Former US President Donald Trump and podcaster Joe Rogan during their three-hour podcast recording. Picture: Screenshot/Youtube
In a recent three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan, former US President Donald Trump discussed various topics, from debunked election fraud claims to ideas of eliminating the income tax regime.
Speaking to Rogan’s "vast audience of young, male, politically disengaged voters“, according to the New York Times, Trump appeared intent on energising this demographic ahead of the US presidential race.
The podcast conversation, which has garnered over 32 million views in just two days, included many of Trump’s familiar points (and ramblings), including his disputed claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election, despite repeated debunking.
When Rogan asked Trump about his stance on the election outcome, Trump stated that judges lacked the “courage” to overturn the results and blamed “Covid” for allowing Democrats to “cheat” in 2020.
Rogan, who has previously criticised election processes, offered minimal pushback on these statements, instead drawing a comparison to his own experience being labelled an “anti-vaxxer” for questioning Covid-19 vaccines.
The podcast also delved into Trump’s proposal to eliminate the federal income tax, an idea he floated as a return to earlier economic policies. When asked by Rogan if he was serious about the idea, Trump responded affirmatively, explaining that tariffs could potentially replace income taxes, a suggestion that recalls the tariff-based system used in the US before the early 20th century.
However, analysts from the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimate that Trump’s fiscal proposals, if enacted, could increase the national debt by up to $15 trillion over 10 years.
In a lighter moment, Trump and Rogan speculated about extraterrestrial life, with Trump stating, “There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life,” though he has previously shown scepticism about extraterrestrial existence. Rogan, who corrected Trump on the likelihood of life on Mars, later questioned him on environmental issues.
Though Trump claimed to support “clean water and clean air”, he shifted the conversation to his standard critique of China’s environmental practices and California’s regulations.
This exchange highlighted the occasionally strained compatibility of Rogan’s environmental stance with Trump’s policies, as the former president plans to increase US oil and gas production and deregulate environmental standards — positions that contrast with the views of Rogan’s frequent guest, Robert F Kennedy Jr, an environmental advocate who recently endorsed Trump.
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