Donald Trump appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience this week, marking his latest push to connect with younger voters through alternative media channels.
Over its 15-year run, The Joe Rogan Experience has built a substantial following, with 14.5 million Spotify followers and 17.5 million YouTube subscribers. The show, which is Spotify’s top-rated podcast, draws a largely young, male audience—a demographic that Trump is leaning into, as he previously appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show and Theo Von’s podcast, which are the second- and third-most-listened-to podcasts in the U.S. on Spotify.
The Republican presidential nominee has also appeared on Lex Fridman’s podcast. According to the audience-tracking site Similarweb, Fridman’s audience is 74 percent male, with the majority of his audience being aged 25 to 34.
Combined, these appearances received more than 23.7 million views on YouTube. At the time of writing, Rogan’s podcast with Trump had 3.1 million views.
Trump’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience came two years after Rogan said he had declined to have the former president on his show, calling him “an existential threat to democracy.”
A composite image showing Donald Trump and Joe Rogan. Trump recently appeared on Rogan’s podcast.
AP
On the latest episode of his podcast, Rogan said he reconsidered his position on having Trump on his show after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“Once they shot you, I was like, ‘He’s got to come in here,'” Rogan said. “It’s all about timing.”
During the podcast, Trump floated the idea of eliminating income tax and replacing it with tariffs; repeated his claim that Democrats “used COVID to cheat” in 2020; and said there is “no reason not to think” that there is life on Mars.
He also addressed claims made by John Kelly, his former chief of staff, who recently told The Atlantic that Trump said, “Hitler did some good things,” and praised the Nazi dictator for having “rebuilt the economy.” Kelly also alleged that Trump said he wanted the level of loyalty held among German generals in World War II.
Trump dismissed Kelly on the podcast, likening him to a “bully” and calling him a “weak person.” He also called his former national security adviser John Bolton an “idiot.” Earlier this month, Bolton told Newsweek that Trump had his Secret Service protection cut off “hours after” he quit his post.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, has also used podcast appearances to appeal to a younger audience. Earlier this month, she appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, which is rated the fifth-most-popular podcast in the U.S. on Spotify and has 5 million downloads a week. About 90 percent of the show’s listeners are women, Facts.net reported.
Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper lost thousands of followers after the interview, with some listeners accusing Cooper of peddling propaganda for the Democratic Party, while others said they did not want to see political content from Cooper.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey conducted after the podcast found that 51 percent of independents polled said Harris’ appearance on Call Her Daddy, along with her other media appearances, hurt her, while 49 percent said it helped her.
