leave if I had kids, I wouldn't leave my kids with Tim Walls."

Alex also dissects the Democratic approach to leadership, highlighting perceived deficiencies and lack of talent within the party.

Alex (02:58): "I think the Democrat Party right now. They have no talent. And we have a lot of talent."

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California's Mismanagement Under Gavin Newsom

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on California's governance under Governor Gavin Newsom. Alex criticizes the state's handling of critical issues such as homelessness, taxes, and natural disasters.

Alex (03:15): "They totally took that state and ran to the ground with insane taxes, insane woke policies."

He uses the recent fire incidents as evidence of systemic incompetence, emphasizing the state's failure to utilize its natural resources effectively.

Alex (04:10): "It blows my mind that we are in such a blessed country and we have such blessed resources and our politicians don't know how to use them."

Alex anticipates a political fallout for Newsom, predicting that these mismanagement issues will significantly damage his political aspirations.

Alex (08:05): "She does such a terrible job combating fire."

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DEI Policies: A Failed Experiment

The conversation then delves into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which Alex vehemently criticizes as unsuccessful and detrimental to effective governance.

Alex (08:23): "It was a failed experiment. This whole presidential administration was a failed DEI experiment."

He provides examples of DEI-driven appointments, such as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary, arguing that these choices were based on identity rather than merit, leading to ineffective leadership.

Alex (08:52): "He oversees the East Palestine train disaster... and we have the worst airports in the entire world, and that's on Mayor Pete's back."

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Social Media Platforms and Political Influence

Alex shifts focus to the influence of social media giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) on political discourse. He accuses these platforms of suppressing conservative voices and manipulating public perception.

Alex (10:20): "You've seen it with Charlie Cook, Charlie Kirk did really well on TikTok too."

He expresses skepticism about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent public stance against the Biden administration, hoping it's a genuine shift rather than a temporary pivot.

Alex (12:36): "I hope it's a genuine pivot. I hope it's something that stays far past Republicans in power."

Alex recounts his frustrations with Facebook's algorithm changes that hindered his ability to engage with his audience effectively.

Alex (10:21): "I was really on in building Facebook platforms and invested hundreds of thousands... and then they kill your pages."

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Personal Anecdotes and Health Incident

The podcast takes a personal turn as Alex shares an incident where he was banned from TikTok, leading to a humorous exchange about dance moves.

Host (10:45): "I just got banned on it again. I get banned Every week on TikTok."

Alex (10:56): "Maybe that's it. They want to get quality over quantity."

Later, Alex discusses a stage incident caused by dehydration, reflecting on personal health and resilience.

Alex (14:43): "I'm not vaxxed. For the people and the conspiracy theorists out there, that was just something that, you know, severely dehydrated..."

Host (15:16): "Well, Alex, it's been fun."

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Closing Remarks

In his final thoughts, Alex remains optimistic about future political landscapes, expressing confidence in the success of conservative strategies and the enduring appeal of authentic leadership.

Alex (16:24): "It's been a great four years and I think you're gonna have fun."

Host Sean Kelly concludes the episode by thanking Alex for his candid insights, leaving listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between social media platforms and modern political campaigns.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Alex (01:27): "Everybody with a functioning brain said it was better under Donald Trump, and that's why he's back."

• Alex (04:10): "It blows my mind that we are in such a blessed country and we have such blessed resources and our politicians don't know how to use them."

• Alex (08:23): "It was a failed experiment. This whole presidential administration was a failed DEI experiment."

• Alex (10:20): "You've seen it with Charlie Cook, Charlie Kirk did really well on TikTok too."

• Alex (14:43): "I'm not vaxxed. For the people and the conspiracy theorists out there, that was just something that, you know, severely dehydrated..."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Digital Social Hour offers a deep dive into the strategic use of TikTok in the 2024 campaigns, coupled with a critical examination of current political dynamics, social media influence, and policy failures. Alex Bruesewitz provides a perspective that challenges mainstream narratives, advocating for authentic engagement and effective leadership in the political arena.

Whether you agree with his viewpoints or not, Sean Kelly and Alex Bruesewitz deliver a thought-provoking conversation that underscores the complexities of modern political campaigning and the ever-evolving landscape of social media influence.

