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Yet another harbinger of the mainstream media’s decline: the two most highly anticipated interviews of 2024 all happened on new media. They were Tucker Carlson’s sit-down interview with Vladimir Putin in February, and Donald Trump’s visit to the Joe Rogan Experience on Friday (which is now live).
Tucker laid an egg. His interview was still worth watching, because whenever a reclusive, dangerous dictator speaks at length to a Western audience, you’re gonna learn something new. But it certainly wasn’t a spirited give-and-take, where the guest opens up and says something new and unexpected.
Joe Rogan’s interview was vastly superior. (Probably because Trump is a much-easier interview — and Rogan a superior conversationalist.) And it also helped that Trump and Rogan shared so many common interests, including boxing, pop-culture, and UFC.
Before the video dropped, I thought, “Man, if this turns out to be a 3-hour Shane Gillis impression, that would be the most epic troll-job EVER!” Fortunately, this was indeed the real Donald Trump.
Here are the highlights:
First, just by sitting in the studio with Rogan, Trump was a winner. The visual of him palling around with Rogan — and that image will absolutely, 100% go viral — said something powerful: It explicitly reminded viewers that Joe Rogan likes Trump and supports in his candidacy. And the implicit message was that his fans should, too.
Second, the interview stuck a dagger in the heart of questions about age-related decline. Since Biden bumbled, stumbled and was put to the pastures, the American people have grown suspicious of older politicians: Hey, Joe Biden lied to them. Who’s to say Trump isn’t lying, too?
But in this interview, Trump’s mental acuity and stamina was self-apparent.
