The PR Fallout of JD Vance Joining the Joe Rogan Experience: Let the

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In the first five minutes, there were at least half a dozen profanities as host Joe Rogan and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) recounted cute, adorable stories of young kids swearing, cussing, and dropping F-bombs.

This ain’t your daddy’s Republican Party.

Jeb(!) Bush couldn’t have done it. Neither could his brother of father — nor could the last GOP nominee prior to Trump, Mitt Romney. They’re too uptight and too puritanical to vibe with a dude like Rogan.

It’s yet another reminder of how thoroughly the MAGA movement has overhauled the Republican Party: We’ve jettisoned the country club Blue Bloods and replaced ‘em with garbage men and McDonald’s workers. The political realignment is now nearly complete.

Vance has a gift for straddling the lines between all the different subgroups within the new GOP. He’s religious enough to bond with the Catholics and Evangelicals; he’s educated enough for the intellectuals and the economic ideologues; he’s patriotic enough for the military bloc; and he’s gritty enough to charm MAGA-adjacent influencers. In baseball parlance, he’s a 5-tool prospect.

So what did we learn?

Your first takeaway is that Vance is unusually intelligent. Not kinda smart or “smart enough” (*cough* Kamala *cough*) but genuinely a genius. His depth of knowledge (and ability to pivot) allows him to communicate compassionately and thoughtfully, even in a three-hour interview. Not all smart people can pull this off: Lots of them come across as uncaring eggheads who prefer numbers to people.

When Trump tapped Vance, there were quite a few critics. (Full disclosure: I was skeptical, too.) The issue was less about Vance specifically, and more about the 2024 electoral map: Other potential selections (Tim Scott, Marco Rubio) could’ve activated certain demographics or (Glenn Youngkin) enhanced Trump’s chances in blue-leaning states. After all, the #1 job of a VP pick is to help your boss win on Election Day. (Actually being competent after you’re elected is a distant second).

Vance didn’t move the electoral needle in any appreciable way. His home state of Ohio was gonna go MAGA anyway. Plus, since he was unknown to most Americans, the Democrats (along with their sycophants in the media) had the very real opportunity to define Vance in vile, damaging ways. And they tried: He’s a weirdo! He has sexual relations with couches! He hates childless cat ladies!

But they failed. And on the “Joe Rogan Experience” (JRE) today, you saw exactly what made him so appealing to Team Trump: He’s a genuine American who genuinely understands America.

Instead of bonding with voters over something superficial (skin color, geography, ethnicity), he can bond with voters over ideas. And in the long run, that’s far more valuable — and not just for the 2024 campaign.

Win or lose, Vance has a bright future in the GOP. He’s already the preemptive frontrunner in 2028.

Within just the first few hours of being uploaded, the JD Vance interview has been viewed over two million times. (Just a wee bit shy of Trump’s 42 million views.) The total views won’t match Trump’s, but it’s likely to be his largest audience since he outdueled Tim Walz in their October 1 debate.

That’s a lot of eyeballs.

For the most part, the conversation went where you thought it would: They talked about COVID restrictions, big pharm, trans in sports, energy, history, Hunter Biden, Big Tech, censorship, media bias, Tony Hinchcliffe, Joe Biden’s garbage comment, abortion, religion, illegal immigration, marijuana, psychedelics, and more. (A few unpredictable topics too, including the brilliance of “Boyz N the Hood” and the domestic abuse allegations against Kamala’s husband, Doug Emhoff.) Vance avoided any missteps for the Democrats to exploit, while also serving slabs of red meat to the MAGA faithful.

Most importantly, Rogan was impressed with Vance’s intelligence, humility, and humanity. He smiled, laughed, and treated Vance like a friend. (PR Pro Tip: You always wanna win over the host.) For JRE fans, it seemed like the beginning of a beautiful bromance.

The PR fallout will be incremental instead of exponential. Vance didn’t change the narrative; he advanced it. And in the process, the Trump-Vance team reinforced its brand identity in the final days of the 2024 campaign: They’re normal Americans who care about normal things. They’re one of us!

And the implication via the absence of Tim Walz and Kamala Harris? They’re NOT one of us.

Maybe it’s because they hate Joe Rogan and his audience; maybe it’s because they can’t have a normal, unedited conversation. (Or maybe Kamala has personal reasons for doing the “Call Her Daddy” podcast instead of Rogan.) Regardless of the actual reason, Trump and Vance were on the JRE; Harris and Walz weren’t.

And when push comes to shove, the voters are gonna choose the candidate who shows up.

Like the Democrats always say: Representation matters.