In a hotly anticipated interview, Donald Trump touched on a wide range of cultural and political topics in a three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan, host of one of the world’s biggest podcasts, on Friday night.
The recording took so long that Trump arrived several hours late for his rally in Traverse City, Mich. that night. He was annoyed to wait so long. many people left.
The Rogan interview is a continuation of Trump’s appeal to non-traditional media outlets, including podcasts, in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Rogan also invited Vice President Kamala Harris for an interview, but her campaign declined. Rogan’s podcast has over 17 million YouTube subscribers.
Much of the interview, which was posted online on Friday at around 10 p.m., revisited comments Trump has made throughout the campaign.
He said the war in Ukraine would never have happened if he had been president, complained that the moderators didn’t do enough fact-checking in Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate with Trump, criticized the mainstream media, and continued to blame Harris and Democrats for more. more dangerous than foreign enemies and embroiled in conspiracy talk of stealing the 2020 elections.
At one point, Rogan asked Trump to provide examples of how the 2020 election was rigged, as he has long claimed lies. Trump issued a largely confused response to the election law changes, which he said did not receive the necessary legislative approval.
“They had to get legislative approval to do what they did, and they didn’t,” Trump said, referring to changes that made it easier to vote during the height of the pandemic.
Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House and will not be able to run for a third if he wins, said this would be his last election “if I win.” He was undecided on whether he would run again if he lost.
“If I win, it will be my last election,” he said. “But I think I owe it to the country. We must hold fair elections.”
Despite conceding in September that he “handsomely” lost the race to President Joe Biden, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was rigged, despite being a key part of his campaign message through the 2024 election.moustache.”
Trump’s campaign rhetoric has become increasingly hostile in the final weeks of the election. to arrest his political opponents against becoming a more regular topic at campaign rallies.
This has led his opponents to portray Trump as someone with dictatorial instincts, a point his former chief of staff John Kelly made in a press release last week. The New York Times Trump fits the definition of a fascist.
“I was actually the opposite of a dictator,” Trump defended himself on Friday. “I was a very straight man.
Trump also told Rogan that he had learned a lot about UFOs.
“There is no reason not to think that there is no life on Mars and all these planets.” Rogan quickly corrected him about life on Mars.
“Mars, we have probes and rovers there, and I don’t think there’s life there,” Rogan said.
“Maybe it’s life that we don’t know,” Trump replied.
At one point, Rogan tried to hold Trump back from praising Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general Trump was talking about. enthusiastically in the past. Without giving specifics, Trump said that the generals he spoke with thought Lee was a “genius.” At that point, Rogan asked Trump to clarify that he only meant “strategic,” to which Trump agreed.
Later in the interview, Rogan foreshadowed that Trump’s comments about Lee might backfire on him.
“Donald Trump wants the South to win,” Rogan said, mimicking what the criticism might sound like.
“The Joe Rogan Experience,” launched in 2009, is one of the most popular podcasts in the US, especially among young men.
The episodes, which usually run for hours, feature a wide variety of guests from various industries, including entertainment, sports, technology and politics.
Rogan, a former stand-up comedian and host of “Fear Factor,” has built a strong following as a hard-hitting political pundit. But his popularity has been met with increasing criticism over the years – the presenter has faced accusations of it. Spreading Covid misinformation, used a racial slur and made anti-Semitic comments on his show.
While he doesn’t shy away from political topics, Rogan hasn’t made any official endorsements this election cycle.
In August Rogan said on his podcast that he was a fan of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but later clarified In an article on X he said he did not support the then-independent candidate. Kennedy Jr. then he left the race and supported Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris was also in talks to interview Rogan, but that didn’t work out. Campaign spokesman Ian Sams told MSNBC on Thursday: “We have spoken with Rogan and his team about the podcast, unfortunately due to scheduling this time around the campaign, it will not work at this time.”
Not known for being particularly humble, Trump acknowledged the importance of being on Rogan’s podcast, at one point referring to himself as “your student.”
On the environment, Trump said environmental regulations are the “greatest tool to stop growth” and continued to attack his longtime enemy, the windmill, because of its harmful effects on wildlife. In this case, Trump said that he is worried about the effect of windmills on whales.
“I want to be a whale psychiatrist,” he said. “If something happens to the whales, it drives them crazy, but they wash up and they still don’t talk about environmentalists, do they?”
He also continued to attack Harris personally, calling him “not smart” and painting him as a greater threat to the nation than even foreign counsel.
“If he becomes president of the United States, I can’t believe this could happen,” Trump said. “I don’t think this country is going to make it.”
Trump has increasingly called Harris an “idiot” and said at a rally in Las Vegas on Thursday that his policies would “kill thousands of people.”
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, sent a letter urging Harris to tone down the rhetoric. They argued that Trump could face a third assassination attempt as a result of heated campaign chatter.
“Branding a political opponent as a ‘fascist’ risks inviting yet another conspirator to attempt to rob voters of their choice before Election Day.” wrote two.
The letter did not mention that Trump repeatedly applied the term to Harris.
As the third hour of the interview approached, Trump said he realized he had to attend a planned rally in Michigan, where Rogan was delayed because of the length of the interview.
“I’ve got to go, I’ve got to give a great speech,” Trump said. “And if I’m a little loose tonight, I’ll blame you.”