Popular podcaster Joe Rogan has officially endorsed Donald Trump for president — not that it comes as much of a surprise.
Rogan announced his backing of Trump, coming a day before Election Day on Nov. 5, in posting an impromptu episode of podcast with Elon Musk, the mega-billionaire and ardent Trump supporter.
On the podcast, Musk “makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” Rogan said in a post on X, which is owned by Musk. “For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump.”
In the post on X, Rogan called the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX “The great and powerful @elonmusk” and wrote, “If it wasn’t for him we’d be fucked.” Musk donated about $75 million to America PAC, the pro-Trump group he helped form this summer.
Trump appeared on the Oct. 25 episode of Rogan’s podcast, and his running mate JD Vance recorded an episode with the comedian/podcaster that was released Oct. 31. Rogan had said the campaign of Democratic VP Kamala Harris offered to make her available for an interview, but only for one hour and Rogan would have had to travel to her instead of recording it at Rogan’s Austin, Texas, studio.
Musk told Rogan that if “the Dems win this election, they will legalize enough illegals to turn the swing states, and everywhere will be like California… Vote like your future. depends on it, because it does. This is the last chance.”
Musk also noted that women are “outpacing” men in early voting “by a substantial margin.”
“Men need to get out tomorrow and vote,” Musk said. “You should be picking up all your friends and getting to the polls.”
Musk, wearing an “Occupy Mars” T-shirt, said Democrats “are doing all the things that they’re accusing Trump of doing. The sheer number of hoaxes that the Democrat party is pushing, over and over again, is insane… You can’t claim to be good if you’re pushing hoaxes that have been debunked thoroughly. When even Snopes says it’s a hoax, and you still push it, like the ‘fine people’ hoax, what the flying fuck?”
Musk was referring to Trump’s remarks in August 2017 in which he said about the violence between white nationalist groups and “alt-left” protestors in Charlottesville, Va., that there were “very fine people on both sides” and said that there was “blame on both sides” for the violence. As noted by fact-checking site Snopes, Trump did not explicitly call neo-Nazis and white nationalists “very fine people” (and he actually said during the same press conference that “they should be condemned totally”); Trump said he was referring to “many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
Last month, during Rogan’s three-hour discussion with Trump, the former president said his biggest mistake during his time in the White House was hiring “bad people, or disloyal people.” Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden, was “rigged.” When Rogan asked him if he was going to release evidence proving the election was “stolen,” Trump moved on to another subject.
In an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast a few days later, Rogan discussed his positive impressions of Trump. “The problem with the Trump stuff is just that the people look at the inflammatory things he says, the crazy shit, and they define him by that,” Rogan said. “You also have to remember, this is a very bizarre combination of an entertainer and a businessman… He’s like a comedian, man. He says funny shit.”
Rogan also marveled at the fact that Trump didn’t take a bathroom break while recording the interview. “This is what’s crazy,” Rogan said. “Like the podcast was three hours long. The guy didn’t pee before the podcast. He didn’t pee after the podcast. He just left.”
From Variety US