Joe Rogan interview appears as Donald Trump’s closing remarks

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is about to give one of the biggest interviews of his presidential campaign – with America’s top man. 1 Podcast, Joe Rogan.

With 14.5 million Spotify fans and 17.5 million YouTube subscribers, The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) has built a massive audience of mostly men since it first launched 15 years ago.

Trump confirmed media reports of the upcoming interview, which will be taped on Friday, calling his opponent “a good guy” with whom he hopes to have a “very interesting” conversation.

“I do a lot of shows,” he told Fox News Radio on Wednesday. “Good, bad or indifferent. I’ve done a lot of shows and they’ve all turned out well.”

The response ignored Trump’s carefully planned media strategy, which has focused on podcasts popular with young men rather than traditional media outlets such as “60 Minutes.”

Longtime listeners said that underestimated how much it might mean to the former president.

“Rogan is about to launch the most-listened-to podcast in human history,” says conservative journalist and self-proclaimed JRE expert Matthew Foldi, who has spent thousands of hours listening to the entire catalog chronologically at 3.5x speed. From 2020.

A New Jersey native, Rogen began his career as a stand-up comedian in the Boston area before moving to California in the 1990s. He starred in two sitcoms, “Hardball” and “NewsRadio,” and gained national fame as the host of the American version of the “Fear Factor” game show.

In 2009, he became one of the first comics to venture into podcasting, quickly winning over an audience with his light-hearted conversational style and sense of humor. By 2020, he had signed one of the largest licensing deals in the industry with Spotify, where he dominated the podcast space.

Rogan is known for discussing everything from current events and politics to aliens and drug use, and he has hosted ideologically diverse guests — from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to the far right molecular conspiracy theorist alex jones Comedians like Chris Rock and Kevin Hart — in lengthy interviews that lasted for hours.

Part of his appeal, says freelance culture writer and novelist Kat Rosenfield, is his willingness to talk to anyone about anything.

“He was naturally curious. He wanted to ask questions. He wanted to know what was going on with his guests, and he had great instincts that made listening engaging.”

But his willingness to absorb contrarian views also gets him into trouble. He has been criticized for promoting vaccine skepticism during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading a coalition of medical experts to accuse Spotify of allowing “false and socially harmful assertions” to spread. 2022, Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell delete their music Spotify protested Rogan’s use of the platform to spread alleged coronavirus misinformation. The company eventually removed about 70 previously released series.

That same year, Rogen was criticized after a compilation of videos of him repeatedly using racially insensitive language on the show circulated on social media. He has since apologized.

Ms. Rosenfield viewed Rogan’s personal politics as libertarian — very liberal in society, as seen in his support for same-sex marriage and widespread drug legalization, but also a man who cherished free speech and gun rights. people.

In 2020, he endorsed then-Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders for president after he appeared on his show.

“At a time when audiences are losing trust in many people, Logan seems like a refreshing choice. [mainstream media] Point of sale,” Ms. Rosenfeld argued.

“He doesn’t think he’s smarter than the audience, which I think is endearing to people who listen to the show. He doesn’t talk down to people, he’s always like, ‘Don’t listen to me, I know everything I don’t listen to.’ .

Trump and Rogan haven’t always seen eye to eye.

As recently as 2022, the podcaster said he didn’t want to “help” Trump in the election because he was an “existential threat to democracy.”

Earlier this year, he praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was running as an independent presidential candidate at the time, as “the only person who means anything to me.”

This upset Trump, who said Rogan would be “booed” the next time he competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

But it’s also their shared love for the UFC and MMA that hinted at some possible common ground during the interview.

Rogan is a long-time color commentator and interviewer for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events. Trump is also a fan of the sport, which he has discussed at length on other podcasts.

Both men are long-time friends of UFC CEO Dana White, who this week praised Rogan as “the best combat sports commentator ever” and Heaps praise on Trump Known as “The Ultimate American Badass.”

They have two other allies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk, both of whom have recently endorsed Trump.

Rogan fondly called Trump on a recent show a “deal-making billionaire figure that everyone likes” whose deregulatory agenda has helped the economy.

He added that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza “terrified [expletive] Trump has vowed to end both wars if elected, although he has provided no specific details on how.

Fuldy, a conservative journalist and Rogan superfan, said the attention Trump gets from the podcast could help him dominate in the final days of the campaign and win over undecided voters.

“This is the most watched show on the planet and the eyeballs you’re going to get… are second to none.”

Like Mr. Fuldy, 28, Rogan’s audience is overwhelmingly young men. Nearly 80% of U.S. podcasters surveyed by Edison Research are male, half of whom are between the ages of 18 and 34.

The numbers suggest Rogan’s audience is part of an important voting bloc that the Trump campaign has made clear it wants to reach. In August, the campaign told reporters that it was focused on persuading a group of voters it said made up about 10% of the electorate in key battleground states. This group is disproportionately young, male and racially diverse.

Trump has canceled interviews with traditional outlets such as CBS and NBC, instead spending time talking to podcasters who draw primarily male audiences, including comedians Andrew Schultz and Theo Von, social media influencer Logan Paul, retired wrestler Mark Callaway (aka The Undertaker) and YouTube pranksters the Nelk Boys. But in terms of sheer audience size and cultural impact, JRE is arguably the linchpin of this podcasting journey.

Harris has also used podcasts as part of her media blitz, albeit to a lesser extent. Earlier this month, she was interviewed on Call Her Daddy, the top-rated show for women, and discussed reproductive rights at length with host Alex Cooper, which is motivating Democrats, especially female voters, this year the primary question.

Around the same time Rogan’s episode aired, Harris was scheduled to sit down with renowned social psychologist Brene Brown for her podcast “Unlocking Us,” which is also popular with female listeners.

Despite objections from some, Harris’ team met with Rogen’s staff last week but has not yet announced whether she will appear on the show, according to Reuters.

As anticipation for Trump’s interview grew, Americans took to social media to daydream about the questions they’d like Rogen to ask, ranging from alien declassifications to documents surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.

Fuldy said if Rogan stayed consistent, no topic would be out of scope.

“With Trump, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it because no matter what you think of the guy, he’s obviously happy with who he is,” he added.

“The only way to break you [JRE] It’s if he asks you about the core of who you are and you don’t have a comfortable answer.