Van Jones says Trump’s digital, online influencer campaign has outwitted the ‘political class’

Former Obama adviser Van Jones warned the political class that the strategies they believed would win over the American people are badly outdated.

At the New York Times DealBook Summit, political figures offered insight into why the Harris campaign failed and how the Trump campaign rode the wave of America’s changing media.

Jones argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory is another example of the American people’s dissatisfaction with governance by both political parties.

“I want to talk real,” he said, turning to the Republicans on the panel. “You people shouldn’t be as happy as you are, because in 2016, people voted for change because they were fed up with it and they gave Trump a chance. People voted for change in 2020 because they were fed up with Trump. “They voted for change in 2024, they’ll probably vote for change many times over because, there’s something wrong with this, man.”

He added, “There is something really wrong going on for everyday working people in this country, and I’m not sure either side has the answers yet. We know how to defeat each other when the other is in power, but can we solve any of these problems?”

The CNN commentator argued that his hard-earned expertise comes from real-world experience, which he says the political class is severely disconnected from.

“My perspective doesn’t come from focus groups, it doesn’t come from sitting on CNN next to my beloved Anderson Cooper. I was on the ground supporting people in Philadelphia and getting people to vote, I was trying to help turn out Jewish voters in the Philly suburbs, and I’m telling you, we Still a long way to go, the entire political class is on the way,” he warned.

Jones recalled that many people initially laughed at the Trump campaign’s unconventional strategy of focusing on Internet influencers, but they are no longer laughing.

“First of all, digital is knocking the new door. You have to understand this,” he said. “We were laughing at Donald Trump for suspending his door-knocking campaign and letting Charlie Kirk and Elon do a lot of stuff online. We said, ‘These people are idiots!’ These people are fools!”

“Then you start knocking on these doors… Do you know what people bring to the door? His phone in his hand. They’re in 24-hour digital surround sound that has nothing to do with CNN, nothing to do with anything we do,” he said.

Jones recalled that his own expectations were dashed when he asked his teenage son who the most influential people in the world today were.

They had expected to hear from former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Jay-Z, but discovered that online video-game streamers like Kai Sennett, Adin Ross, Jinxzy, and Sketch had eclipsed them on the platforms they were hosting. He had never heard of it. Like Twitch, Kick and Rumble.

The news commentator then argued that the changing rules of American politics are something that Trump and his campaign learned long before the rest of the political class.

“What I’m telling you guys is that the mainstream has become marginalized and the marginalized have become mainstream,” Jones said. “There are platforms, there are people out there who are getting 14 million streams, and we’re getting 1 or 2 million on cable news, and so there’s a whole world out there.

“Kellyanne Conway, I hate to agree with her, but I do at times – Donald Trump understood it and we didn’t. “And it’s not just Democrats who do this, the entire political class is far, far, far right.”