Former President Trump taped “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast for nearly three hours on Friday.
The podcast, recorded in Austin, Texas, afforded the Republican presidential nominee exposure to Rogan’s 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million followers on YouTube. Rogan, the nation’s most-listened-to podcast host, is extremely influential with young male voters, who Trump is aiming to reach.
Here are the top takeaways from the podcast that aired on Friday.
While explaining the process of choosing political nominations once he got into office, Trump discussed his initial appointment of John Bolton, who served as White House National Security adviser. In 2019, Trump fired Bolton, who remains a staunch critic. Trump described how Phil Ruffin, a fellow American businessman, warned him that Bolton was a “bad guy,” but by then, Trump had already hired him.
“And he was right. But he was good in a certain way. He’s a nut job. And every time I had to deal with a country when they saw this whack job standing behind me, they said, ‘Man, Trump’s going to go to war with us.’ He was with Bush when they went stupidly into the Middle East. They should have never done it. I used to say it as a civilian, so I always got more publicity than other people,” Trump said.
“It wasn’t like I was trying,” Trump said. “In fact, I don’t know exactly why. Maybe you can tell me.”
“I could definitely tell you,” Rogan offered. “You said a lot of wild s—. … And then CNN in all their brilliance by highlighting your wild s— made you much more popular. And they boost you in the polls because people were tired of someone talking in this bulls— pre-prepared politician lingo. And even if they didn’t agree with you, they at least knew whoever that guy is, that’s him. That’s really him.”
“The rebels are Republicans now, though, like you want to be invisible, you want to be punk rock, you want to like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now,” Rogan said. “That’s how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They’re pro-censorship online. … [T]hey come in regulating free speech and now regulating the First Amendment. It’s bananas to watch.”
Elon Musk, who took over Twitter — now X — in 2022, responded to the clip, writing, “Exactly.”
“You know they come after their political opponent,” Trump told Rogan in response. “I’ve been investigated more than Alfonse Capone.”
In his meeting with former President Obama during the presidential transition period, Trump recalled, “Obama thought we were going to go to war with North Korea.” Rogan recalled how Trump dubbed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” early on in his first term.
“I said, ‘Little Rocket Man, you’re going to burn in hell.’ And it was a rough,” Trump said. “I got to know him better than anybody, anybody. And I said, ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy and relax? Go to the beach?’ You know, kiddingly, I said, ‘You’re always building nuclear. Just relax. You don’t have to do it. Let’s build some condos.'”
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