As a top Hollywood superagent, Ari Emanuel spent decades amassing a client list chock-full of silver screen icons. These days, his sprawling sports and entertainment empire has brought him closer to the podcasters, peptide-takers and proteinmaxxers who occupy a significant mindshare of some of America’s most valuable and persuadable voters: independent young men.
Emanuel’s clients and colleagues include the U.F.C. ringleader Dana White, the podcaster and U.F.C. commentator Joe Rogan, the sports talking head Pat McAfee and the sports and political pundit Stephen A. Smith. Emanuel also maintains a close relationship with Elon Musk, even attending the SpaceX founder’s court battle against OpenAI this year.
The Emanuel-sphere is vast. And, come 2028, it could prove particularly beneficial to one potential presidential candidate: Ari’s brother, Rahm.
Rahm Emanuel is not currently a candidate for office, of course, and there is no guarantee he will be. But the former White House chief of staff, member of congress, U.S. ambassador to Japan and mayor of Chicago is having a very maybe-he’s-running-for-president summer.
In June, he biked dozens of miles across New Hampshire and held town halls in the early-voting state. In July, he popped up in Tel Aviv, delivering a critical speech about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And he has given interviews and Sunday news show analysis on events in Iran.
He’s fitting in family time, too. Right after his trek around the Granite State, he headed to the Big Apple to catch a glimpse of the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. There, sitting near the San Antonio Spurs bench in the first row, were the Emanuel brothers. Only 16 months apart, the fiery siblings are known to be exceptionally close. (They are also close to their eldest brother, Ezekiel Emanuel, a prominent physician).
“We have conversations without verbs, adjectives or pronouns,” Rahm Emanuel once told an interviewer.
There is no guarantee that Ari Emanuel would tip anything in the direction of his brother if he does in fact run for president, which, of course, he has not said he is. Plus, multiple likely Democratic candidates have existing ties to podcasters and influencers, and the bro vote could stay largely in the Republican camp. But with plenty of 2028 hopefuls jockeying for cultural cachet, names in Ari Emanuel’s blue checkmark-filled network will be in high demand.
“There are people now whose job is to simply connect lawmakers to independent media creators,” said Rebecca Sananès, a podcast producer and host. “I think Ari has a whole different stratosphere of gatekeeping than somebody working for the Democrats.”
The membership of the Emanuel-sphere would hardly be mistaken for MS NOW’s prime-time lineup (though WME, Ari Emanuel’s talent agency, represents some of those hosts, too). And pressuring voices who pride themselves on their independence to rally around Rahm Emanuel would be a difficult task, even for a hard-charging Hollywood superagent.
Some personalities in Ari Emanuel’s orbit seem open to politicians of all flavors. Rogan endorsed Donald Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, but in 2019, he featured Bernie Sanders on his show and said he would likely vote for him the following year. Smith routinely bashes and praises figures on both sides of the aisle. McAfee largely avoids politics and declined to interview both Kamala Harris and Trump in 2024. He interviewed the president the following year.
Moving the needle would not require full-blown endorsements from these personalities. Because of the large field of Democrats exploring campaigns, just appearing on certain shows could transform a candidate’s fortunes. Scott Galloway, a podcaster and business school professor, pointed to Trump’s decision to appear on Rogan’s podcast less than two weeks out from the 2024 election.
“Vice President Harris would have had to have gone on MSNBC, CNN and Fox for three hours a night for two weeks to match the same exposure,” said Galloway, who is a WME client.
There is also the Emanuel-sphere’s potential fund-raising reach. Ari Emanuel, who reportedly crossed the billionaire threshold last year, is a well-heeled donor in his own right. In the recent cycle, he’s given to national Democrats, state parties and individual candidates, including Hakeem Jeffries and Sherrod Brown.
Then there are his friends.
Ari Emanuel’s relationship with the richest man on earth — Musk attended his wedding in 2022 and served on the board of his media conglomerate, Endeavor, for around a year — could prove useful to his brother. That is, if Musk is somehow willing to spend on a Democrat or tilt the X algorithm in his favor.
Musk, who had supported Democrats in the past, contributed more than $250 million toward Trump efforts in 2024.
“He probably didn’t decide the election, but he influenced it,” Galloway said of Musk’s giving during the last presidential cycle. “He could take 1 percent of his net worth, which is $10 billion, and likely decide the next election.”
Beyond the Musk friendship, another key asset in the Emanuel-sphere is the wrestling behemoth WWE, which is owned by TKO Group, of which Ari Emanuel is chief executive and executive chairman. Although WWE’s top content now resides on Netflix, the streaming company does not control its creative output. And, over the past few decades, politics and wrestling have become more closely intertwined.
On the night before the 2008 Pennsylvania primary, then-candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain all appeared on Monday Night Raw. The WWE sent wrestlers to party conventions later that year as part of a voter registration drive.
In 2024, Hulk Hogan tore his tank top at the Republican National Convention. In June, Trump hosted the U.F.C., which is also owned by TKO Group, on the White House lawn as fighters bloodied each other’s faces in the octagon. Trump and Ari Emanuel exchanged a handshake before the fights commenced.
Whatever Ari Emanuel decides to do in 2028 will have to be balanced with his relationship with Trump. He represented the president during part of his run on “The Apprentice,” and TKO Group has lobbied politicians in Washington to back a measure which would allow the company to run its own U.F.C.-like boxing circuit.
If Ari Emanuel is going to go all-in for his brother — or anyone — in the Democratic primary, he may have to smooth things out with one influential left-leaning podcast. Before the U.F.C. event in the nation’s capital, Jon Favreau, a host of the popular politics podcast Pod Save America, told his listeners that he had received an invite to the festivities from the mixed martial art league’s parent company, with Ari Emanuel personally copied on the email.
Though initially confused by the invitation, Favreau confirmed his attendance and booked a hotel room.
“Ari chose me because, what I thought, is he thinks I was the other Jon Favreau,” the podcaster said, referring to the “Iron Man” director.
In June, he heard from the organizer that they had allotted too many tickets and that he would no longer be able to attend.
“We would love to host you at a future event,” the email read.