There can be little doubt that we are living in an age of disruption. One of the most compelling examples of this is how Joe Rogan is now one of the biggest media personalities in the world and Donald Trump looks almost certain to win a second term as President of the United States.

The numbers don’t lie. Rogan’s three-hour interview with Trump currently has 31 million views in the first 24 hours on YouTube alone! However, by the time this article is published, even those staggering statistics will be out of date. The numbers on a platform such as Spotify would be just as big, if not even bigger.

Imagine if 15 years ago though, someone had said that the host of Fear Factor and The Apprentice would be the two main social and political leaders of in the world – would you have believed them?

This not only demonstrates the popularity of long-form journalism, the current popularity of podcasts and unedited political interviews, but also the increasing irrelevance of the mainstream media. The digital disruption of the internet is all but complete.

Rogan and Trump riffed and weaved over a plethora of topics. I’ve watched the interview in full twice now and while it’s tempting to try and cover everything, what follows are my top ten highlights of their extensive exchange.

Trump’s Unique Background. Trump himself makes the point that out of all the men who have been President of the United States, 92 per cent were formerly politicians and the remaining 8 per cent were Generals before taking office. However, Trump is the only one to come directly from the business world (Reagan was an actor but then the governor of California). This means that he is not part of the political establishment and has had a desire to not just ‘survive’, but to try and get things done.

Trump also acknowledged that being from New York – as opposed to Washington – presented some unique challenges in knowing who to appoint to key roles as the President has to employ 10,000 people in the first couple of days of taking office. A second term in office will mean that he will be employing some very different people than he did last time.

Mainstream Media Hatred of Trump. Early in the interview, Rogan reflects on how the media turned on Trump when he decided to run for President. Almost overnight Trump went from being loved to being loathed. When Trump asked Rogan if maybe he could explain to him why that was, Rogan gave him the following insightful explanation.

Well, you said a lot of wild shit! And then CNN in their all their brilliance by highlighting your wild shit, made you much more popular. They boosted you in the polls because people were tired of someone talking in this pre-prepared politician lingo. And even if they didn’t agree with you, they at least knew whoever that guy is that’s him. That’s really him.

When you see certain people talk, certain people in the public eye you don’t know who they are you have no idea who they are. It’s very difficult to know [when] you see them in conversations [that] they have these pre-planned answers. They say everything … it’s very rehearsed. You never get to the meat of it.

One of the beautiful things about you is that you free ball. You get out and you do these huge events and you’re just talking. We’ve highlighted you on the show many times such as when you did this Biden impression where he’s walking around he doesn’t know what he’s doing. It’s funny! It’s standup and it’s funny stuff.

Like when you were making fun of Elon one time. You have, like, comedic instincts. Like when you said to Hillary you’d be in jail. That’s great timing. But that kind of stuff was unheard of as a politician. No one had done that and I think you know what’s funny.

Rogan is putting his finger on something here which has indeed made Trump incredibly popular. It’s not just that he’s honest, but that he’s also immensely entertaining. Trump is a social media star in his own right and it makes him extremely watchable even when someone might vehemently disagree.

Journalism Masquerading as Political Activism. Following on from the previous point, Trump explains how media outlets such as CNN only wanted panellists to be negative about him. They weren’t interested in reporting the truth, but in actively tearing him down. As Trump rightly argues, the problem with this is:

They give those licenses out Joe for free. They should pay a fortune for them, they’re worth a fortune. But they give them out for free because they’re using the public airwaves. With cable it’s a different deal but – they’re worth billions of dollars – they give them out free but you have to be honest.

At this point, Rogan himself chimes in and says:

You’re right. The problem was they fact-checked you but they didn’t fact-check her. One of most egregious examples of that was when she said that there are no troops right now deployed in war zones. There’s a very famous viral video that went online of troops in a war zone saying, ‘Well what the fu*k are we then?’ Because there’s thousands. Dan Crenshaw, the congressman posted on his Instagram all of the various examples of troops that are deployed. Thousands and thousands of troops that are currently deployed.

But the point is, if this is going to be an actual real debate, and not a propaganda exercise, then you have to fact-check everybody. If someone says maybe she thought there was none, which is also a problem. Because it’s either one of two things. Either it was not true which was a lie on purpose which is terrible. Or it was the opposite. It was ignorance, which is also terrible.

Trump and Rogan go on to discuss even further examples, but what has become clear is that the media is no longer neutral in reporting the news. Instead, they themselves have become political activists. And in the United States this means they are a propaganda arm for the democratic party.

Tariffs to Replace Income Tax. One of the most interesting policies Trump has floated is replacing income tax with tariffs. When Rogan asked if Trump was serious about this he replied:

Yeah sure, why not? Because our country was the richest in the 1880s. And in 1890s a president who was assassinated named McKinley – he was the Tariff King – he spoke beautifully, his language on tariffs was really beautiful – he said we will not allow the enemy to come in and take our jobs and take our factories and take our workers and take our families unless they pay a big price. And the big price is tariffs. He’d speak like that but he was right. And then around in the early 1900s they switched over stupidly to an income tax and you know why? Because countries were putting a lot of pressure in America they didn’t want to pay tariffs … and believe me they control our politicians.

This is a massive economic policy for Trump, and is something not widely discussed. I’m no economic expert but it is a fascinating proposal. One will have to wait and see though to what extent he can pull something like that off.

