Did Rogan Just Win Trump the Election?
Joe Rogan's interview of Donald Trump has been dismissed by legacy media pundits but it was one of the most remarkable shows in television history and looks set to seal Trump's triumph.
I’m no Trump fan. Never have been. I say this not to reassure anyone but because it matters in assessing the impact of his appearance last Friday on the Joe Rogan Experience.
If I was blown away by Trump’s performance -and I was- and despite my loathing for the man’s record of appalling behaviour was left with an overwhelmingly positive impression ….think what the impact of the show has been on undecided voters.
Hosted by the eponymous comic, mixed martial arts fanatic and biggest podcaster in the world, Joe Rogan, the show has a phenomenal reach including deep into a demographic the Harris campaign has barely bothered to address: young men. Remember them? Yes, they vote too.
It’s not only guys who watch Rogan, of course. He won millions of female fans when he warned five years ago of the dangers of men fighting women in MMA; citing the example of Fallon Fox who beat two women in the ring without revealing his trans identity.
That isn’t the only time Rogan has courted controversy.
He champions the views of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaxxer who peddles nonsense about vaccine research. In one of his RFK interviews Rogan accepted unchallenged his claim vaccines don’t go through normal medical trials. Having filmed medical trials of vaccines, I am here to tell you that’s just rubbish.
On the other hand Rogan turned out to be right, or partially so, when he questioned official claims about COVID vaccines. Remember when governments insisted they would prevent the spread of infection? Turned out they didn’t.
This led in 2022 to a massive campaign against him by legacy media who accused him of spreading disinformation. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell even boycotted Spotify for hosting his podcast. Who knew Neil Young cared so much about mRNA technology? Shut the door when you leave, Mr Young.
For his millions of fans (14 million on Youtube alone) this debacle only cemented Rogan’s reputation as an honest voice, unafraid to confront corporate interests. It also won him a new deal with Spotify worth $200M. Kerching.
As if all this wasn’t catnip enough for the Donald Trump campaign, who it’s rumoured have been begging for an appearance on Rogan’s show for months, only two years ago the host insisted he would never interview the Orange One, because ….he was “an existential threat to democracy".
Kamala Harris may imagine sharing a platform with Liz Cheney is a breakthrough. For Trump being able to share a platform with someone who used to call him an existential threat is pure gold-dust.
The interview matters culturally too. After the wooden embarrassment of the “Debate” between Trump and whatever was left of Joe Biden, and then the synchronised exchange of slogans in the Harris v Trump “Debate” it seemed the days when television could shift the electoral dial were a thing of the past.
The Joe Rogan show has changed all that. I came to this podcast with low expectations. After thirty years of directing factual television and conducting countless interviews, I was convinced Trump would make a terrible interviewee what with his bluster, boasting and wandering off piste. Instead I found myself gripped. Let me tell you then why this interview is such a game-changer.