Former President Trump sat with Joe Rogan Friday for a three-hour interview, marking the GOP nominee’s debut on some of the fashionable podcasts within the nation.
The 2 males appeared to point out a mutual admiration for each other, whereas the previous president spoke at size about immigration, his intense reliance on tariffs for financial coverage and his unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Rogan is among the hottest and controversial media personalities within the nation, with every of his episodes incomes tens of millions of downloads and sometimes options conversations with prime newsmakers. He’s significantly fashionable with younger males, who the Trump marketing campaign has particularly focused within the upcoming election.
Listed below are 5 takeaways from the interview.
Trump and Rogan hit it off
Rogan has beforehand stated he’s not a Trump supporter and in 2022 indicated he wouldn’t be thinking about having the previous president on the present. However the two appeared extraordinarily comfy with each other Friday, buying and selling compliments and discussing their shared love of Final Preventing Championship (UFC) occasions.
“You can’t be voting for Kamala. You’re not a Kamala individual. I do know you. I’ve watched you,” Trump told the podcast host. ” what, with out chatting with you I do know you, I feel I do know you, possibly virtually in addition to your spouse.”
He later added that he thought Rogan knew “everything … as a student of yours.”
“One of the beautiful things about you is that you freeball,” Rogan stated, telling the previous president that he thought his impression mocking President Biden was “funny stuff.”
The 2 went on an prolonged tangent about boxing and UFC occasions, speaking about their mutual friendship with UFC president Dana White. Rogan has labored as a play-by-play announcer at UFC occasions, whereas Trump has attended quite a few fights and was launched by White on the July GOP conference.
“I want to do it again with you,” Trump stated as he wrapped up the interview. “You are something…you are a fascinating guy.”
Trump says RFK Jr. would have administration position, but it surely gained’t be ‘environmental’
Rogan had beforehand expressed assist for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran an unbiased White Home bid earlier than suspending his marketing campaign and endorsing Trump in late August.
The podcast host requested Trump on Friday whether or not he was set on having Kennedy be a part of his administration if he wins in November.
“Oh I am. The only thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environmental,” Trump stated. “Because you know, he doesn’t like oil, I love oil and gas. So I’m just going to keep him out…I said, ‘Focus on health. You can do whatever you want.’ But I gotta be a little careful with the liquid gold.”
Trump informed Rogan he has confronted stress from some to not work with Kennedy, citing the pharmaceutical business. The 2 then had an prolonged dialogue about systemic well being points dealing with the nation, with the podcast host suggesting if there was a better give attention to “metabolic health,” there wouldn’t be such a necessity for pharmaceutical medicine.
Rogan has up to now drawn backlash for a few of his anti-vaccine rhetoric, together with when he hosted a distinguished anti-vaccine influencer on his present in 2022.
Kennedy has equally drawn criticism for a few of his anti-vaccine feedback. He has led an initiative for the Trump marketing campaign dubbed “Make America Healthy Again.”
Podcast underscores Trump enchantment to younger voters
The Trump marketing campaign has invested vital time and vitality courting younger males, with a selected give attention to the previous president’s media appearances. Trump’s sit-down with Rogan was one more extension of that technique.
“So I have a son who’s very smart, and tall, Barron. And he knows all about you,” Trump stated. “He knows about guys I never heard of…it’s a whole new world out there. But you know, I’m on TikTok now. And I’ve done really well.”
Rogan’s podcast attracts greater than 15 million followers on Spotify, and his YouTube channel boasts greater than 17 million subscribers. He’s significantly fashionable with younger males, and he spoke to the considerations of youthful voters throughout Friday’s interview.
“I think young people are rejecting a lot of this woke bullshit. Young people are tired of being yelled at and scolded,” Rogan stated.
“They’re bored with these those who they assume are mentally ailing telling them what they assume the ethical requirements of society must be at present…You wanna be a insurgent? You wanna be punk rock? You wanna, like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now,” he added.
A brand new Harvard Institute of Politics ballot of voters ages 18-29 discovered Vice President Harris main Trump by 20 share factors amongst younger voters beneath 30. Harris leads by 30 factors amongst younger girls and by 10 factors amongst younger males.
Rogan provides Trump time to air election fraud claims
Trump has for the previous 4 years refused to just accept the outcomes of the 2020 election and claimed with out proof there was widespread fraud that modified the result. Rogan on Friday gave the previous president area to clarify his claims.
“How do you think you were robbed? Everybody always cuts you off,” Rogan stated.
“What I’d rather do is –we’ll do it another time. I would bring in papers that you would not believe. That election was so crooked,” Trump stated, at one level repeating the false declare that he didn’t lose in 2020.
Pressed for examples, the previous president argued that state legislatures didn’t correctly approve modifications to poll deadlines and assortment strategies. State lawmakers moved rapidly in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic to regulate voting legal guidelines to make it simpler to vote early and by mail.
“They used COVID to cheat,” Trump stated.
He additional claimed that a letter from dozens of former intelligence brokers asserting {that a} laptop computer belonging to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, that was revealed within the closing weeks of the 2020 marketing campaign was Russian disinformation price him sufficient votes to flip the election for Biden.
Trump went on to argue that utilizing paper ballots would guard towards fraud, and the previous president and Rogan agreed that states ought to enact voter ID legal guidelines.
The GOP nominee has routinely invoked his mistrust within the 2020 outcomes at marketing campaign rallies, calling the election “rigged” or fraudulent. Democrats have warned Trump poses a menace to democracy due to his refusal to just accept the outcomes.
The previous president and his allies introduced quite a few lawsuits after the 2020 election alleging fraud, however they have been dismissed due to lack of proof or lack of standing. Trump has been indicted in Washington, D.C., on federal fees over his efforts to stay in energy after shedding the election.
Trump opines on extraterrestrial life and UFOs
Rogan has repeatedly proven an curiosity within the prospect of aliens and UFOs on his present, and he used his interview with Trump to press the previous president on what he knew from his time in workplace.
“What did they tell you? How much can you tell?” Rogan requested.
“It’s by no means been my factor. I’ve to be trustworthy,” Trump replied. “I’ve by no means been a believer.”
The previous president recounted interviewing pilots who claimed they noticed spherical objects shifting quickly via the sky.
“I get that question as much as almost any question. ‘Do you think we have aliens flying around or whatever,’” he stated. “There’s no reason not to — I mean there’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life… Well maybe it’s life that we don’t know.”
Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) burst into the highlight final yr following testimony from three former Protection Division officers who informed a Home panel’s nationwide safety subcommittee that sightings of UAPs may pose nationwide safety dangers.