The Wuhan Lab Leak and COVID-19. Trump confirmed once again that Covid originated in Wuhan, China. Trump said that his advisors called him in and said:

They said something’s happening in China. Sir could we meet? I said what’s happening? People are dying, and it was all around the Wuhan lab by the way. There are pictures with little lines their body bags all around the Wuhan lab. I always said that from the beginning Joe. You know they tried to say first that it was France. And then they said it was bats from a cave 2,000 miles away…

Most readers won’t need convincing of this, especially if you’ve read Sharri Markson’s excellent exposes, What Really Happened in Wuhan? But it’s important to affirm once and for all that this is not a conspiracy theory but the most plausible explanation.

COVID-19 and the US Economy. Rogan specifically tackled Trump on the issue of the enormous debt which currently exists in the United States which currently stands at 35 trillion dollars.

If we didn’t have Covid we would have been paying off debt. But don’t forget by growth the word because growth is actually more important in a way because you could have the same debt but if you double your growth all of a sudden you’re under levered … but if you look at the asset value if you looked at it purely as an asset value we have oil underground we have water, we have mountains … the assets are so enormous.

But regardless of that, we’ve got 35 trillion in debt we should pay off and we would have started paying off debt and probably even giving further given further tax reductions but when you get hit with Covid everything stops and you have to keep these businesses alive. The businesses were dying, I mean they were just dying. This whole place this country was going to die.

There is little question that the Trump administration was indeed doing well economically before Covid struck. It would have been interesting to consider what might have been if there wasn’t a global pandemic.

Over Regulation Inhibiting Economic Growth. One of the most significant topics of discussion for me, was Trump’s argument that environmental over-regulation was destroying business. Trump said that it was not tax cuts but regulation cuts which companies wanted more. As Trump states:

Environmental [legislation] is the biggest tool for stopping growth the biggest tool the other is regulation … it’s almost … it’s becoming impossible but they use environmental in order to get people not to do anything. I know the environmental stuff better than anyone because I had to build buildings in New York. To build I had to do environmental impact studies and I would see some of these guys that I’d hire for a lot of money … environmentalists that would get you through the process and they’ll be up in Albany – that’s the capital of New York – and they’re up there trying to make it tougher for guys like me that were builders because they’d get paid more money.

This is a topic which will resonate with most business people throughout the Western world. While Trump himself acknowledges that one has to care for the environmental, government regulation is destroying business initiative. What’s more, the people who are really benefiting are the environmental consultants.

Windmills and Environmental Waste. Another fascinating topic of conversation was Trump’s discussion around green waste. In particular, that of windmills. At this point, it’s probably best to just let Trump express himself in his own words. In an extended tirade against the harmful environmental impact of green energy Trump said:

I think windmills are really disruptive … they kill birds. You want to see a bird cemetery then go under a windmill someday that hasn’t been cleaned out. It’s like a massive amounts of birds.

I went to a ranch in South Texas and we had to drive past this enormous windmill farm and it’s gross, it’s dystopian. You’re looking to the left and the right and all you see are these big spinning machines that aren’t even that effective at generating electricity.

The most expensive form of electricity is a windmill. Then they start to rust and rot and they get abandoned by the people that built them. Then you have to get rid of all that material too. You have to replace those blades. Now you have a problem because you have to dispose these enormous windmills and they say you can’t bury them. Everyone knows what happens to them… They start to rot after 10 years and you have to replace them.

How about off the coast of New Jersey they want to build them but whales are washing up on shore. In 50 years they had one whale come ashore, but now they had like 18 come in the last year. What is happening with the whales is they say that the wind drives them crazy. It’s a vibration in the water, because those things are the size of a 50 story building and they’re super sensitive to vibrations and it makes a noise which drives the whales freaking crazy and they’re getting washed up onshore. And yet the environmentalists don’t talk about it.

Trump and Rogan go on to have an important discussion about the use of nuclear energy. In particular, that it can be done safely and effectively without destroying the environment while producing cheap, reliable and clean power.

Was the Previous Election Stolen? Trump persuasively makes the case that the previous US election was ‘stolen’ from him. Out of the numerous examples Trump give, one of the most significant was the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop. At the time the story was completely suppressed on social media and dismissed as Russian disinformation. However, now it has been shown to be legitimate.

Trump also raises the problem of mail-in ballots. Trump said that he was talking to Elon Musk who told him that unless you have paper ballots it can never be an honest election. What’s more, Trump also references a commission set up by Jimmy Carter to look into this issue and they also came to the same conclusion.

Then there is the issue of voter ID. Incredibly, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has made it illegal for people to be asked for voter ID. Both Rogan and Trump rightly argue that here is clearly no good reason for this policy except to be able to cheat.

The Public Release of Classified Files. One of the most fascinating subjects Trump discussed was his commitment to releasing the files on JFK, Martin Luther King and even UFOs. This is something of immense public interest and is something which Trump has promised to immediately do if elected as President.

While Trump has said that he has briefly looked into these files before, he decided not to proceed with releasing the information because he was urged by people he respected not to. However, now he believes that it is time for a cultural ‘cleansing’. This prospect alone will I believe garner widespread support.

A Must Watch Interview

There are a number of other important topics which I haven’t covered in this review. Subjects such as the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the leftist defund the police campaign, as well as the invasion of Israel and Ukraine. But hopefully this gives readers a taste of what will go down as one of the most popular, and important, interviews of the 2024 election. Indeed, I believe it signals a shift in how major political interviews will be conducted going forward.