Trump was late to Michigan rally after Joe Rogan’s three-hour podcast: NPR

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, on Friday. Earlier on Friday, Trump recorded a podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and delayed his appearance in Michigan by 3 hours.

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In one of the longest interviews he has given as a candidate, former President Donald Trump’s three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday offered an extended version of the meandering and sometimes fact-heavy rally speeches Trump has given lately.

Trump, who forced thousands of rally-goers in Traverse City, Michigan, to wait an extra three hours Friday night for his extra time with Rogan, attacked Vice President Harris in the interview as a man who “couldn’t put two sentences together ” and touted his own public speaking skills, which regularly cover many divergent topics in a short time.

“I like to give long talks,” Trump said on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “But when you weave, and you have to be very smart to do this, when you weave, look at this, only in one we are talking about small pieces…”

“We need to bring him home,” Rogan intervenes.

“No, no, it goes home to the right people,” Trump continued. “For the wrong people, it doesn’t come home and they end up in the desert, right?”

Like his speeches at the rally, Trump’s conversation with Rogan covered a wide range of topics with little connection to each other, such as an episode of “The View” he appeared on during his first campaign that featured “The Apprentice,” UFOs, the Dead whales and a historical excursion into the topic of Abraham Lincoln. .

“Lincoln had, I don’t know. I never read that, I heard it from people in the White House who really understand what’s going on in the whole White House life,” he said. “But Lincoln was in some sense, as golfers would say, afraid of (Confederate General) Robert E. Lee. Said, ‘I can’t beat Robert,’ because Robert E. Lee won a lot of fights in a row.”

He also repeated several anecdotes and arguments central to his presidential campaign that are also central to his speech, such as calling for a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 15%, imposing harsh tariffs on foreign cars imported into the country, and he continued the false fraud with statements cost him the 2020 election.

“I won by that margin—I lost by that margin—I didn’t lose, but they say I lost, Joe,” Trump said, repeating the lie that he won the election. He didn’t.

Along the way, Trump also seemed to endorse the idea of ​​getting rid of the income tax and relying solely on tariffs to fund the government, although before fully explaining what he meant and how it would work, he moved on to discuss billionaire Elon Musk, as Musk has endorsed him in the election and joked that Rogan would not be a Harris supporter, but rather “Khabib’s man,” referring to UFC Hall of Fame fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“Your weave is getting wider,” Rogan exclaimed.

In the final days of his third term, Trump became increasingly erratic in his public appearances and dire in his rhetoric. On Rogan’s podcast, Trump repeated his view that there is an “enemy within” that is worse for the country than enemies like North Korea. Trump has also previously spoken out about using the military against domestic enemies.

“In my opinion, we have a bigger problem with the enemy from within, and it drives them crazy when I use that term,” he said. “But we have an enemy from within. We have some really bad people, people who I think really want to make this country a failure.”

He also said he doesn’t really have “too much faith” in the polls, before touting his latest numbers and baselessly claiming that voter fraud is once again widespread.

Former President Donald Trump sends a personal message from a giant throne, informing those in attendance that he will be three hours late for a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, on Friday.

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When Trump finally reached Michigan, he looked and sounded visibly tired, repeating some of the same themes and anecdotes from the Rogan interview hours earlier but with much less energy and coherence.

He took the stage to WWE wrestler The Undertaker’s theme song and stood silently on stage as the ominous song played before apologizing for the delay.

“That’s what they wanted to do: We’re so connected, and I thought you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win,” he said.

He then cited poll numbers and early voting turnout, falsely claiming he was leading in all seven swing states, and then attacked Harris for holding a campaign rally in Texas that included global superstar Beyoncé.

– Do you know where she is tonight? She’s walking,” he said. “So Israel attacks, we have a war, and she walks around. At least we’re working to make America great again, that’s what we’re doing.”