Former President Donald Trump sits down with podcast host Joe Rogan for the primary time Friday, showing on the extremely well-liked “The Joe Rogan Expertise,” as he reaches out to an viewers of largely younger males as potential voters.
The podcast, which boasts roughly 15.7 million followers, a Spotify consultant confirms to ABC Information, is larger than the inhabitants of any of the seven election battleground states.
It wasn’t clear when the podcast can be accessible.
Rogan, the previous host of the mid-2000s NBC actuality sport present “Worry Issue,” additionally has roughly 17.5 million YouTube subscribers and 19.3 million Instagram followers. Put collectively together with his Spotify listeners, this includes an viewers of roughly 52.5 million.
Unsurprisingly, that is the most-listened-to podcast on Spotify, in accordance with the app’s charts. And Rogan is in a league of his personal.
On this Could 7, 2022, file picture, Joe Rogan attends an occasion in Phoenix.
Christian Petersen/Getty Pictures, FILE
Based on a Bloomberg Information rating of podcasts in March, the second hottest podcast on the time, TED Talks Each day, boasted merely 5 million followers. A podcast rating from Edison Analysis in August additionally exhibits Rogan on the prime of the pack.
The variety of individuals following Rogan’s podcast is sort of half the variety of Individuals who’ve already solid ballots for the 2024 presidential election to this point. As of Thursday afternoon, with lower than two weeks to Election Day, greater than 30 million Individuals have voted early, per the College of Florida Election Lab.
For her half, on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris was taping with the eleventh hottest present on Edison’s rating, Membership Shay Shay, hosted by former NFL star Shannon Sharpe, scheduled to air on Monday.
Sitting with Rogan is a transparent try for Trump to make inroads with youthful males, because the viewers largely skews that method. Political figures have been blanketing the podcast waves this cycle, from Harris becoming a member of the ever well-liked with ladies “Name Her Daddy,” and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen J.D. Vance, and Trump additionally showing on comic Theo Von’s chart-topping present.
Rogan, a comic, is tough to pin down politically. Final cycle, he stated was seemingly voting for Bernie Sanders, who was on this system in August 2019.
And in April 2021, Rogan got here beneath fireplace for his controversial claims concerning the COVID-19 vaccine.
“In case you’re a wholesome individual, and also you’re exercising on a regular basis, and also you’re younger, and also you’re consuming nicely, like, I do not suppose you could fear about this,” Rogan stated on his podcast.
In 2022, Rogan instructed the Lex Fridman podcast he was “not a Trump supporter in any method, form, or type,” including that Trump is a “polarizing determine” and an “existential risk to democracy itself.”
On the time, Rogan additionally expressed that he declined to ask Trump on his present. “I’ve had the chance to have him on my present greater than as soon as. I’ve stated no each time,” he stated. “I do not wish to assist him.”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a Turning Level Motion marketing campaign rally, Oct. 23, 2024, in Duluth, Ga.
Alex Brandon/AP
But, this time round, although he has distanced himself from self-labeling as a political communicator, Rogan has turn into extra lively within the political sphere and expressed reward for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I am not the man to get political data from,” Rogan wrote on X in August after clarifying he wasn’t endorsing Kennedy Jr. on his present however lauded his character in addition to Trump’s response to his first assassination try in July.
“He is the one one who is smart to me,” Rogan stated of RFK Jr. within the August episode. “He would not assault individuals. He assaults actions and concepts however he is way more affordable and clever.”
In response, Trump posted on his social media platform, “Will probably be fascinating to see how loudly Joe Rogan will get BOOED the subsequent time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024.”
Trump’s look on Rogan’s podcast comes as he continues to interact in long-form media, notably capitalizing on podcast platforms with massive youth audiences.
When requested about his current podcast appearances throughout an interview with Fox Information’ Maria Bartiromo this month, Trump confirmed that his youngest son, 18-year-old Barron Trump, influences him by exposing him to such platforms. “He tells me about all the recent guys,” he stated.
Based on Edison Analysis, podcasts attain 48% of 18-34-year outdated Individuals each week.