Trump to appear on Joe Rogan's podcast: What does it mean for the 2024 election?
Former President Donald Trump is set to sit down with Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience” Friday with the hopes of increasing his lead among male voters with less than two weeks to go until Election Day.
Rogan’s podcast is Spotify’s top podcast with 14.5 million followers. His audience leans young and male: 81% of his listeners are male, and 56% are under age 35, according to a 2026 poll by YouGov. It’s a demographic that polling suggests tends to support Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.
The interview will take place in Austin, but the episode's release date has yet to be announced.
Harris will also be in the Lone Star State on Friday, holding a rally with Beyonce in Houston.
What has Joe Rogan said about Donald Trump?
While Rogan’s audience is more likely to support the former president, Rogan himself isn’t a fervent Trump supporter. In 2020, he supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. In the same year, during a podcast, he said he would rather vote for Trump than for President Joe Biden. However, he later said he voted for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen in the 2020 general election.
In August, Rogan earned Trump's ire after praising former third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying he was the only candidate who does not “gaslight you.”
"For the record, this isn't an endorsement," Rogan clarified on X. "This is me saying that I like RFKjr as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence. I think we could use more of that in this world."
In response, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “it will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring.”
More: Laughing right: From podcasts to late night, conservative comedy’s influence grows
Joe Rogan has praised Kamala Harris
Recently, Rogan has been applauding Harris and her campaign.
"Whoever is helping her, whoever's coaching her, whoever's the puppet master running the strings … amazing job. They did an amazing job — from the moment Biden drops out,” Rogan said in a September episode. “She nailed that one speech: ‘Say it to my face.’”
Rogan also said that Harris was better prepared and responded well to questions during the first presidential debate between Trump and Harris, while he made fun of Trump for repeating the incorrect rumor that Haitian illegal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs.
Rogan has not made an endorsement in the presidential race. In addition to his criticisms of Trump, Rogan has also speculated that a Harris administration could lead to a “clamp down” on online free speech.
The gender gap in the 2024 election
Still, Trump’s appearance on Rogan’s podcast could help shore up his support among a group he’s already strong in.
The latest Paste BN/Suffolk University national poll shows that the gender gap is getting wider and deeper. Women decisively backed Harris 53% to 36%, while men practically flipped that, backing Trump 53% to 37%. Gender gaps were also seen in Latino and Black voters.
If those numbers hold on Election Day, it would be the biggest disparity since the gender gap emerged in 1980.
Trump’s appearance on Rogan’s podcast is not the only strategy he’s been employing to energize his male base. Many of his latest tactics, like attending an NFL game and interjecting curse words into his speech, have been aimed at just that.
Harris, too, had considered appearing on the popular podcast, according to Reuters, in a move that could have helped her make inroads with male voters. However, her campaign said Thursday she would not be doing so because of scheduling issues.
Contributing: Reuters and Paste BN elections fellow Rachel Barber.