Donald Trump: Businessman, former US president, and 2024 Republican presidential candidate
What this episode covers
In this nearly three-hour conversation recorded during the final stretch of the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump reflects on his first term, describing the surreal experience of entering the White House and the survival mindset forced on him by relentless investigations and impeachment efforts. He lays out his economic philosophy centered on tariffs, deregulation, and tax cuts, and rails against the media for what he calls coordinated, dishonest coverage. Long tangents cover California water mismanagement, nuclear power, windmills, immigration and the border, and election fraud claims from 2020. Trump and Rogan bond over UFC and Dana White, debate the greatest fighters of all time, and discuss the Make America Healthy Again push with RFK Jr. The episode closes on foreign policy, the threat of nuclear war, JFK files, and UFOs.
Recommended on this episode
Starlink
SpaceX
“I used it recently in Utah in the mountains did you find it good oh it's phenomenal it's the size of a like a iPad you just set it down on the ground you get highspeed internet it's incredible”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Rigged (book on the 2020 election by Mollie Hemingway)
Mollie Hemingway
“we have an author named Hemingway who is a great writer she wrote a book on it but many books have been written on it”— Donald Trump
Big reveals from this episode
- Trump says his biggest mistake as president was picking some people he shouldn't have, naming Kelly and Bolton as bad hires.
- Trump calls 'tariff' the most beautiful word in the dictionary and floats replacing income taxes with tariffs.
- Trump claims California has abundant water routed into the Pacific to protect a small fish, and says he got approvals done that Newsom wouldn't sign.
- Trump says he could have jailed Hillary Clinton but chose not to because it would be bad for the country.
- Trump says he opened the JFK files only partially because well-meaning people asked him not to, and pledges to fully release them if he wins.
- Trump claims he would end the Russia-Ukraine war fast by meeting with Putin, but won't reveal his approach.
- Trump says Dana White flew back from a family trip to introduce him after the assassination attempt.
Worth remembering
- Trump recounts visiting the Lincoln Bedroom and seeing the original Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's elongated bed.
- Trump praises Elon Musk and describes watching SpaceX's booster being caught by the launch tower arms.
- Trump claims $42 billion was spent on a rural internet program that hooked up no one, arguing Starlink could have done it cheaply.
- Trump describes California's Central Valley as fertile but barren due to lack of water, citing the drained Tulare Lake.
- Trump says France runs largely on small, compact, replicable nuclear plants while US plants get too big and expensive.
- Trump mentions his uncle Dr. John Trump, a longtime MIT professor and nuclear expert.
- Rogan names John Jones, GSP, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, and Demetrious Johnson among the greatest MMA fighters.
- RFK Jr. tells Trump more than 70% of young men are ineligible for the military due to health, largely obesity.
- Trump says his McDonald's photo op became one of the biggest things ever on Google per Sundar Pichai.
- Trump says he was told a lot about UFOs and interviewed jet pilots who reported credible sightings.