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He also left his Michigan supporters waiting for hours as he rambled on the popular Spotify program.
In a marathon rambling interview on The Joe Rogan Experience Friday in Texas, former President Donald Trump left thousands of Michigan supporters shivering in the cold for hours as he delved into a litany of exaggerated claims and inflammatory comments. Some of his remarks echoed his recent campaign’s divisive anti-trans messaging, although his focus on LGBTQ+ issues was brief.
Despite investing millions in ads targeting transgender rights in the lead-up to the election, Trump’s scant discussion of the topic on the former Fear Factor host’s platform during the nearly three-hour-long podcast episode appeared almost like an afterthought. But when he did bring it up, Trump’s rhetoric was familiar: he suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris wants “all these transgender operations,” adding, “If you wanted a sex change and you were in detention and you demanded a sex change, they would give you a sex change.” He doubled down on this claim, suggesting that undocumented immigrants could be receiving taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries.
Related: Voters actually hate ‘mean-spirited’ anti-transgender political ads like Trump’s: survey
The discussion quickly spiraled as Rogan chimed in, calling the idea of offering gender-affirming care to immigrants “the wildest thing.”
“Is that the biggest problem you have? You just walked here for Guatemala. You need to become a girl,” Rogan asked, with Trump adding that Harris was “in favor of it.” This misinformation mirrors recent ads Trump’s team has aired during football and other high-viewership events, which frame the Biden administration’s policies on transgender rights as extreme. A frequent Trump ad among these claims is that Harris supports “free sex changes” for incarcerated people — a line Trump revisited in his Rogan appearance.
Related: Donald Trump unleashes torrent of transphobic ads in last leg of 2024 election
Yet, the truth behind the rhetoric tells a different story. Despite his campaign’s criticism of gender-affirming care for detainees, the Trump administration itself provided such care. Under Trump’s Department of Justice, the Bureau of Prisons allowed transgender inmates to access gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy and clarified that surgeries could be permitted if deemed medically necessary. This policy was shaped in part by federal rulings that found denying gender-affirming care violates the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment. All major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, endorse gender-affirming care as medically appropriate and necessary treatment.
Still, Trump’s brief mention of transgender issues in this interview stands in sharp contrast to the heavy-handed anti-trans messaging saturating his campaign. A Data for Progress survey suggests the approach could be risky; a majority of likely voters view political attacks on the transgender community as excessive, with 54 percent calling them “mean-spirited and out of hand.”
Beyond transgender issues, Trump and Rogan covered a wide range of hot-button topics, with Trump veering into questionable claims. He argued that “open borders” have led to rampant human trafficking, describing traffickers who allegedly hide multiple women in trunks of cars to cross undetected. He also floated economic theories about replacing income taxes with tariffs, a position he characterized as “the most beautiful word,” suggesting tariffs could make the U.S. “rich” — a claim widely disputed by economists.
Trump also claimed Harris “couldn’t put two sentences together” while trumpeting his own ability to “weave” through multiple topics without losing focus. Trump, who often drifts across disparate points in rapid succession, explained his style to Rogan: “I like to give a long—the weave,” he said. “But when you do the weaves, and you have to be very smart to do weaves…we’re talking about little pieces.”
“Gotta get it back home,” Rogan quipped, prompting Trump to assert that his meandering still connects in a way only “the right people” can follow. “For the wrong people, it doesn’t come back home, and they end up in the wilderness,” Trump added.
His decision to prioritize the Rogan interview over his Michigan rally—where he left thousands of supporters waiting for hours in chilly weather—presents a calculated shift in focus, hoping to capture the influence of Rogan’s platform among younger men. When Trump finally arrived in Michigan three hours late, he offered a quick apology, telling his remaining shivering supporters who remained after hundreds had left, “It was worth the wait.”
Watch the long and rambling Joe Rogan podcast episode with Donald Trump below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
