Former President Donald J. Trump taped a nearly three-hour episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday. He brought up the idea of abolishing the income tax, talked about mixed martial arts fighters, praised the military skills of General Robert E. Lee, and made headlines on the show by speculating that there was “no reason why” abolishing the tax couldn’t be considered. attracted young male viewers. Life on Mars and other planets.
While much of the discussion centered on a familiar refrain from Trump’s rambling speeches on the campaign trail, the podcast offered Trump an opportunity to reach the audience his campaign coveted. Mr. Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million followers on YouTube, many of whom are young, male, less-sexual voters the Trump campaign is hoping to attract to the polls.
At one point, Mr. Logan tried to guide Mr. Trump, who describes his meandering, digression-filled speaking style as a “weaving,” back to the point. “Your weave is widening,” Logan said. “This way of weaving makes it wider.”
Here are six takeaways from the podcast.
President Trump thought the podcast was worth a detour.
Mr. Trump’s decision to step away from the campaign trail and spend hours at Mr. Rogan’s studio in Austin detours the start of his remarks at a rally in Michigan on Friday night by several hours. The fact that this happened was a sign of Mr. Logan’s attitude. The importance of the reach and audience he draws.
Just two years ago, Logan said he refused to appear on his show, calling former President Trump an “existential threat to democracy.” But in their interviews, Mr. Logan was a receptive, if sometimes challenging interlocutor.
Logan acknowledged that he reconsidered his position on interviewing Trump after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally in July.
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