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Joe Rogan said on his podcast Thursday that he favored RFK Jr. as president.
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On Friday, the podcaster retracted his position after receiving heavy criticism from Donald Trump and his allies.
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“I’m not the person to get your political information from,” Rogan said in a social media post.
Joe Rogan wants you to know that calling Robert Kennedy Jr. “the only” presidential candidate “makes sense” was not an approval.
Rogan appeared to endorse the independent presidential candidate when he called Kennedy Jr. a “legitimate” man and described himself as “a fan” during an episode of his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Thursday.
During a discussion about a hypothetical debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with guest Bob Gymlan, Rogan said that politicians “deceive you, manipulate you, and promote narratives.” He added, “The only one who doesn’t do that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Kennedy Jr. embraced Rogan’s praise in a post on X, writing, “From one ‘legitimate’ man to another: Thank you @JoeRogan for always putting content first.”
But on Friday, Rogan retracted his position after facing a backlash from MAGA fans and direct attacks from Donald Trump himself.
“For the record, this is not an endorsement,” Rogan said in a post on X about a clip of him praising Kennedy Jr. “What I’m saying is that I like RFKjr as a person, and I appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence. I think we could use more of that in this world.”
Rogan added: “I also think Trump putting his fist in the air and yelling ‘fight!’ after he gets shot is one of the most American fucking things of all time. I’m not the person to get political information from.”
But his message came too late to satisfy Trump and his allies, who continued to attack the podcaster online.
“It will be interesting to see how hard Joe Rogan gets booed the next time he steps into the UFC ring??? MAGA2024,” Trump wrote in a message on Truth Social shortly after Rogan publicly endorsed Kennedy.
In response to Rogan’s post, Trump allies continued to insult Rogan’s intelligence and trustworthiness. Some suggested that the only way Rogan could redeem himself would be to host Trump for an interview on his hugely popular podcast.
“It sounds like you just realized that most of your listeners are Trump supporters,” one user wrote in response to Rogan’s reversal of his comments about Kennedy Jr. “Maybe you should support them as much as they support you.”
Rogan and Trump’s shared demographics
In a 2022 appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast, Rogan said he has repeatedly turned down requests from Trump to appear on his show and indicated that he is “not a Trump supporter in any way,” 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. Though Rogan has sometimes been portrayed as a conservative figure due to his controversial statements on COVID-19 and his support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, he has not officially endorsed a candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant, told The New York Times that Rogan’s support for Kennedy Jr. “comes straight from the Trump 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 would hurt Trump’s campaign more than the Democratic ticket.
In July, it briefly looked as if Kennedy Jr. would drop out of the race and support Trump himself. A potential deal between the two, in which Kennedy Jr. would have been given a cabinet position in exchange for his support, fell through.
Attacks from Trump allies have recently led other conservative figures to backtrack on their criticism of the former president.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who became popular among conservatives after he was acquitted of killing two men during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2021, said last week that Trump “has bad advisers, which makes him bad on the Second Amendment,” the BBC reported.
“If you can’t be completely unwavering on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you,” Rittenhouse said on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. He added: “I stand by my decision and I have no objections.”
Within 12 hours, after a barrage of targeted attacks from Trump supporters, the BBC reported that Rittenhouse had reversed his stance, writing in a separate post that he had “had a series of productive conversations with members of Trump’s team and I am confident he will be the strong ally gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights.”
Representatives for Kennedy, Trump and Rogan did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
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