Transcript

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[Alex]

I'm in favor of TikTok. TikTok was a great platform for us this campaign cycle. I don't necessarily believe the narratives being spun up about the dangers of it, if you will, because I know how the city works. The TikTok is a threat narrative. Came out just two weeks after or two weeks before Instagram. Instagram reels.

[Evan]

All right, guys, we got Alex here, advisor to President Trump and CEO of X Strategies.

[Host]

Thanks for hopping on, man.

[Alex]

We're in D.C. thanks for having me on, man. It's great to be with you.

[Host]

Is this home for you?

[Alex]

It's not home, fortunately. Second home? Yes, you can call it that. But yeah, I live in Palm Beach, Florida now, and I've been down there for about five years. I love it, man.

[Host]

You've had a busy four years, this campaign.

[Alex]

Yeah, actually busy eight years, but I mean, the four years of. Been pretty crazy, but I feel like they kind of flew by in a way.

[Host]

Yeah, this one felt like there was a lot of momentum the whole way through.

[Alex]

100%. 100%. I think this was the first time in decades that the American people got to choose between two presidents running against each other that they both lived under. So the decision was very simple. Was life better under Donald Trump or under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? And everybody with a functioning brain said it was better under Donald Trump, and that's why he's. That's why he's back.

[Host]

I mean, you saw it with the results. The left would make these nuanced debates of random stuff, but overall, was your life better or not?

[Alex]

Yeah. And they also have terrible, like, salespeople, like the Democrats, who's selling, like, selling their vision. Have you ever looked at these people, I mean, have you ever looked at Tim Walls, for example, and thought, wow, that guy's inspiring. It's not me. I don't get the inspirational feel from Tim Walls. I feel like I probably wouldn't leave if I had kids, I wouldn't leave my kids with Tim Walls. That's like feeling. But their people are very bizarre. And I talked about this a couple days ago, that their candidate quality is probably the worst it's ever been. And I look at their bench and who's their talent? I don't think they have any talent. They thought AOC was going to be their rising star. She's totally fizzled out. She has no sway the way she used to. Obama has almost no poll, and we saw that he was out there every day campaigning against Trump, and he did absolutely nothing to help Kamala, maybe even hurt Kamala because he went and lectured black men and said, you have to vote for Kamala because she's black. So he's totally obsolete. So I look at the Democrat Party right now. They have no talent. And we have a lot of talent. I think your next guest after me, she's very talented, too.

[Host]

Exactly. And you even got Newsom struggling. His leadership is being questioned, especially with how he handled the fire situation. Right?

[Alex]

Yeah. And the idea that Newsom was ever a contender, tender to begin with is beyond me. I love California. I love Los Angeles. I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. Even after the campaign, I spent like 40 days straight in LA. I love it out there. It's the most beautiful place maybe even in our entire country. But the way that state's been run under Newsom is a travesty. They are so blessed with natural resources, natural beauty, the ocean. And they totally took that state and ran to the ground with insane taxes, insane woke policies. They spent billions of dollars building homeless shelters and housing. And homelessness in California has only gotten worse. These people are totally incompetent. And this fire has just put that on national display.

[Host]

I think it's the final straw for a lot of people. I think a lot of people are going to move out. I mean, no water in the fire hydrants. How can that be?

[Alex]

Yeah, it blows my mind. It's just sheer incompetence. You know, something that I question is, you know, there's something called the Pacific Ocean at your doorstep. And so when you have these reporters and you have these politicians saying that California is out of water, and then you look out your window and there's the most beautiful ocean you'll ever see. There's been no creativity or ingenuity in how to, you know, desalinate the water that's in the Pacific and build reserves or, like, it makes. It blows my mind that we are in such a blessed country and we have such blessed resources and our politicians don't know how to use them. So I'm hopeful that we can figure out how we can, you know, better take care of California.

[Host]

Absolutely. Moving forward, I mean, if I'm paying that 15% state tax, I want the best government stuff at my disposal.

[Alex]

And you know on your rate, you're going to make a lot more money and you're going to be paying a lot more in taxes. But you know, some people, I think 30% in some situations or even higher. So it's terrible how that state's been managed and run. And when, you know, all these people lose their homes in this fire and they pay all of these taxes and then the taxes, what do they go for? And then you see the fire. The fire chief in LA county, no.

