Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon fumed on Wednesday over Joe Rogan’s declaration that Donald Trump is not welcome on his popular podcast, sulking that the ex-president doesn’t need Rogan’s “low-information” listeners anyway.
In an interview with fellow podcast host Lex Fridman earlier this week, Rogan revealed that he’d shot down multiple offers for Trump to appear on The Joe Rogan Experience, adding that he is personally “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape, or form.” Rogan, who has become a cult hero among conservatives in recent years, flatly said that he’s “not interested in helping” Trump politically.
Bannon did not take too kindly to Rogan’s complete rejection of the disgraced twice-impeached former president.
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During Wednesday’s broadcast of his War Room: Pandemic program, which airs on little-watched fringe channel Real America’s Voice, Bannon began grumbling to former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes about Rogan’s Trump snub.
“You know Joe Rogan’s trash-talking Trump—where’s Joe Rogan taking the hundred million dollars blood money from Spotify?” Bannon ranted, invoking the UFC commentator’s lucrative contract with the streaming giant.
“Where is he about Spotify putting this guy’s rap videos up and making money off it,” he continued, referencing the Highland Park shooter’s videos that were posted on the platform. “Why didn’t they notify the police? Why?!”
Bannon, who is currently fighting contempt charges for ignoring the Jan. 6 House committee’s subpoena, then focused his energy back on Rogan.
“And you got Joe Rogan over there, trash-talking Trump. ‘I don’t give Trump any platform.’ No offense. He doesn’t need your platform. He doesn’t need your low-information voters,” he blared about the charter member of the so-called Intellectual Dark Web.
“Trump deals with high-information people. Your audience couldn’t handle War Room—couldn’t follow it. Start talking inverted yield curve, your eyes would cross,” Bannon bizarrely concluded. “So, you know, don’t trash talk and then take money from Spotify when Spotify is part of the problem.”
Bannon’s shot at Rogan, who recently backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, comes amid a growing rift in right-wing media over the upcoming 2024 election. With Trump reportedly on the verge of officially announcing another bid for the White House, many conservatives are breaking with the ex-president over the damaging Jan. 6 hearings and getting behind the ultra-conservative DeSantis as the GOP presidential nominee.
