In a highly anticipated interview, Donald Trump touched on a wide range of cultural and political issues Friday night in a three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan, who hosts one of the biggest podcasts in the world.
The recording went on so long that Trump arrived several hours late to his rally that night in Traverse City, Michigan. Frustrated at having to wait so long, many people left.
The Rogan interview is a continuation of Trump turning to nontraditional media outlets, including podcasts, in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Rogan also invited Vice President Kamala Harris to do an interview, but her campaign has declined. Rogan’s podcast has more than 17 million YouTube subscribers.
Much of the interview, which was posted online around 10 p.m. Friday night, rehashed much of what Trump has expressed throughout the campaign.
He said the war in Ukraine would never have happened if he were president, complained about moderators not fact-checking Harris enough during her one debate with Trump, blasted the traditional media, continued to frame Harris and Democrats as more dangerous than foreign foes, and dabbled in conspiratorial talk about the 2020 election being stolen.
Rogan at one point asked Trump to provide examples of how the 2020 election was stolen, as he has long falsely claimed. Trump gave a largely rambling answer that touched on election law changes that he said did not get proper legislative approval.
“They were supposed to get legislative approval to do the things they did, and they didn’t get it,” Trump said, referencing changes that made it easier to vote during the height of the pandemic.
Trump, who is running for his second White House term and would not be able to run for a third term if he wins, said it would be his last election “if I win.” He was noncommittal on whether he would run again if he loses.
“If I win, that’ll be, this will be my last election,” he said. “But I think I owe it to the country. We have to have fair elections.”
Trump has made baseless claims about the 2020 election being stolen a key part of his 2024 campaign’s message, even though he admitted in September that he lost the race to President Joe Biden by a “whisker.”
Trump’s campaign rhetoric has increasingly grown hostile in the final weeks of the election, with threats to jail his political opponents and strip broadcast licenses from media organizations he opposes becoming regular topics at campaign rallies.
It has led his opponents to cast Trump as someone with dictatorial instincts, something highlighted over the past week when his former chief of staff John Kelly told The New York Times that Trump fits the definition of a fascist.
“I was actually the opposite of a dictator,” Trump said Friday, defending himself. “I was a very straight guy.”
Trump also told Rogan that he has learned a lot about UFOs.
“There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life,” Trump said.
Rogan quickly corrected him about life on Mars.
“Mars, we’ve had probes there and rovers, and I don’t think there’s any life there,” Rogan said.
“Maybe it’s life that we don’t know,” Trump responded.
Rogan at one point also seemed to try and catch Trump from praising Confederate general Robert E. Lee, whom Trump has talked fondly of in the past. Without specifics, Trump said that generals he talks to think Lee was a “genius.” At that point, Rogan asked Trump to clarify that he only meant “strategically,” which Trump concurred with.
Later in the interview, Rogan suggested that Trump’s Lee comment could lead to criticism.
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