The PR Fallout of Trump on Rogan: Four Steps Forward, One Giant Step

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Yet another harbinger of the mainstream media’s decline: the two most highly anticipated interviews of 2024 all happened on new media. They were Tucker Carlson’s sit-down interview with Vladimir Putin in February, and Donald Trump’s visit to the Joe Rogan Experience on Friday (which is now live).

Tucker laid an egg. His interview was still worth watching, because whenever a reclusive, dangerous dictator speaks at length to a Western audience, you’re gonna learn something new. But it certainly wasn’t a spirited give-and-take, where the guest opens up and says something new and unexpected.

Joe Rogan’s interview was vastly superior. (Probably because Trump is a much-easier interview — and Rogan a superior conversationalist.) And it also helped that Trump and Rogan shared so many common interests, including boxing, pop-culture, and UFC.

Before the video dropped, I thought, “Man, if this turns out to be a 3-hour Shane Gillis impression, that would be the most epic troll-job EVER!” Fortunately, this was indeed the real Donald Trump.

Here are the highlights:

First, just by sitting in the studio with Rogan, Trump was a winner. The visual of him palling around with Rogan — and that image will absolutely, 100% go viral — said something powerful: It explicitly reminded viewers that Joe Rogan likes Trump and supports in his candidacy. And the implicit message was that his fans should, too.

Second, the interview stuck a dagger in the heart of questions about age-related decline. Since Biden bumbled, stumbled and was put to the pastures, the American people have grown suspicious of older politicians: Hey, Joe Biden lied to them. Who’s to say Trump isn’t lying, too?

But in this interview, Trump’s mental acuity and stamina was self-apparent. Trump was rocking and rolling through a three-hour interview! For most mortals, a 30-minute interview is an eternity; it’s exhausting — especially when you’re aware that millions of people will be critiquing everything you say.

That’s a lot of pressure.

In the 2000s, I had a radio talk show in Charleston, South Carolina (Shout-out to WTMA!). It was only two-hours… and afterwards, my voice was tired. (I was in my 20s at the time.) And here’s Trump pushing 80, KO’ing a three-hour interview that’ll be viewed (at least partially) by 100+ million people?!

That’s a lot of pressure!

Trump didn’t wander or meander. He didn’t lose track of his train of thought. Instead, he took the bull by the horns and ran roughshod. Rogan is a silky-smooth conversationalist, but several times he was struggling to commandeer the dialogue. Trump is a strong, powerful presence and he’s NOT slowing down! In fact, he had energy to spare.

It told the world that physically and mentally, Trump is still capable of the job.

Third, Trump is authentically Trump. We’re less than 10 days from Election Day, and we still don’t know who the hell Kamala Harris really is. (I don’t know if Kamala knows who Kamala is.) But Trump is who he is — strengths, warts, and all. There’s an authenticity to him.

That’s why his McDonald’s visit was so successful: If Kamala Harris did a shift flipping burgers, people would roll their eyes. It would be perceived as pandering. But not Trump: He actually eats that stuff!

This is who he is. And for the American people, familiarity is comforting.

Fourth, this is the first election where Gen-X will play a leading role. Trump’s leading surrogates are Gen-Xers Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, and his opponent is Gen-Xer Kamala Harris. There’s been a noticeable changing of the guard from the Boomer/Silent Generation flag-bearers, who’ve served as gatekeepers since the Clinton years.

It’s a different visual. Different personalities. And even though this is Trump’s third straight nomination, this year feels different: It’s not the same vibe as 2016 or 2020. The emergence of Gen-X is one of the key reasons why.

‘Course, as a member of Gen-X, lemme say: Whatever, bruh. (We’re the slacker generation for a reason.)

However, Trump made one colossal misstep, and it worries me greatly. If the Democrats are smart, they’d pounce on this ASAP and make it their #1 focal point ‘til election day: At roughly the 21.43-minute mark, Trump began talking about the Supreme Court.

“We had a great presidency: three Supreme Court Justices,” Trump told Rogan. “Most people get none. You know, you pick them young. This way they’re there for 50 years, right? So you know, even if a president is there for eight years, often times they never have a chance, and I had three — it was sort of the luck of the draw…” [emphasis added]

According to opinion polls, the Democrats’ last, best hope to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and drive liberals to the voting booths is to run on the abortion issue. Even if liberals are demotivated and apathetic to Harris, the prospect of Trump controlling the Supreme Court for half-a-century(!) is the stuff of liberal nightmares.

It was a poor choice of words by Trump. Potentially, it could give Harris-Walz a last-minute lifeline.