Trump runs the Joe Rogan gauntlet

Can a single podcast episode change the outcome of a presidential election, and consequently, of history? If former president Donald Trump has his way, the answer may be yes.

Trump joined Joe Rogan in Texas for just under three hours for a wide-ranging episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the crown jewel of the podcasting universe; each episode nets millions of views, and its stats in coveted younger demographics are off the charts. If Trump was successful with the interview, he could motivate several thousand possible voters off their couches — and succeed he did. 

Within hours, millions of people had tuned in across YouTube, Spotify and X. Even more watched viral clips, like when Trump called Vice President Kamala Harris a “very low IQ person [who] has a very low IQ. I’m for taking tests too. I think anybody who runs for president should take a test.”

Right off the bat, Rogan made it clear that this would be no ordinary interview, telling Trump that he doesn’t want to talk about the stuff everyone knows about. While at times, listeners could be forgiven if they forgot that Trump is just days away from facing an electorate in a contentious election in which he’s faced two assassination attempts, Rogan did press him on a series of issues, ranging from the 2020 election, which Trump suggested that he won in part because “they used Covid to cheat,” to the JFK assassination documents, which Trump said he would release.

The 45th president has been on a podcast blitz, joining Rogan’s friends Theo Von and Andrew Schulz on their shows, but it wasn’t a surefire bet that he would sit down with the UFC host, who has been a pointed critic of Trump’s in the past. In 2022, Rogan even said that he is “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once, I’ve said no every time.”

But on Friday, Rogan and Trump bonded over undergoing a series of relentless, and often inaccurate, media hatchet jobs. Rogan singled out the Russiagate story and the frequently misrepresented “very fine people” line — Trump helpfully added the recent “bloodbath hoax.” Rogan too has fallen victim to coordinated assaults from the media, which included a successful push for Spotify to remove several of Rogan’s earlier episodes. 

The two men agreed that the media’s failures, including CBS News’s recent Kamala Harris-favorable edit of her 60 Minutes interview, opens the door for newer mediums like Rogan’s show, which he told Trump he’d have started even without his wildly successful career as a professional fighting commentator. 

Fortunately for the episode’s audience, both men let bygones be bygones; Rogan kicked the episode off by riffing on the cast of characters who once loved Trump, but who turned on him once he became president: Oprah Winfrey and the cast of The View were singled out for mockery by both. Trump even suggested that he didn’t know the name of Alyssa Farah, his former staffer who has since become a fierce critic of his on TV.

However, Rogan said that “once they shot you, I was like ‘he’s got to come in here.’” Immediately after, he asked to inspect Trump’s bullet wound, as if the former president was a fighter with a bad case of cauliflower ear. 

At one point, Rogan, the famed professional fighter asked Trump “how are you so healthy, is it golf?” Trump replied that “it’s genetics.” Both men now have a mutual respect for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Rogan wanted to know if Trump would commit to having RFK Jr. in his administration in a meaningful way. The mutual admiration between the two men at the tops of their respective fields was evident throughout. “I think you know everything, as a student of yours,” Trump said.

Trump said yes, despite the reservations of “big pharma,” but with a caveat: he doesn’t want the younger Kennedy to have any say about “liquid gold” policies, because he is too anti-oil. “I love this idea of you teaming up with Robert Kennedy,” Rogan told Trump.

Despite Rogan’s wide-ranging knowledge base, even he came up short at times, especially when it came to the more granular areas of politics. While he was clearly well-versed on Trump’s record as president, he had never heard of Governor Glenn Youngkin, for example, upon whom Trump lavished praise.

There are under two weeks until the 2024 election is in the history books, and Trump is surely hoping that he can convert Rogan’s massive audience into Trump voters. But who is Rogan going to pull the lever for? 

“You’re not a Kamala person,” Trump told Rogan. “I know you. I’ve watched you. I know you better than your wife. I’ve watched you for so many years. You’re not a Kamala person.” 

Rogan didn’t quite answer, and while he bashed Harris for her embrace of the Defund the Police movement, at one point he noted that Harris was “supposed to do [my show]… and I hope she does, I will talk to her like a human being.”

“She would be lying on the floor comatose” if she did Rogan’s show, Trump said. Once he finished the episode, he jetted off to Michigan for a belated speech to an audience of his supporters.