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[Alex]

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[Alex]

But she's like the first lesbian to ever hold the position. So she gets paid $800,000 a year as like a, you know, a token.

[Host]

But is that what she makes?

[Alex]

Something along those lines? It's insane. And she does such a terrible job combating fire.

[Host]

That's nuts.

[Alex]

So I think a lot of people in California are waking up. And this is certainly the final blow to whatever political ambition Gavin Newsom has. I don't think he recovers from this.

[Host]

Yeah, and I think that might have been the final straw for DEI too. You had Elon on X saying DEI means die. I mean, lives were lost. Right.

[Alex]

And Don Jr. Has been been saying that for a long time as well. And I think it needs to go. I think it was a failed experiment. This whole presidential administration was a failed DEI experiment. You know, from having the first dementia patient as president to, you know, picking Kamala Harris simply due to her ethnicity rather than credentials.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Alex]

To Mayor Pete. The worst transportation secretary in the history of the world. He only got that job because of his sexual orientation. And, you know, look what happened under him. He was touting his successes as transportation secretary, but he oversaw the East Palestine train disaster. He oversaw the cargo ship crisis, you know, that we couldn't even get our shipments in. He oversaw the worst airports in the history of the we have the worst airports in the entire world, and that's on Mayor Pete's back, so.

[Host]

And what is that based off wait.

[Alex]

Times or wait cancellations? It's insane what Mayor Pete's done as Transportation Secretary. But again, another DEI hire.

[Host]

Yeah, I remember my flights were delayed for probably two years straight. I was like, I'm just going to show up late at this point because it's not on time anymore.

[Alex]

Well, you start making some more money off these Instagram reels, you start flying Instagram reels, man.

[Host]

I mean, with Dana White joining Meta, I'm actually a little excited about Instagram.

[Alex]

Yeah, we'll see what happens. You know, they're certainly singing a different tune now, and I've had some conversations and some meetings with their senior team. Dana's obviously, you know, Dana's one of the most solid guys out there, and he was incredibly helpful to the president in so many different ways. And I'm excited that. That his voice is now going to be heard on that board. And he does not. He is not shy about making his voice heard. So I'm grateful that he's in there. But, yeah, maybe Instagram, you know, takes it up a notch, but the platform, for a long time, I felt, has been, at least for conservatives, has been totally dead.

[Host]

Oh, yeah.

[Alex]

And I was really on in building Facebook platforms and invested hundreds of thousands, if not over well over a million dollars in building up Facebook pages. And then all of a sudden, they kill your pages. You can't reach anybody. So I post something, I get nine likes. And then I was like, screw that. I don't really want to be part of it anymore. So it was a great platform. It used to be a great platform. Maybe it can return to being a great platform. But they certainly need to shake up what they were doing.

[Host]

Absolutely, I definitely agree with that. TikTok, where are you at with that? That's. That's a controversial one. I just got banned on it again. I get banned Every week on TikTok.

[Alex]

Are your dance moves not that good, or what's the deal, dude?

[Host]

I can't dance.

[Alex]

Maybe that's it. They want to get quality over quantity. Maybe dancing. But no, with all jokes aside, I'm in favor of TikTok. TikTok was a great platform for us this campaign cycle. I don't necessarily believe the narratives being spun up about the dangers of it, if you will, because I know how this city works. The TikTok is a threat narrative came out just two weeks after or two weeks before Instagram launches. Instagram reels. And then it comes out in 2022 that Meta paid a Republican advocacy firm nearly $50 million to spread anti TikTok issues. So I'm hesitant to just buy that narrative personally, but it was also a great platform for us. We reached billions and billions of eyeballs on TikTok and for, like, no spend.

[Host]

Right.

[Alex]

So it's. It's a great platform. The youth loves it. And, you know, Biden also loved it up until he did it. So he was on TikTok if he thought it was a threat. If he thought it was a threat, why was he on the platform?

[Host]

Yeah.

[Alex]

So it doesn't make sense to me.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, you guys took advantage. Charlie Cook, Charlie Kirk did really well on TikTok too.

[Alex]

He's a great dancer.

[Host]

Yeah, he could dance. Man, his debates, those clips are so viral. I mean, he was probably getting billions of views as well.

