President Donald Trump has given Joe Rogan his due credit for helping deliver his 2024 election win. After the January 6th Capitol riot, Trump’s conviction and polarizing policies had taken a toll on his public standing, factors that contributed, alongside the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, to his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. For his 2024 run, Trump changed his campaign strategy and turned to podcasters and online creators instead of relying solely on mainstream media to connect directly with younger male voters.

In a recent conversation with Jake Paul on his YouTube channel, Trump reflected on how Rogan’s podcast, just weeks before the election, became a turning point in his campaign and significantly helped boost his numbers. He credited his youngest son, Barron, for helping him identify who mattered most in the space.

“Joe Rogan was a great interview. He reached 300 million people,” Donald Trump told Paul. “You know, it’s funny. I did him, and I did some other guys who were really great guys. Barron, my son, I have a very tall son, yeah. And he’s a smart guy and a good kid. But he listens to you. The first time I ever heard your name was through my son. And he knew a lot of the… I don’t know if you call them podcasters or influencers or whatever you want to call them, but he gave me some names that I had never heard of. And they were very important to the internet.

“Then he said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to do Joe Rogan.’ And we wanted to do it. We were talking about it for a long time, even before politics, about other things. But we had a great talk. It lasted for three and a half hours. And you call that long form, right? It was a nice conversation with a great guy. He’s a great guy. And she(Kamala Harris) should have done it, I guess, but she didn’t.”

The episode ran for close to three hours and has since surpassed 60 million views across YouTube and Spotify. According to AP VoteCast data cited by NPR, 56% of young men (typically ages 18–29) voted for Donald Trump in 2024, a significant jump from the 41% who voted for him in the 2020 elections. Interestingly, it was UFC CEO Dana White who persuaded the podcaster to feature Trump on his show, since Trump had supported the UFC for years, even during its struggling days.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has maintained a close relationship with the UFC, regularly attending events and, last year, announcing UFC Freedom 250—a card set for the South Lawn on June 14, headlined by Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje. However, with the big show barely 92 days away, Joe Rogan already has concerns about it, given the current climate.

Joe Rogan sounds alarm over Donald Trump’s UFC White House plans

The UFC is already spending over $60 million to stage the event, with around 5,000 spectators expected to attend. But the timing has the longtime commentator worried. On a recent podcast episode, he flagged the risks of hosting a major public gathering at the White House while the US-Iran conflict continues to escalate.

“Yes, I am excited,” Rogan said. “It sounds crazy. I know it’s going to be very high security and high stress and weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a f–king war. I would hope the war will be sorted out by June, but quite honestly, I’m not confident that’s going to be the case.

“So that’ll be weird, having this very high-profile event where everybody is in one place at one time right there. It seems like you’re asking [for trouble]. How can you not think of that? It just seems so insane.”

Joe Rogan is expected to be part of the broadcast team for the event, though the UFC has not officially confirmed the commentary lineup. His concerns, however, are hard to dismiss entirely—a high-profile, high-attendance event with international guests concentrated in a single location carries its own security risk, one that will likely remain classified until the night itself.