Left: Joe Rogan/YouTube; Right: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz/Shutterstock

Podcast titan Joe Rogan told his audience last week that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s entry into the presidential election race was a major factor in his decision to publicly endorse Republican Donald Trump in the hours leading up to the Nov. 5 election.

“The Joe Rogan Experience”—one of the most listened to podcasts in America—boasts a following of 14.5 million on Spotify and 18 million subscribers on YouTube.

During his Nov. 28 show, Rogan said he “wanted to stay out of the presidential election…because it’s so gross.”

But when Rogan said he learned that Vice President Kamala Harris had tapped “that Tim Walz guy” to be her Democratic running mate in early August, he felt compelled to enhance his commentary on the race.

In the weeks that followed, Rogan conducted interviews with Trump and then his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Trump’s Oct. 25 interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” drew more than 40 million listeners in a matter of days. Vance then appeared on the Oct. 31 episode for an interview with Rogan that lasted more than three hours and drew similar levels of attention from listeners and national media outlets.

Just days before the episode with Vance went live, Rogan revealed he had also invited Harris to be a guest on his show, but said that the vice president wouldn’t commit to traveling to his set and wanted to limit the interview to an hour.

Rogan then officially threw his support to the Trump/Vance ticket on the eve of Election Day.

A pre-election survey of those who listen to “The Joe Rogan Experience” revealed that 41 percent said they would vote for Trump/Vance and 21 percent said they would vote for Harris/Walz.

Rogan calls out Walz for his ‘lies’ about military, coaching record, time in China

During his episode last week, Rogan brought up the presidential election and said Walz’s polarizing political record as Minnesota governor and his history of embellishing key facts in his resume was a major factor in his decision to ultimately endorse Trump.

“This is so nuts. When that Tim Walz guy—it’s so nuts that guy was going to be the vice president,” Rogan said, discussing his reaction to the news in early August that Harris had tapped Walz to be her running mate.

“You’re telling me that you don’t care if someone is a liar,” Rogan said. “You don’t care if they lie about their military rank, where they served. You don’t care if they lie about being an assistant [coach]. You don’t care if they lie about Tiananmen Square,” he said. “There are just too many things. This is so crazy. You would get fired if you were an assistant manager at a (expletive) oil change company. Jiffy Lube would fire you!”

Alpha News reached out to Walz’s gubernatorial director of communications, Claire Lancaster, for comment but has not yet received a reply.

Criticism of ‘radical’ record as Minnesota governor

It’s not known whether Rogan had invited Walz to be a guest on his podcast. But during his Aug. 8 episode, just two days after Harris announced she had picked Walz, Rogan took time out of an interview with a recurring guest to poke fun at the nomination.

“So they (the Democratic Party) bring in (Harris), and they bring in this other guy (Walz), who is radical from Minnesota, that’s the vice president, who—he believes a lot of wild things,” Rogan said. “And one of them is transgender surgery for people who are under 13. Another one is abortion up until nine months … he changed the Minnesota flag to make it look like a Somali flag.”

Rogan then broke down a video Walz had posted on social media where he personally replaced the old Minnesota flag perched behind him with the new flag, which became official in May.

“Why do you care what the flag looks like, first of all?” Rogan asked. “And why do you get to change the flag?”

Rogan and his guest Bob Gymlan then spent another few minutes explaining to listeners the process that Walz and his Democratic allies in the state legislature undertook to retire the old Minnesota flag in favor of a new design, which a commission mostly appointed by Walz came up with in 2023.

Last month Rogan also took time during his podcast to compare and contrast the styles of Vance and Walz as running mates to Trump and Harris.

“Then you have Walz, this guy, it seems like he is a compulsive liar,” Rogan said. “At the very least, he has lied multiple times about fairly insignificant things. Like, whether or not he was a head coach or an assistant coach. And the lies have always elevated him socially. All the lies about his military service, or at least implying that he served in a different aspect, then there was Tiananmen Square. Everything enhances his virtue. This is not what anybody wants. You want the opposite. You want a guy like J.D. Vance who served in the Marines, and went to Yale, comes from a single mother with addiction problems. Rose from hard work and dedication to become who he is now.”

 


Hank Long

Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.





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