In a nearly three-hour interview, Trump talked about tax cuts, election integrity, and the perils of the presidency as he ramps up his 2024 campaign.
Former President Donald Trump sat down with podcast host Joe Rogan on Oct. 25 for a nearly three-hour interview in which the Republican nominee spoke candidly on a wide array of topics.
The episode, recorded in Austin, Texas, and published on the night of Oct. 25, was viewed more than 10 million times within the first 24 hours on YouTube, where “The Joe Rogan Experience” has 17.6 million subscribers. The show has another 14.5 million subscribers on Spotify.
In the freewheeling conversation, Trump began by reflecting on his years as a businessman and reality TV host on “The Apprentice” before entering politics in 2015. Until then, his engagement with politics, during a time when he was a Democrat, had been as a donor, he said.
Trump recalled his early days in the White House—which he described as a hallowed place—as a “surreal experience,” but said that the feeling wore off with time and it simply became a place in which he lived.
“I had two things that I was focused on: governing the country and survival,” Trump said.
Once he took office, “they came down” on him. “I mean nobody has ever been treated that way,” he said, referring to the tsunami of opposition and negative press he received.
‘A Very Dangerous Business’
Rogan and Trump discussed the two assassination attempts on the Republican presidential nominee in the past three months.
“Being president is a very dangerous business,” Trump said.
Rogan suggested the mainstream media were quick to move on from the topic of his assassination attempts because Trump was the target. During the conversation, Trump said he would open up all of the JFK assassination files, if reelected.
Trump also commented on pop culture, lamenting a shift in public sentiment once he ran for office. He said, “Everyone used to love me,” referencing Whoopi Goldberg and other celebrities.
Reflecting on the sheer amount of publicity he received during his 2016 presidential campaign and during his time in office, Trump called on Rogan to suggest why that was.
Rogan said it was because Trump has “said a lot of wild [expletive].”
“Maybe,” Trump said.
Rogan suggested that media coverage of Trump’s freewheeling remarks and comedic instincts when speaking off the cuff made him more popular, such as during his 2016 debate against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee.
Trump highlighted some of the political stances of his current Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In particular, he addressed her past support of the defund the police movement, saying that someone with that view shouldn’t be running for president.
He also spoke about past hiring decisions.
Trump said his appointment of John Bolton as national security adviser was both a tactical move and a mistake. While Bolton had positives, Trump said he was warned too late not to hire Bolton and said his appointment signaled to other countries that the United States might go to war with them.
Turning to President Joe Biden, Trump said their debate is what “got him out” of the race. Biden withdrew from the race about three weeks after the debate and Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee.
On the topic of polls, Trump said he doesn’t put too much stock in them, citing polls that put him behind Clinton during the 2016 election cycle.
“These pollsters, they charge you half a million bucks and they interview like 251 people,” Trump said. “I don’t want to get myself into too much trouble.”
He suggested that some pollsters take the money and don’t poll. “I honestly believe there’s likely a lot of fraud,” he said. He noted that he is happy with his current polling results which put him ahead of Harris.
Trump Says Pandemic Upended His Economic Plans
The former president also suggested the United States would have begun paying down its national debt as a result of his corporate tax cuts and tariffs program had the COVID-19 pandemic not disrupted his administration’s economic plans.
“So what happened is this. We were ready to rock and roll, and then we had the COVID thing, and we had to focus on that,” Trump said when asked how his tariffs program contributed to the country’s deficit.
“And if we didn’t give some businesses a hand, they would have all … you would have had a depression like in 1929,” Trump said. “But we were ready to start … we were going to. We would very shortly have been paying off debt—you know we have $35 trillion in debt.”
Trump defended his approach, explaining that he cut corporate taxes from nearly 40 percent to 21 percent, which he said boosted revenue by encouraging companies to bring money back to the United States.
He said companies like Apple would have been charged prohibitive taxes so they kept their money overseas until he cut taxes.
“Apple took in hundreds of billions of dollars. They brought it back from overseas,” Trump said, adding that his policies helped prevent a possible economic slump due to COVID-19.
Trump also proposed cutting the tax rate to 15 percent for products made in America, saying it would be a big incentive for U.S. manufacturing.
Nuclear Power, Environmentalists
Trump criticized wind energy for its effects on wildlife, saying that wind turbines are harmful to birds and whales, and he advocated for nuclear power.
He said there is an industry around environmentalism populated with “bad guys” who make a lot of money filing lawsuits to make it difficult to develop conventional power plants and infrastructure.
