One of Donald Trump, Jr.’s side hustles shows that making long-term change in the country doesn’t always involve direct political action; influencing the culture gradually through the channels of popular media is an important component for steering public sentiment.
After all, this is how the Left came to power — through decades of social engineering via (often subtle) propaganda in the mainstream media and entertainment industry. But Trump, Jr.’s project is an attempt reverse that course.
The 45th president’s eldest son has directed his passion for hunting and outdoorsmanship into a publication known as Field Ethos, a quarterly print magazine and website that publishes content such as scenic photography, reviews of firearms and survival/camping gear, and personal stories of adventure.
Trump, Jr.’s business partner and co-founder of Field Ethos is Jason Vincent, who comes from a law-enforcement background and currently serves as the publication’s CEO. Speaking to Politico, Vincent explained that, with Field Ethos, he and Trump, Jr. hope to reach a younger demographic than is typically targeted by similar media. He contrasted the magazine with his former job, Sporting Classics, by calling the older outlet a “classic outdoorsman’s magazine” that “had an older demographic, and I didn’t feel like anybody was really speaking to my demographic.”
Specifically, Vincent says the new publication is tailored to men between the ages of 25 and 55. While he says that more than a fourth of their readership is female, Vincent asserts they have acquired those fans naturally without deliberately adjusting their content to coincide with female interests.
“That may really just come from the fact that there’s still kind of a draw to that unapologetic male mindset,” Vincent explained. “That may be why we’ve built the female following that we have.… It doesn’t feel like it’s being watered down to try to get traction with them.”
For the younger Trump, the project was born out of a longtime love of the outdoors, which began when his maternal grandfather, Milos Zelnicek, would take him on camping trips to Czechoslovakia as a boy. Then, when he was at boarding school in Pennsylvania, classmates taught Trump, Jr. to shoot a shotgun and hunt pheasants.
“I literally just fell in love with it; I read every book there was on the subject,” the younger Trump said in conversation with politico. “All of those things, I think, are getting lost in today’s instant gratification society. You know, kids sit there on a video game. Everything’s … instant gratification.”
Field Ethos also differentiates itself from the competition by appealing to higher-income brackets than most magazines. As Politico notes:
In an era of endless content that can all seem to blend together, a media brand can differentiate itself by intentionally limiting its scope to aficionados and those wishing to be like them. In this case, those aficionados, judging by the trips and products highlighted, are affluent globetrotters — a younger, richer segment of the outdoor market, one that can afford pricey international big-game hunts and fishing expeditions.
“It’s not for everybody, I fully admit that,” [Chief Operating Officer Mike] Schoby said.… “But there’s plenty of other magazines that fill those niches and go, ‘Hey, you want to buy a deer rifle for under $500 … here’s a great choice for that,’” Schoby continued. In contrast, Field Ethos’ print quarterly recently highlighted a Springfield Model 2020 Redline Rifle costing $2,299 as a “practical” choice that “performs like custom guns costing 3x as much.”
While Field Ethos’ leadership purports to keep politics out of the magazine’s pages, the content speaks for itself in displaying a clear right-wing bent. For example, some articles that have made it into print have included “We Beat the ATF” and “Socialism Sinks Ships.” The magazine even featured an ad for a Thompson gun that had the words “President Trump” engraved on one side and “Save America 45th” on the other.
Seen in the context of Trump 45’s political program, Field Ethos serves an important role: Building bridges with the hunting community and ultimately getting them to vote for pro-Trump Republicans. While hunters would seemingly be a major Republican demographic, many of them simply don’t vote.
As Politico details:
Keith Mark, the founder of Hunter Nation, a nonprofit that also has a 501(c)(4) political arm and that Trump Jr. has done work with in the past, told me in an interview that “by and large, hunters, depending on the state you look at, vote [at] less than 50 percent, sometimes less than 40 percent. And a third of them aren’t even registered to vote.” Polls of American hunters and anglers have also shown that they are mostly, but not overwhelmingly, Republican — a 2022 poll reported this number at 39 percent, compared with 27 percent identifying as Democrats — and that they feel strongly about both gun rights and conservation.
Ultimately, Trump, Jr.’s foray into publishing is an example of how the Right should emulate the Left as far as utilizing subtle influence, via carefully curated media channels, to win the culture war.
