Donald Trump Guests on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ Again Falsely Claims 2020 Election Was “Stolen”
In his first appearance on the wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, former president and 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump touched on cultural and political issues that he’s addressed in the past.
He noted that the Ukraine war wouldn’t have happened if he were president; complained that moderators didn’t fact-check Kamala Harris enough during their one debate; and doubled down on his thoughts that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.
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At one point in the three-hour conversation, Joe Rogan asked Trump to further explain how the election was stolen, as he has falsely continued to insist for the last four years. The former president began to answer in a long, rambly way, pointing out that certain changes in election law were not properly approved.
“That election was so crooked, it was the most crooked election,” Trump noted, as Rogan asked for concrete examples.
“Well, let’s start, let’s start at the top and the easy ones. They were supposed to get legislative approval to do the things they did, and they didn’t get it in many cases. They didn’t get it,” he said, as the podcast host asked, again, “What things?”
“Anything,” Trump continued, to which Rogan asked, “Legislative approval of?”
“Like for extensions of the voting, for voting earlier. All different things. By law, they had to get legislative approvals,” the presidential candidate said. “You don’t have to go any further than that. If you take a look at Wisconsin, they virtually admitted that the election was rigged, robbed and stolen. They wouldn’t give access in certain areas to the ballots because the ballots weren’t signed. They weren’t originals. They were… We could go into this stuff. We could go into the ballots, or we could go into the overall. I’ll give you another way.”
When Rogan asked him if he would ever present this evidence, he responded with “Uh.” As the conversation went on, Trump seemingly admitted he lost the 2020 election before walking back what he said and correcting himself.
“I lost by like… I didn’t lose, but they say I lost, Joe,” he said. “They say I lost by 22,000 votes, that’s like one-tenth of 1 percent less than that. It’s a tiny little thing 22,000 votes that’s spread over that’s spread over this period.”
Trump is courting the male youth vote and an interview on Rogan’s show was a top prize for the candidates, as the show, which recently opened up from being exclusive to Spotify, is now available on other platforms as well, including Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Vice President Kamala Harris has been trying to boost her appeal to male voters too and a Rogan interview could certainly be helpful, as the weekly show’s audience skews 81 percent male, with more than 50 percent under 35 years old, according to a YouGov poll.
In August, Rogan made comments many interpreted as endorsing independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Following his comments, a MAGA backlash ensued and Trump quickly added to the pile-on, seeking to enflame ultimate fighting fans to turn on Rogan in person when he wrote on his Truth Social platform, “It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring. MAGA2024.”
Rogan later clarified that his comments did not equal an endorsement of Kennedy, who dropped out of the race soon after the back-and-forth. Kennedy went on to endorse Trump for the presidency.
Prior to Rogan, Trump appeared on podcasts like This Week w/ Theo Vaughn and Full Send. Meanwhile, Harris has visited the Call Her Daddy podcast, as well as Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show. The podcast appearances come amid their campaigns approaching a close, signaling a fresh strategy around non-traditional media interviews from both candidates. Polling shows that these appearances may not be having the impact hoped for by their teams, as fewer than 30 percent of respondents, who were over 18, had heard either candidate’s podcast guest spots.
In addition to hosting his podcast, Rogan has a gig commentating for Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed martial arts promotion company. Trump also has close ties to the organization given he considers Dana White a close friend. White also spoke about Trump at the Republican National Convention.
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