[Alex]

Yeah. It's fun seeing that. Charlie's been a longtime friend of mine and he crushes it on TikTok because he's really good at those soundbites, you know, he's really good. Those 10 second, 30 second hits that get a ton of play. And he's perfected. He's been doing it for a long time, and he's probably the best in the game at that.

[Host]

Yeah. What did you think of Zuck throwing the Biden administration under the bus on Rogan's podcast?

[Alex]

Well, I wish you would name names, but Zuck's certainly pivoting in the right direction. I hope it's a genuine pivot. I hope it's something that stays far past Republicans in power. Stay. We really need to have trust in our great companies. Facebook was a great company. It is a great company. It's one of the giants in our country, and we need people who love our country running these companies. So Zuck obviously played a big role in Biden's victory in 20. $2500 million with Zuckerbucks. A lot of suppression of conservative content and voices, and now he's taking tampons out of boys bathrooms and singing the right song. So I hope it's genuine, but we will see.

[Host]

Yeah. Takes a big man in Trump, like. Like repairing these relationships. You saw him getting along with Obama, with Zuck now, and these people did some, you know, pretty crazy things in the past to him.

[Alex]

Yeah. And that's something that I think the media has failed to explain about. Donald Trump is like, Donald Trump loves people. Like, he is a people person. He's one of the most genuine people you'll ever meet. He's very real. You know, what you see is what you get, what he talks about. But he doesn't switch up. The people around him switch up. He released a book in this past year called Letters to Trump. It's all a bunch of celebrity letters from over the years that people like Alec Baldwin or Oprah or different people like that that wrote to him talking about how wonderful you are, sir, you're such a great blessing to my life. You helped me with all these different things and then all of a sudden he runs for president and they switch up on him.

[Host]

Right.

[Alex]

And so he's never changed, but now a lot of people are kind of coming back, but he's always stayed the same. And that's something I admire about him.

[Host]

I love that. Yeah, you got Snoop Dogg at the Crypto Ball last night. You got Mike Tyson coming back.

[Alex]

Rick Ross was there too.

[Host]

Rick Ross?

[Alex]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm a big Rick Ross fan. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that about me. They see Alex, they like, you know, I like smooth jazz or something, but I'm a Rick Ross fan. Oh, yeah, that guy's a. That guy's a boss.

[Host]

I love him, man. How's your health, dude? Because that stage incident was pretty wild.

[Alex]

Seeing that all over X. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm good. Thank you for asking. And that was kind of a crazy moment, obviously.

[Host]

Yeah, you're so young too.

[Alex]

Yeah, I'm not vaxxed. For the people and the conspiracy theorists out there, that was just something that, you know, severely dehydrated, the lights were really hot and it was a recipe for disaster. But, you know, I was overwhelmed with the outpouring support and love and messages I received after that. And yeah, I'm gonna drink a lot more water now.

[Host]

Yeah, you're working non stop too. You think it was some stress?

[Alex]

I don't know about that. I think we handled stress pretty well and I think it was just more lack of water. You know, water is important. These are things you don't know growing up. You don't know water is important. But when you fall off of stage and you look cool doing so, but when you fall off stage while giving a speech and then you find out that it's because you don't drink enough water, you start drinking water and understanding its importance.

[Host]

There's memes of Trump only drinking like Coke, like no one's ever seen him with water.

[Alex]

Yeah, see, I was trying to do the Trump diet, but it only works for him. Some of These things only work for him and I've been blessed to get to spend a ton of time with him. So I try to pick up on some of his habits. I can't pick up on.

[Host]

You're not on the McDonald's bandwagon.

[Alex]

I can't do it anymore. I have a metabolism that slows down, so if I eat a couple McDonald's burgers, I get fat right away and I want to look appealing for the ladies. So yeah, gotta slow down.

[Host]

The McDonald's makes sense, dude. Yeah, I had to give up fast food too. I feel you on that. Well, Alex, it's been fun.

[Evan]

Any.

[Host]

Anything you want to close off with here?

[Alex]

No, man, it's been great and I'm proud of all your success. It's exciting times ahead. It's been a great four years and I think you're gonna have fun. This for you.

[Host]

So forward to it.

[Evan]

Yep, yep.

[Host]

See you guys.

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