Donald Trump attacked Joe Rogan over the podcaster’s praise of RFK Jr.

When discussing a hypothetical debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with his guest, Bob Gymlan, Rogan said politicians “light you up, manipulate you, push narratives,” adding, “The only one who doesn’t is Robert. F Kennedy Jr.”

Kennedy Jr. embraced Rogan’s praise in a post on X, writing, “From one ‘legit’ guy to another, thank you @JoeRogan for always putting substance first.”

But by Friday, Rogan was back after dealing with a meltdown from MAGA and direct attacks from Donald Trump.

“For the record, this is not an endorsement,” Rogan said in a post on X of a clip praising Kennedy Jr. “This is me saying I like RFKjr as a person and I really appreciate the way he talks. things with civilization and intelligence, I think we could use more of that in this world.”

Rogan added: “I also think Trump is raising his fist and saying ‘fight!’ after I got shot is one of the most American things ever, I’m not the guy to get political information from.”

But his post was too little too late to appease Trump and his allies, who continued to attack the podcaster online.

“It will be interesting to see how loud Joe Rogan gets booed the next time he steps into the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post shortly after Rogan publicly pledged his support for Kennedy.

In Rogan’s post, Trump allies continued to insult Rogan’s intelligence and confidence. Some suggested that the only way Rogan could redeem himself would be to host Trump for an interview on his wildly popular podcast.

“Looks like you just realized that most of your listeners are Trump supporters,” one user wrote in response to Rogan’s comments about Kennedy Jr. “Maybe you should support them as much as much as they support you”.

Rogan and Trump’s shared demographics

In a 2022 appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast, Rogan said he had repeatedly turned down Trump’s requests to be on his show and indicated he was “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form” , adding, “I’m not interested in helping him.”

According to a YouGov poll, Rogan’s audience is 81% male, with more than 56% of listeners under the age of 35 – a key demographic for Trump in the upcoming election. Although Rogan has sometimes been described as a conservative figure for his controversial statements about COVID-19 and his support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, he has not officially endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant, told The New York Times that Rogan’s support for Kennedy Jr was “almost straight from Trump’s base.” While Kennedy Jr. has embraced his campaign as a “spoiler” for both Biden and Trump, political consultant James Carville has predicted that his candidacy will hurt Trump’s campaign more than the Democratic ticket.

In July, it appeared briefly that Kennedy Jr. would drop out of the race and endorse Trump himself. However, a potential deal between the two — in which Kennedy Jr. would receive a cabinet post in exchange for his endorsement — fell through.

Attacks by Trump allies have recently prompted other conservative figures to back away from criticizing the former president.

Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a darling among conservatives after being acquitted of killing two men during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., in 2021, said last week that Trump “has bad advisers, which makes him bad at the of the Second Amendment,” the BBC reported.

“Unless you can be completely intransigent on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you,” Rittenhouse told the BBC on X, the social platform formerly Twitter, adding: “I stand by my decision and have no withdrawals. “

Within 12 hours, after a barrage of sharp attacks from Trump supporters, the BBC reported that Rittenhouse had reversed course, writing in a separate post that he had “a number of productive conversations with members of Trump’s team and I am confident that he will be the strong allies gun owners must defend our Second Amendment rights.”

Representatives for Kennedy, Trump and Rogan did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.