Former President Donald Trump dismissed any reports of “tension” between himself and Joe Rogan after the podcaster praised independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid the 2024 presidential election.
During a one-on-one interview with popular podcaster Lex Fridman that aired Monday, Trump was asked about his recent comments on social media about Rogan, who in August said during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that Kennedy was “the only [candidate] that makes sense.”
Trump responded to Rogan’s comments in a post to his Truth Social a day later, suggesting that Rogan would be “booed” at the next Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event he attends. Rogan is a commentator for the UFC and has one of the most popular podcasts on streaming platform Spotify, with 14.5 million followers.
Fridman pressed Trump for the “story behind the tension” with Rogan, saying he would “love to see” the former president join Rogan for an episode of his podcast.
Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall meeting in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on August 29. Trump said that there is no “tension” with podcaster Joe Rogan.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
The former president responded that he didn’t “think there was any tension” with Rogan, adding, “I’ve always liked him, but I don’t know him. I only see him when I walk into the arena with [UFC President Dana White] and I shake his hand.”
“I see him there, and I think he’s good at what he does, but I don’t know about doing his podcast,” Trump continued. “I mean, I guess I’d do it, but I haven’t been asked, and I’m not asking them, you know.”
Trump has recently made several appearances on popular podcasts and streaming platforms in a push to heighten support among younger male voters before November.
Recent polling from The New York Times and Siena College shows that men, particularly ages 18 to 29, are far more likely to back Trump than women in the same age bracket. The 2024 election has the potential to garner one of the biggest gender divides in history, according to preliminary polling—while Trump was found to be leading Vice President Kamala Harris by 14 points among male voters in the Times/Siena College poll, and Harris was shown ahead among women voters by 21 points.
At the start of last month, Trump sat down with 23-year-old Adin Ross, a well-known live-streamer on the platform Kick and popular among conservatives. He also sat for an interview with influencer Logan Paul in June, who has over 23.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and spoke with X owner and billionaire Elon Musk in a livestreamed interview last month, which Trump claimed reached 1 billion people. It was unclear what he was referencing with the 1 billion figure.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment on Tuesday.