“They use it as a way to stop you,” Trump said, adding that they receive “massive fees.”
He voiced dismay over the state of America’s food supply.
He said his decision to skip the Republican primary debates was wise because he was leading by 60 to 70 points, which meant he would have been the focus. “Why would I stand there like an idiot for two hours and let every one of them scream at me?” he said.
As the conversation moved on, Rogan asked about the former president’s active lifestyle. Trump revealed his preference for golf over running and said that he hadn’t taken a day off in 56 days, “It’s the home stretch. … We have 11 days now.”
Trump on Election Integrity
Trump also addressed election integrity, emphasizing his support for voter ID laws. He said that opposition exists to such laws “because they want to cheat.”
The sprawling discussion delved into the topic of election fraud being labeled a taboo topic. The pair noted remarks by top Democrats in Congress, and Trump said, “They are still denying 2016.” Trump acknowledged that Clinton conceded the 2016 election.
While the three-hour conversation was mostly friendly, with Rogan giving Trump considerable leeway to discuss his ideas with little pushback, the podcast host did ask the former president if he had any evidence he could make public to back up his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
“You say you have all this evidence that it was rigged, why haven’t you put this evidence in a consumable form?” Rogan asked.
Trump said states changing their laws to accommodate mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic was evidence of fraud, saying, “They used COVID to cheat.” He also claimed the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story on social media was a form of election interference.
The former president acknowledged that the judges who oversaw his lawsuits challenging the 2020 election—many of whom he appointed—ruled that his challenges did not have legal standing. Trump then pivoted to Elon Musk’s allegation that there cannot be secure elections without paper ballots.
“We should go to paper ballots. They went to mail-in voting, and it was all messed up,” Trump said. Trump voted by mail in the 2020 election in Florida.
Rogan Asks About Foreign Policy
Rogan turned to the war in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in 2022.
“Let’s let’s say you win in November. What do you do differently, and how do you change this course that it seems we are on for World War III? How do you get us out of Ukraine?” Rogan asked.
Trump said if he explained his plans in detail, he could never make a deal.
“I would meet with Putin … and I know exactly what I’d say to each one of them, and I believe that as president-elect, I would get that war stopped and stopped fast. You know, we have tremendous power in the United States, if you know how to use the power. I stopped other wars just by the use of tariffs,” Trump replied.
Trump said the press hates it when he calls Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, brilliant.
“Well, he’s a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not,” Trump said.
Rogan said Xi is also evil and dangerous. The despot has an extensive record of human rights abuses.
“Yeah of course, but actually, we have evil people in our country,” Trump replied.
He also criticized Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and said the military leaders involved in the incident should have all been fired.
Trump on Working With RFK Jr.
The two also discussed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump after the former Democrat suspended his campaign in late August and joined the Trump campaign. Kennedy has launched a “Make America Healthy Again” initiative that highlights chemicals used in food products and toxic pesticides and herbicides utilized in agricultural production.
Rogan said he loved seeing the two team up and asked if Trump was committed to having Kennedy in his administration.
“The only thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environmental—because, you know, he doesn’t like oil. I love oil,” Trump said. “Focus on health, you can do whatever you want, but I gotta be careful with the liquid gold.”
Trump also said that some people, including the pharmaceutical industry, are not thrilled about Kennedy joining his team.
Rogan Asks Trump About UFOs
Rogan, who has a strong interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs), or what the Pentagon now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena, asked Trump about his interest in the topic after the former president said he had interviewed pilots who described seeing craft in the skies they could not explain.
“It’s not a great interest for me, but it’s a little interest. I get that question as much as almost any question. ‘Do you think that we have aliens coming, you know, flying around or whatever?’” Trump said.
“There’s no reason not to—I mean there’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life. … Well maybe it’s life that we don’t know,” Trump added.
Rogan described the famous “tic tac” UFO incident off the coast of San Diego in 2004, where now-retired Naval Commander David Fravor of the USS Nimitz described seeing an object shaped like a “tic tac” that appeared to be flying with no known propulsion system, first appearing at tens of thousands of feet above sea level before descending rapidly toward the ocean.
Some have suggested the object could have been a drone of some kind, but the incident is still largely unexplained.
Rogan asked if there could have been some military program related to uncovering the truth behind these objects. Trump said he had a great relationship with the military before pivoting back to the topic of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” is known for its mix of cultural, political, and controversial conversations.
Trump’s appearance follows other high-profile podcast visits, including a livestream conversation in August with X owner Elon Musk, which Musk said reached one billion views.