ISABELLE MULLEN: Why Donald Trump’s interview with Joe Rogan may have sealed his US election victory

Donald Trump may be a marketing genius and a comeback king, but his US election victory says as much about the Democrats as it does about him.

Americans are sick to death of politicians, and Donald Trump was the only presidential candidate who didn’t sound like one.

He is rude, rambling and for millions of Americans: dangerously relatable.

It would be naïve to pretend to know the scope of what went wrong for the Democrats.

But one thing’s for sure: sounding like a politician when trust in American institutions is at an all-time low is nothing short of a death sentence.

Trump’s casual, conversational and at times confusing utterances cut through.

He just doesn’t sound like she does.

And not sounding like a politician is working for him.

It has allowed Donald Trump to make the Republican party a party for the working class, a mantle that was once reserved for the Democrats.

Trump has taken this from them, while representing some of the most conservative politics and privileged people in the United States.

Go figure.

In doing so, Trump has successfully painted the Democrats as a party for the “elite”.

But really, they didn’t do themselves any favours.

Rolling out celebrities like Beyonce and Oprah during Kamala Harris’ election campaign only reinforced this message.

Rolling Stone magazine, Vanity Fair, and endorsements from Democratic royalty — the Obamas — appear to have missed the mark.

They are all institutions that many people can’t relate to.

Harris’ campaign of “hope” and “joy” failed to reassure people that the sitting Vice President really understood cost-of-living concerns.

And now, the Democrats which were once the party of the common man have lost their working class base to one of America’s most privileged men.

The Democratic presidents past who built their brand on that message would be turning in their graves.

In the late 1800s it was poor farmers from the South and West that made up this base, as the Democrats opposed banks and high tariffs.

Now, the Republican party under Donald Trump epitomises anti-establishment and that’s going to be a hard brand for the Democrats to win back.

Donald Trump has achieved this by appearing like an anti-politician.

In the age of the internet, Trump can talk about his disdain for political institutions in an unfiltered and conversational way, on platforms where he is rarely challenged by journalists.

He is primarily focused on social media and that has allowed Trump to win over a new audience, disenchanted young men.

Speaking to Joe Rogan for a three-hour podcast was a good idea.

And to be fair he was — at times — totally random for a politician.

He spoke about life on Mars, his work on The Apprentice and how he told Kim Jong-un to go to the beach.

He didn’t sound like a politician, and while the Democrats were mocking him, millions of Americans were changing their vote.

Rogan has a combined audience of 32.1 million listeners on Spotify and YouTube alone.

Talking to people like Joe Rogan about random things not only distances Trump from the political speak of Washington that regular people can’t stand, but it gives them something to laugh about. Something to relate to.

Harris is a great debater, but her interviews always appear staged.

Hindsight tells us that the decision to hold Harris back from interviews for so long, may have hurt her campaign.

And when she finally sat down with a major cable network, her answers rarely ventured off script.

Harris was asked what she would tell the American people who believed her economic plan wouldn’t help them, and in response she said “if you are hardworking, if you have the dreams and the ambitions and the aspirations — of what I believe you do — then you are in my plan.”

Compare that to Trump’s “are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Whether you love him or hate him Donald Trump doesn’t sound like a politician, and when he is on message at his rallies, he looks mighty bored.

His next challenge?

To prove he’s not all talk.