Has Trump lost Joe Rogan?: Much was made, during the 2024 campaign, of Donald Trump’s campaign being helped by the support of podcasters, especially the ones geared towards younger men.
And the most important of those was Joe Rogan, who at the time was the most popular podcast host in the country.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” is not a specifically political podcast, nor is Rogan a specifically political figure. However, in recent years, especially since the start of the pandemic, Rogan’s worldview has begun to align somewhat more closely with Trump’s.
He hosted Trump on his podcast during the campaign, while Kamala Harris, for reasons that have been much-litigated in the months since, did not appear on the show.
Rogan went on to endorse Trump the day before the election.
However, there are indications that Rogan is souring on the president.
“Don’t Become Monsters”
On his show last week, Rogan expressed concern about Trump’s immigration policy and the lack of due process, although he did not mention the president by name.
“What if you are an enemy of, let’s not say any current president. Let’s pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador,” Rogan said on the show, and making a civil libertarian argument against the Trump approach. “‘You’re a gang member. No, I’m not. Prove it. What? I got to go to court. No. No due process.”
“That is dangerous,” Rogan said of the approach. “We got to be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters.”
This drew surprising praise from people, like former Obama strategist David Axelrod, who are not typically known for their praise of Joe Rogan.
A few weeks earlier, Rogan had used the word “horrific” to describe some Trump deportation policies.
Will this estrangement be permanent? Probably not; Rogan tends to go with the winds and will likely end up back on Team Trump next time the president emphasizes something he cares about.
Rogan, this week, made headlines for stating on his show that “as soon as they start making money and realize ‘what is the government spending my ******* taxes on’… You become a Republican quick.”
Trump Trouble With the “Bros “
This is not the only indication that some among the “bro” contingent of Trump’s supporters are teetering.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, has been critical of certain moves by the Administration, including the Signalgate group chat debacle, as well as the tariffs, noting that he had lost $20 million from his portfolio in one particular stock market slide.
Trump did notably well with young men in 2024, winning the votes of more than half of men under 30, a number that went up to 6 in 10 for white men, according to AP VoteCast. And while not all young men are “bros,” or podcast listeners, consumers of the content of Rogan, Portnoy, or others of that particular media genre, Trump’s campaign did much to appeal to that world, and it’s a strategy that appears to have paid off.
However, like most realignments in politics, this one might not be permanent. The interests of the “bro” subculture of young men aren’t necessarily in line with the views of other parts of the Trump coalition, especially religious conservatives, and once the Trump Administration has governed for a while, there will come times when they have to choose one or the other.
Additionally, it is unclear how much of that appeal was about Trump personally and how much of it might carry over to other, post-Trump Republican candidates, whether in the midterm elections or the 2028 race.
Will J.D. Vance or another future GOP candidate have the same rapport with Joe Rogan and the appeal to his audience that Trump did? That’s a question to be answered ahead of 2028.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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