Trump arrives late to Michigan rally after three-hour Joe Rogan podcast: NPR

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, arrives for a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, on Friday. Trump recorded the Joe Rogan Experience podcast earlier Friday and postponed his appearance in Michigan by 3 hours.

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In one of the longest interviews he has done as a candidate, former President Donald Trump’s three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan Friday offered an extended version of the meandering and sometimes factual rally speeches Trump has been making of late.

Trump, who kept thousands of rallygoers in Traverse City, Michigan, waiting an extra three hours Friday evening because of his extra time with Rogan, attacked Vice President Harris as someone who “couldn’t put two sentences together” in interviews and touted his own. oratorical skills that regularly weave through several diverse topics in a short period of time.

“I like to give a long story,” Trump said during “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “But when you do the weaving, and you have to be very smart to do the weaving, when you do the weaving, look at this, just in this one thing we’re talking about small pieces.”

“I have to take it back home,” Rogan interjects.

“No no, it’s coming back for the right people,” Trump continued. “For the wrong people, it doesn’t come home and they end up in the wilderness, right?”

Like his speeches, Trump’s conversation with Rogan covered a wide range of unrelated topics, such as an episode of The View he was on during his first campaign that featured The Apprentice, UFOs, dead whales and a historical detour about Abraham Lincoln were featured. .

“Lincoln had a, I don’t know. “I’ve never read this before, I’ve heard it from people in the White House who really understand what was going on with the whole life in the White House,” he said. “But Lincoln hated it, in a sense, as the golfers would say, he had a phobia of (Confederate General) Robert E. Lee. He said, ‘I can’t beat Robert’ because Robert E. Lee has won many battles in a row.”

He also reiterated several anecdotes and arguments that were central to his presidential campaign and are also key components of his stump speech, such as a call to lower the corporate tax rate to 15%, impose strict tariffs on foreign vehicles imported into the country, and he continued to falsely claim fraud cost him the 2020 election.

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

In passing, Trump also appeared to favor eliminating income taxes and relying solely on tariffs to fund the government. the election and joked that Rogan wouldn’t be a Harris supporter, but rather a “Khabib person,” referring to Hall of Fame UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“Your tissues are getting wide,” Rogan exclaimed.

In the final days of his third presidential bid, Trump has become increasingly erratic in his public appearances and somber in his rhetoric. On Rogan’s podcast, Trump reiterated his position that there is an “enemy from within” that is worse for the country than enemies like North Korea. Trump also previously used the military to fight domestic enemies.

“We have a bigger problem in my opinion 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 people who are really bad, people who I really think want to make this country unsuccessful.”

He also said he doesn’t actually “believe too much” in polls, before touting his latest numbers and baselessly claiming that there is widespread election fraud again.

Former President Donald Trump sends a personal message on the jumbotron informing attendees 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 topics and anecdotes from the Rogan interview hours earlier, but with much less energy and coherence.

He took the stage to the theme music of WWE wrestler The Undertaker, standing quietly on stage as the ominous song played before apologizing for the delay.

“This is what they wanted to do: We were so locked in, and I thought you wouldn’t mind because we’re trying to win,” he said.

He then cited election numbers and early voter turnout, falsely claiming he has the lead in all seven swing states, before attacking Harris for holding a campaign rally in Texas with global superstar Beyoncé.

‘Do you know where she is tonight? She’s partying,” he said. “So Israel is attacking, there’s a war going on and she’s partying. At least we’re working to make America great again, that’s what we’re doing.”