Trump will join Joe Rogan's podcast as part of his Texas trip

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Many of Donald Trump's supporters left a rally in Michigan before he arrived Friday night after the former president made them wait for three hours to record a popular podcast interview.

Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled together in the cold, waiting for the former president to land in the battleground state.

Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he attributed to an interview with Joe Rogan. the most listened to podcaster in the country and an influential voice among younger male voters that Trump is aggressively courting.

The interview, recorded in Austin, Texas, was released on Friday evening and lasted a whopping three hours. Trump told many familiar stories from his rallies and other interviews, but also delved into topics like the existence of UFOs with Rogan.

Democrat Kamala Harris was also in Texas Friday for one Performance with superstar Beyoncé in Houston at an event highlighting the conservative state's abortion ban, enacted after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade had picked up. Three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe were nominated by Trump.

Minutes before Trump's rally in Michigan was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was about to leave Texas, more than two hours away by plane. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay put, pointing out that it was Friday night and promising, “We're going to have a good time tonight.”

Trump finally took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures dropped to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The crowd erupted in cheers as video screens showed Trump's plane arriving and then him exiting his plane and descending the steps.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “We were so busy and I thought you wouldn’t mind because we were trying to win.”

Participants who did not leave were bundled up and partially covered with blankets as they waited for him to land. The crowd sounded and seemed disinterested as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon tried to kill time on stage. Hats were thrown to the participants.

Among those who stayed at Trump's rally were John and Cheryl Sowash, who live in Traverse City and arrived at the airport at 4 p.m

“Things happen,” John said. “He talked to a lot more people who talked to Joe Rogan than he did here.”

In fact, Cheryl said she was worried about Trump, who failed to speak to a larger crowd.

“He will be disappointed because there were twice as many people here. He missed it,” she said.

The Rogan interview highlights Trump's focus on masculinity

His interview with Rogan gave the Republican nominee another opportunity to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has characterized much of his 2024 White House bid. Trump did it masculinity A central theme of his campaign is appearing on podcasts aimed at young male voters and addressing surrogates who sometimes use coarse language.

During the long conversation, Trump told familiar stories but occasionally dropped new colors and nuances.

Rogan pressed Trump on whether he was “fully committed” to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his administration.

“Oh, I totally am,” Trump replied, but added that he and Kennedy disagreed on environmental policy. He said he would tell Kennedy to “focus on health and do whatever you want.”

Kennedy has been instrumental in spreading vaccine skepticism, rejecting the overwhelming consensus among scientists that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the rare risk of side effects.

Trump appeared to be considering eliminating federal income taxes again, telling Rogan, “Yeah, sure, why not?” when the podcast host asked if he was serious.

He also reiterated his grievances about the 2020 election at length, but said, “If I win, this will be my last election.”

Trump said he “never believed in theories about extraterrestrial life visiting Earth.” He said he's constantly asked what the U.S. government knows about “the people who come from space.” He said he was told “a lot” as president, but he dodged Rogan's requests to discuss alien life in detail.

And he criticized federal subsidies aimed at significantly boosting U.S. semiconductor production, one of President Joe Biden's signature achievements. Chipmakers owe the legislation the construction of new factories worth billions of dollars, including in the embattled state of Arizona.

He also tore apart Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that has long been allied with the United States

“You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump told Rogan. “OK. They want us to protect them, and they want protection. They don't pay us money for protection, you know? The mob makes you pay money, right?”

Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose government in Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province, a “brilliant guy, whether you like it or not.”

The podcaster is known for his hour-long interviews on The Joe Rogan Experience, which is ranked #1 in the US according to Spotify charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed when a comedian friend described how he repeatedly coerced young female comedians into sex.

Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan previously said he declined to host Trump on his podcast because he didn't want to help him.

Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that Kennedy, then a candidate, was the only person running for president who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, supported Trump and joined him in the election campaign.

Trump mocks Harris' rally with Beyoncé, pushes immigration message

In Michigan and at an earlier news conference in Texas, Trump repeatedly mocked his opponent's rally in Houston. “Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” he told the Michigan audience.

He used his trip to Texas, his second stop in a border state in two days, to sharpen his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration.

“We are like a garbage can for the rest of the world to throw away the people who don’t want them,” Trump told his supporters in Austin on Friday. Trump has continued to promote the baseless idea that foreign governments are actively sending criminals to the United States

Harris said the remark was “just another example of him really disparaging our country.”

“The President of the United States should be someone who elevates the discourse and speaks about and invests in the best of us, not someone like Donald Trump who constantly demeans and belittles the American people,” Harris suggested her event to reporters in Houston.

As temperatures plummeted in Michigan on Friday evening and many people filed out of the crowd, Trump indicated that his campaign advisers had urged him not to repeat his previous statements that he was the “protector” of women.

The former president mimicked the advice he said he received: “'Sir, please don't say you're going to protect women.'” But he said he plans to keep saying it. “I mean, that’s our job.”

This was also a response to the Harris event, which focused on protecting reproductive rights and where a number of women spoke about their health being threatened by strict abortion restrictions.

Trump's rally was also interrupted twice by spectators requiring medical attention. After the second incident, Trump asked organizers to play the song Ave Maria to pass the time.

That was reminiscent of a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania, where medical attention from the audience resulted in Trump swaying to that and other songs for nearly 40 minutes.

This time, however, he continued speaking after “Ave Maria” ended.

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Weissert reported from Washington and Cooper from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Melissa Perez Winder in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this report.