For three full hours, Donald Trump chatted with the famous Joe Rogan on the latter's popular podcast titled "The Joe Rogan Experience". In a long-awaited interview, Donald Trump addressed a wide range of topics from economy to extraterrestrial life on one of the world's most popular podcasts.
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The recording lasted so long that Trump arrived several hours late at his rally in Traverse City, Mich. Frustrated that they had to wait so long, many people left.
The interview with Rogan is a continuation of Trump's pivot to nontraditional media, including podcasts, just days before the presidential election. Rogan also invited Vice President Kamala Harris to be interviewed, but her staff refused.
Much of the discussion focused on catchphrases from Trump's adventurous campaign speeches, but the podcast offered the presidential candidate a chance to reach the audience his staff desired. Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million on You Tube, many of them young, male, low-probability voters whose Trump campaign hopes to attract them to the polls.
The Republican nominee said the war in Ukraine would never have happened if he had been president, complained that moderators didn't check Vice President Kamala Harris' events enough during her one debate with Trump, blasted the mainstream media, did things like continue to frame Harris and the Democrats as more dangerous than foreign enemies, and consumed himself with conspiracy theories about stealing the 2020 election.
At one point, Rogan asked Trump to justify how the 2020 election was stolen, as Trump has long claimed.
"They were supposed to get legislative approval to do the things they did and didn't," Trump said, referring to changes that made voting easier during the height of the pandemic.
Rogan then asked Trump if, when he was president, he had been informed of the existence of extraterrestrial life. He replied that he never believed in life on other planets, but then pointed out that he had spoken to very "reasonable" pilots, who reported seeing "very strange things" in the sky. "There's no reason not to believe that there is no life on Mars and all these planets," Trump said, with Rogan quick to point out that Mars has been explored extensively and probably doesn't host life.
The debate on economic issues also caused a sensation. According to the New York Times, Trump appeared in the interview to support the idea of abolishing the federal income tax and returning to economic policies that existed before the beginning of the 20th century.
Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House and will not be able to run for a third term if he wins, said it would be his last election "if I win." He made no commitment to running again if he lost. If I win, this will be it, this will be my last election," he said. "But I think I owe it to the country. We need to have fair elections," he added.
The debate spanned a plethora of topics, from the Republican candidate's economic plan if he wins the Nov. 5 election to his claims of a "rigged ballot box" in 2020
The controversial podcaster and stand-up comedian, who was accused during the coronavirus period of spreading false information, told Trump that he decided to invite him to speak after the assassination attempt on him, since the timing was perfect.
The discussion spanned a plethora of topics, from the Republican candidate's economic plan if he wins the Nov. 5 election and his claims of a "rigged ballot box" in 2020, to the chances of life on other planets and the mistakes of his previous term in the White House.
Asked during his interview with Rogan if he thought he chose the right people to run the White House, Trump said his "biggest mistake" was assigning office to "bad or uncommitted people." In this context, he referred to John Kelly, former chief of staff in the White House during the Trump presidency, and John Bolton, Former National Security Adviser. Both have been highly critical of Trump, pointing to the dangers if he is re-elected president. In his recent interview with the New York Times, Kelly called Trump a fascist and claimed he has no understanding of the Constitution.
The debate moved to the current political situation, with Rogan arguing that "now the revolutionaries are Republicans" and calling conservatives "punk rock", in contrast to liberals, whom he accused of "promoting censorship". Trump agreed, saying his political opponents were persecuting him, which is only done in third world countries, and added that he could have sent Hillary to jail Clinton, but without presenting evidence of how he could achieve this.
When asked about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who supports Trump's candidacy after withdrawing from the race, the Republican confirmed his intention to nominate him to his administration. However, he expressed some reservations about Kennedy's environmental positions on energy, noting: "He doesn't love oil. I love it."
