With just ten days to go until the election, Donald Trump will take to modern America’s greatest stage today to make his last-minute pitch to Joe Rogan, host of America’s – and indeed the world’s – most widely streamed podcast.
A Trump cameo on the Joe Rogan Experience has been highly anticipated for years, and the discussion can be expected to oscillate between casual matters such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship to serious back-and-forths on policy and the Donald’s many controversies.
Rogan’s show has dominated the global podcast space for the last decade and is credited with popularising the medium itself. Standout episodes featuring Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy jr., Edward Snowden, and the notorious Alex Jones have spurred media firestorms and galvanised public opinion in recent years. To some, Rogan is the ultimate interviewer, the modern Dick Cavett. To others, he is an intellectual lightweight who has peddled misinformation and conspiracies to the masses. Earlier this week, liberal outlet The New Republic ran the headline “Trump Cancels All His Events in Favor of One of the Worst People Ever” in response to the announcement.
Media outlets tend to miss Rogan’s appeal and have often painted the vaccine-sceptic, pro-gun, anti-establishment podcaster as a paranoid right-winger. However, he has also voiced support for Bernie Sanders and RFK jr. in the past and, until now, has refrained from ever interviewing Trump. Seemingly a libertarian with some progressive leanings, Rogan has criticised and snubbed the former President on several occasions, dodging Trump’s many podcast requests.
While entertaining a diverse audience, Rogan primarily appeals to young men, many of whom, like the host they admire, float somewhere between the two political camps and have yet to make up their minds on how they will vote on 5 November. Meaning, for either candidate, the show presents a big opportunity to communicate to disaffected independents and swing their vote in the race’s waning days.
Trump’s embrace of Rogan makes the apparent dodge by Kamala Harris’s camp all the more glaring. Last week, staffers indicated that Harris was in talks with Rogan for a potential sit down. The prospect excited those who believed the longform format would give the public a chance to see the “real” Kamala away from the teleprompter, script, and rehearsed mantras. However, the notion was soon nixed, with a campaign spokesperson announcing yesterday that the podcast will not transpire due to “scheduling issues”.
The scheduling excuse is an odd one given Harris’s journey today to Rogan’s state of Texas where she will be joined by Beyoncé at a mega-rally. Many speculate that Harris’s camp feared she was not cut out for an uninterrupted, three hour interview with a potentially confrontational host. Harris has struggled in several recent appearances and was lambasted by a CNN panel this week for giving “word salad” responses during Wednesday’s town hall sitdown with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Trump and Harris’s diverging Rogan approach speaks to a deeper media strategy difference between the two as the election beckons.
Trump needs to separate himself from independents’ fears of his dictatorial tendencies. Hence why he has steered clear of traditional, prodding outlets such as 60 minutes, which would have pressed him on January 6th and on John Kelly’s accusations of his fascist leanings. Instead, he’s opted for casual, working-man podcasts, such as comedian Theo Von’s This Past Weekend and wrestler Mark Calaway’s Six Feet Under, where he can disarm viewers as he shoots the breeze.
Harris, on the other hand, is intent on proving she is big P Presidential. Refraining from a creative course, Harris has taken to traditional outlets such as Fox, NBC, and CNN and a few mainstream podcasts to court voters. To buttress her campaign, she has enlisted numerous high-profile celebrities to accompany her at packed rallies across swing-states.
Harris’s unimaginative, Clinton-esque media strategy has failed to move the needle and her opponent has pulled ahead in a few major polls in recent days. Risks have to be taken when facing the media mastery of Donald Trump, and Harris’s avoidance of a candid session with Rogan, America’s favourite “meathead”, may prove to be a costly mistake.
