Despite gaining popularity with many of Donald Trump’s supporters, Joe Rogan has just revealed that he will *not* be inviting the 76-year-old former President to appear as a guest on his popular – albeit controversial – The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify. Wow!
“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once. I’ve said no every time,” the 54-year-old comedian and sports commentator said on the Lex Fridman Podcast on Monday, July 4th. “I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,” he added, saying he doesn’t want to give the former POTUS – who he described as “a polarizing figure” – such a big platform, because he sees him as an “existential threat to democracy itself.”
Rogan's comments interestingly come just days after he endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis potentially joining the 2024 Presidential race. "It is already a weird time, post-Trump," Rogan continued. "The Trump era is also going to be one of the weirder times when people look back historically about the division in this country."
Rogan is Spotify’s highest-paid podcaster, with a $200 million deal for the exclusive rights to his show, which still attracts millions of listeners despite all the controversy. Rogan has been heavily criticized for a number of different things, including the time he used a racial slur, mocked the first openly transgender athlete in mixed martial arts, and featured an extreme anti-vaxxer on the podcast. And the fact that Spotify has refused to 'cancel' him for all of the above (and more!) has only added to the controversy.
If you cast your minds back to February 2022, you'll recall that artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell took their music off the platform because it refused to cancel his podcast, so it looks like he and Trump might be as controversial as each other! Would a show featuring Trump and Rogan make great listening? If we are to believe Rogan, it doesn’t look like we will ever find out!
