Donald Trump sat down with Joe Rogan on Friday to record a three-hour interview for the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The episode was later released Friday evening.
In the wide-ranging discussion, Trump said his biggest mistake during his time in the White House was hiring “bad people or disloyal people.” The former president also repeated baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” — but when Rogan asked him if he would release evidence showing the election was “stolen,” Trump changed the subject.
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Rogan asked Trump if the ex-president had made “poor choices” in appointing White House officials. Trump, after boasting about his Supreme Court nominees, acknowledged that “the biggest mistake I made” was: “I picked some people I shouldn't have picked.” Rogan asked if Trump was referring to “neocons,” to which Trump replied, “Yes, neocons, or bad people, or disloyal people.”
In this context, Trump mentioned two former members of his administration: John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who had been Trump's chief of staff, and John Bolton, his national security adviser – both of whom have sharply criticized Trump and the dangers he poses . Kelly and Bolton are among many former Trump officials who have become highly critical of the ex-president since serving under him. In an interview with the New York Times this week, Kelly said Trump met the definition of a fascist and had no understanding of the Constitution — confirming earlier reports that Trump made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler.
In the interview with Rogan, Trump called Kelly “a bully but a weak person” and said he is “evil” while discrediting Bolton as “an idiot.”
Additionally, Rogan asked Trump if he is “fully committed” to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his government. In August, Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. Trump responded: “Oh, I totally am. But the one thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environment. Because he doesn't like oil. I love oil and gas.”
The full episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' with Trump is available on YouTube and Spotify.
In a post on X, Rogan said the YouTube upload had been temporarily suspended after a technical issue delayed the episode's distribution on Spotify. “There is no problem with YouTube censoring the Trump episode,” Rogan wrote. “It was meant to go live on both Spotify and YouTube at the same time and there was a glitch in Spotify's upload system so we removed the YouTube link until the issue was resolved. It should be fine now.”
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