6 Takeaways From Donald Trumps 3-Hour Podcast With Joe Rogan

Former President Donald J.Trump taped a nearly three-hour episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday.

He courted the show’s young male audience by floating the idea of eliminating the income tax, talking about mixed martial arts fighters, praising the military skills of Gen.Robert E.

Lee and speculating that there was “no reason not to think” there could be life on Mars and other planets.Much of the discussion centered on refrains familiar from Mr.Trump’s rambling speeches on the campaign trail, but the podcast offered Mr.

Trump an opportunity to reach an audience his campaign covets.Mr.

Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million on YouTube, many of them the young, male, low-propensity voters that the Trump campaign is hoping to draw to the polls.At one point Mr.Rogan tried to lead Mr.

Trump, who has described his meandering, digression-laden speaking style as “the weave,” back to the point.“Your weave is getting wide,” Mr.

Rogan said.“You’re getting wide with this weave.”Here are six takeaways from the podcast.Trump saw the podcast as well worth a detour.That Mr.

Trump opted to step off the campaign trail and spend hours in Mr.Rogan’s studio in Austin — a detour that delayed the start of his remarks at a rally on Friday evening in Michigan by several hours — was a mark of Mr.

Rogan’s reach and the importance of the audience he draws.Just two years ago, Mr.Rogan said he had declined to have Mr.

Trump on his show, calling the former president “an existential threat to democracy.” But in their interview, Mr.Rogan was a receptive if occasionally challenging interlocutor.Mr.

Rogan acknowledged that he had rethought his position on interviewing Mr.Trump after he survived an assassination attempt in July at a rally in Pennsylvania.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

If you are in Read...