by Steve Cortes
No one knows how to capture a news cycle like Donald J. Trump. After all, he’s been doing it in politics, with aplomb, for nearly a decade.
Over the weekend, America was once again abuzz about Trump, because of his epic three-hour interview with podcast megastar Joe Rogan.
Their conversation revealed two men with wide interests — from the effects of Big Pharma, to MMA fighting, to the history of the presidency. They both displayed real curiosity…and the long-form setting allowed for some of President Trump’s most pronounced strengths to truly shine.
Here were the three biggest takeaways from the incredible discussion:
1. Trump’s Authenticity on Display – Trump proved once again that he is “sui generis,” truly an original in the world of high-level US politics. Because the legacy corporate media is so poisoned and brazenly biased against Trump, a large portion of his interviews simply devolve into verbal combat. The corrupt media mavens attack him with lies and pseudo-questions, and Trump is forced to deflect and defend. Though he accomplishes those tasks will incredible skill, the net result is normally not illuminating for the audience.
But this interview was so different, and so much better.
Rogan is no pushover, and he certainly could not accurately be described as MAGA. But Rogan is a thoughtful person and, in many ways, an old-school Democrat from the days before that Party was hijacked by an unholy alliance of Big Business and radical Leftists. Despite some serious political disagreements, however, it was clear that Joe and Donald like and respect each other. Their discussion was at times funny, often provocative, and certainly educational for the audience.
Trump showed his intellectual range, but also revealed his humorous and self-deprecating nature, even making light of his head wounds from the near-death experience of the Pennsylvania assassination attempt against him. In doing so, the giant crowd of Rogan devotees got an extended look into the real Trump, an incredibly authentic man and not the caricature often pushed by the biased press.
This opportunity for Trump to show how genuine he is, it provided an incredible contrast vs. the highly-scripted Kamala Harris, who speaks in garbled and nonsensical platitudes when she occasionally steps away from the crutch of her Teleprompter.
She turned down the same offer for a Rogan interview, of course. Though Rogan would surely be fair to her, Kamala and her staff must realize that she could never politically survive a marathon interview of that kind of substance. Kamala does not possess the mind, the eloquence, nor the stamina for such a marathon.
2. Fine People Hoax Debunked – Rogan cited the litany of hoaxes perpetrated against President Trump, including the Russia Hoax which was finally totally discredited by the Mueller Report, but only after years of breathless, meritless allegations against Trump that largely poisoned his first two and half years in office.
Trump also cited the recent Bloodbath Hoax, wherein the Democrats accused him of fomenting violence when he was clearly referencing a business “bloodbath” in the automobile industry if Kamala Harris should win.
But even more important than those two instances, Rogan twice referenced the “Fine People Hoax.” That myth has dominated political discourse in America for seven years, as the media largely successfully pushed the abject lie that Trump praised bigots after the riot in Charlottesville in 2017.
In fact, of course, Trump explicitly and harshly denounced the bigots there, stating “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.” Despite this ultra-clear and concise language, a media firestorm erupted – and mostly landed the false accusation that Trump had given approval to violent bigots.
This myth was so pervasive and harmful that I made a PragerU video on the topic in 2019, trying to dispel the myth. The video went wild, with help from a President Trump tweet, and earned over 10 million total views. It also got me taken off the air at CNN, where I then worked.
After years of work on this topic, with huge assistance from fellow hoax-busters Scott Adams and Joel Pollack, this Rogan reference is simply amazing. Why? Well, because he did not even explain the full context of the hoax, because he did not have to do so! In other words, the truth is now widely enough known, that a simple “Fine People Hoax” reference suffices. Bravo.
3. The Corporate Media Is Doomed – perhaps this trend is fairly obvious anyway, but the Rogan-Trump interview certainly accelerated the demise of legacy media platforms. Over the weekend, this interview was viewed by one million people PER HOUR! On YouTube alone, the video is now over 33 million views. It is also the number one podcast on Apple and Spotify, which do not provide real-time download numbers. In total, the audience will almost surely surpass 50 million.
In contrast, audiences for linear TV and legacy media platforms continue to dwindle. Making the situation even worse for those dying brands, public trust in them declines even faster than their respective ratings! The latest Gallup Poll on trust in media shows overall public sentiment at an all-time low. For Republicans, trust in media has totally evaporated, as shown below:
Given this backdrop, voices like Rogan’s rise in influence. When leaders like Trump make themselves available to probing, substantive, long-form interviews, the whole country benefits.
Good for Rogan, good for Trump, and good for America.
A-Mess-NBC the Lying Peacock News their now trying to compare the Trump Gathering to Hitler and the Nazi Party typical or a News Network that’s nothing bot Leftists Propaganda
GFY msnbc
much likethe assholes tossing soup on master oils, MSNBC isnt bringing anyone to the cause.
Joe Rogan tried to get kamala on his show but her conditions were too much compromise for him.
She wanted him to travel to her location instead of in a studio.
She wanted to do an hour or less.
So, he’s still trying to get her, but those are both hard, “no’s.”