Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan has made a career out of dallying with the far-right and inviting its leaders on his show The Joe Rogan Experience.
But despite those affiliations, in a new interview Rogan insists he's not a supporter of former Republican President Donald Trump.
Rogan made the comments during an appearance on MIT professor Lex Fridman's podcast in which he also claimed he had several opportunities to host Trump on The Joe Rogan Experience and declined each time.
But many of Rogan's critics aren't buying a word of it.
See Rogan's comments below.
Asked about Trump by Fridman, himself a podcaster who sometimes features figures like Elon Musk who are beloved heroes of the far-right, Rogan said:
"I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once. I’ve said no, every time."
"I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him."
Calling Trump a "threat" to America, Rogan went on to say:
"When people look back historically about the division in this country, he’s such a polarizing figure that so many people felt like they could abandon their own ethics and morals and principles just to attack him and anybody who supports him because he is an existential threat to democracy itself."
That condemnation is of course pure double-speak—in one breath Rogan criticizes Trump as a "polarizing... threat to democracy" and then castigates his critics for "abandnon[ing] their own ethics and morals and principals" in opposing him.
That combined with Rogan's recent full-throated support for the expected 2024 Presidential campaign of far-right Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a vocal supporter of Trump who has passed several sweepingly anti-democratic laws in Florida in recent months, has left many rolling their eyes at Rogan's anti-Trump proclamations.
On Twitter, scores of people found his statement unconvincing at best.
Whatever Rogan's feelings about Trump may be, his guest list reads like a who's-who of the Trump-loving right-wing fringe.
He's hosted everyone from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes to former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos and far-right provocateur Ben Shapiro.
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