Since its inception the show has been primarily hosted by Will Menaker along with a rotating cast of cohosts, which currently includes Felix Biederman, Matt Christman, and Amber A'Lee Frost, along with a variety of guest co-hosts.

The Chapo hosts and producers identify with radical left-wing politics and frequently deride conservative, neoliberal, moderate, and liberal pundits.

[6][7] Writing for The New York Times, Nikil Saval called Chapo Trap House and its hosts "prime originators of the far left's liberal-bashing.

Chapo has managed to strip away the layers standard of political discourse to highlight the brutality behind policies such as "double-tap" airstrikes and for-profit health care.

"[9] Similarly, Christman said that leftist perspectives in media tend toward either the "smug above-it-all snark of The Daily Show or the quaver-voiced earnestness of, like, Chris Hedges or something.

"[9] Menaker has said that Chapo is meant to be in "marked contrast to the utterly humorless and bloodless path that leads many people with liberal or leftist proclivities into the trap of living in constant fear of offending some group that you're not a part of, up to and including the ruling class.

[11] The show has a reading series which usually features texts by conservative and neoliberal writers, such as Ross Douthat, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, and Rod Dreher.

[7][9] Under the usernames @willmenaker (Menaker); @cushbomb (Christman); and @ByYourLogic (Biederman, also formerly @swarthyvillain and @spookymuscleman), they developed followings for their political commentary and have been called "minor Twitter celebrities.

[7] The three first recorded together as guests on an episode of the podcast Street Fight Radio to mock the film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.

[17] They had already discussed hosting a show together for some time, and, encouraged by positive reception to their Street Fight appearances, they created Chapo Trap House.

[24] In February 2020, The New York Times profiled the group's large live shows in early Democratic Party primary states, noting that they had "morphed into a touring political rally" for the election of Bernie Sanders.

[31] In July 2024, Wade announced that Christman's Spanish Civil War episode series, which had been interrupted by his stroke, would be written and released as a self-published book.

After graduating from Skidmore College, Menaker worked at Liverwright, a W.W. Norton imprint, but left in 2016 when Chapo encountered commercial success.

In an interview with CounterPunch, Christman spoke about his experience and how it had impacted the course of his life and development of his worldview: I left the hospital in a wheelchair and then I spent the next four/five months rehabbing to be able to stand and walk.

And at the end of it, I kind of hit a plateau where I now have a limp, still, because I have something called Browns-Sequard syndrome [sic], which is where the damage to your spine affects two halves differently.

[29][30][5] Felix Biederman, Chapo co-founder and co-host, was raised in the affluent, historically liberal neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, and cites his upbringing in the city as motivating his criticism of the "establishment" Democratic party.

[37][38] Avid fans of Chapo Trap House are called Grey Wolves, a joke referencing the neo-fascist, nationalist Turkish movement of the same name.

"[9] Pacific Standard wrote, "Whether you think Chapo Trap House and its fans are bullies or righteously hilarious seems to come down to whether you think calling a Washington Post reporter 'smooth brain' is an acceptable move within the political discourse.

[41] The Advocate praised the show for its "scathing, hilarious, erudite analysis on politics and media from a far-left perspective," and favorably analogized the thrill of listening to how Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh make their right-wing fans feel.

[42] Comedy website Splitsider recommended the episode featuring video editor Vic Berger, who did an in-depth interview about his surreal Vine and YouTube shorts covering the 2016 presidential election season.

[43] In a 2016 column, Robby Soave of libertarian magazine Reason criticized the show as "apparently a group therapy session for Bernie bros."[44] Soave wrote in reaction to host Will Menaker commenting on one of his tweets, saying that he believed Menaker had a hypocritical view of free-speech rights, and said the hosts "would gleefully applaud the silencing of everyone to their right.

"[44] Soave later appeared as a guest on a premium episode of the podcast, "17 – The Road to Soavedom," in which he debated the hosts on freedom of speech in the media and the viability of public education.

When the hosts mentioned the name of Massachusetts Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren during a live event, the crowd hissed.