Dana White surprised people when he delivered a high-energy oration during Donald Trump’s victory speech. But something interesting happened during his time at the microphone. “I want to thank some people real quick. I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” Dana White stated. These were all names who hosted Donald Trump on their podcasts during the presidential campaign.

It looks like White played a major role in getting Trump on these podcasts. After all, when Dana White calls, people listen. The UFC president White, known for his business acumen and loyalty to his allies, has been a vocal supporter of Trump for years. This relationship began 20+ years ago, well before Trump entered politics and at a time when MMA was looked down upon.

White has previously talked about a time when Trump hosted two UFC events in 2001 when no one else believed in the potential of MMA. But the UFC color commentator, Joe Rogan, was always hesitant about having Trump on his podcast, despite discussing politics on the JRE. In fact, back in 2022, he even denied being a Trump supporter and stated that he previously said no to having him on the JRE.

However, 2024 saw the impossible happen. When Rogan hosted Trump in episode #2219, people wondered what all could have taken place in the background to make the episode a reality. Well, the podcaster gave a glimpse into this in new JRE episode #2226, in a discussion with Theo Von.

Here’s the thing: Once describing himself as ‘socially liberal’, in favor of democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, Rogan went against his own rule of having politicians on his podcast. That’s not to say Rogan hasn’t featured politicians on his podcast prior to JRE #2219. It’s just that having the former POTUS on would definitely ruffle some feathers. So when Donald Trump appeared on his podcast a couple of weeks ago, it virtually broke the internet. While Trump’s appearance on JRE is a 2024 phenomenon, the podcasting juggernaut revealed that the UFC head honcho Dana White had been urging him to host Donald Trump.

Rogan stated, “Dana White made the Trump thing happen, for sure. He was trying to get me to have Trump on in like 2017. He would call me up, ‘Joe, listen, the president wants to do your podcast’. I go, You mean Trump? What are you doing, man? Why are you trying to get me in trouble.’ You know, back then I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a part of this.’ Too many people were angry. Too many people were pissed off. I was like, ‘I don’t need to.’ And I didn’t pay attention to it enough. Didn’t pay attention to the way they were misrepresenting things that he had said.”

The podcaster stated that he realized the misrepresentation when an incident took place with him. “My wake up call was when they went after me. When CNN went after me, I was like, ‘Yo, this is crazy. You think I am taking veterinary drugs?’ What the f–k are you taking about?”

What was his issue with CNN? Well, back in 2021, Rogan sparked a controversy when he stated that taking the antiparasitic drug ivermectin after contracting COVID-19 helped him get better. However, the medication was not proven to treat the virus. There was already a divide amongst people as many accused Rogan of spreading misinformation and the other group of anti-vaxxers touted it as a treatment. But CNN criticized him for taking a “horse dewormer” as a cure for the virus.

The medication can be prescribed to humans for several reasons, but can also be given to animals in high doses as a dewormer. Hence, for Rogan, the perceived parallels between the media’s treatment of both him and Trump became a rallying point, leading him to a position he once thought he would never consider. It seems Joe Rogan wanted to talk to Trump and share his ideas without any misrepresentation—something many would appreciate.

However, the thought behind Joe Rogan previously declining Dana White‘s proposal was driven by self-preservation. As the number-one podcast in the world, with millions of subscribers, his podcast has a carefully curated tone of being honest, yet approachable. Back in 2017, Rogan knew that hosting Trump could provoke some audiences and complicate his standing with listeners.

Years later, his attitude towards Trump would shift in uncanny ways, especially owing to his growing criticisms of established Democrats. But this still leaves us with one question: How did Donald Trump’s appearance affect Joe Rogan’s podcast?

Did Joe Rogan ruffle feathers by having Donald Trump on JRE?

One can’t deny that there is a section that wasn’t happy. Many dubbed him as a ‘coward’ on social media, as he didn’t stick to his previous claims of not wanting to have the former POTUS on the JRE. But let us also talk numbers.

As reported by social media tracking site Social Blade, Rogan gained 100,000 YouTube subscribers on October 25—the day the interview was released. The following day, he gained 200,000 more subscribers, and on October 27, the channel saw 100,000 more. In fact, the three-hour-long episode was viewed more than 26 million times on YouTube within 24 hours of it being released.

Apart from this, Rogan’s Instagram account saw 28,277 more followers and an additional 75,242 followers on X in two days.

On the other hand, there were rumors about Kamala Harris too appearing on Rogan’s podcast. But her team had confirmed that she wouldn’t appear on JRE before election day. Regardless, Harris too was on a popular podcast, ‘Call Her Daddy’, where she discussed reproductive rights and several other agendas.

Interestingly, host Alex Cooper lost thousands of followers after interviewing Kamala Harris (a loss of 5,000 followers from her Instagram account and a loss of 3,302 followers from her podcast’s Instagram account). But now, she has recovered the loss and gained back more followers.