Podcaster Joe Rogan’s episode with former President Donald Trump is taking the internet by storm.
Rogan sat down with Trump for a staggering three-hour discussion from his Austin, Texas, studio on Friday with the full episode posted to YouTube that night.
Early in the conversation — which would include an array of topics from the UFC to the coronavirus, UFOs and the JFK assassination — the two addressed one of Trump’s most effective qualities in winning support as a politician: His sense of humor.
Rogan is not only a podcaster and commentator for the UFC but also a standup comedian. In his experienced opinion, Rogan told Trump the latter had “comedic instincts.”
One iconic line in particular from the 2016 election made this clear to Rogan, the comedian said during the podcast.
Those who followed that election will surely remember when Trump obliterated former First Lady Hillary Clinton, telling her, “Because you’d be in jail,” in response to her comment, “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”
Rogan also brought up Trump’s ability to work a crowd with his comedic impressions of President Joe Biden, billionaire Elon Musk and others: “It’s funny, its standup.”
Coming from someone like Rogan — a standup comedian since the late ’80s — this compliment is a feather in Trump’s cap.
Will this podcast appearance help Trump?
The former president probably didn’t need to hear it, as he’s well aware from countless crowd reactions and viral clips just how effective his brand of humor is at winning people over.
There is more content to Rogan and Trump’s three-hour conversation than can be covered here, but the political ramifications with Nov. 5 less than two weeks away are obvious.
Trump’s opponent — Vice President Kamala Harris — has been struggling with her campaign’s efforts to ramp up media exposure.
After a difficult interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier last week that produced plenty of unfavorable viral moments in which she could not give a direct answer to any of his questions, Harris trudged on.
Her recent Town Hall with anti-Trump CNN Wednesday should have been a slam dunk given if any network were going to set the vice president up for success, it would be CNN.
However, Wednesday only added more fuel to critiques of Harris’ lack of directness and inability to actually say anything while giving long-winded answers.
To quote advisor to former President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, in his reaction to that Town Hall, Harris “goes to word salad city” when she can’t answer a question.
Does anyone really think, after her recent performances, Harris could manage to talk to Rogan in a podcast format for three hours?
Her campaign could feel emboldened by Trump’s appearance and decide with a week to go that it’s the right call.
In this election, anything can happen.
But that doesn’t mean it would go well for her. She certainly would have a difficult time matching Trump’s own charismatic conversation with Rogan.
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