Donald Trump tells Joe Rogan that the ‘biggest mistake’ of his presidency was electing ‘bad’ and ‘disloyal people’

On Friday, Donald Trump met with Joe Rogan to record a three-hour interview for “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. The episode aired later on Friday night.

During a wide-ranging discussion, Trump said his biggest mistake while in the White House was hiring “bad or disloyal people.” The former president also repeated baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” but when Rogan asked him if he was going to release evidence proving the election was “stolen,” Trump changed the subject.

More from Variety

Rogan asked Trump whether the former president made “bad choices” in appointing White House officials. After boasting about his Supreme Court nominees, Trump admitted that “the biggest mistake I made” was that “I picked some people I shouldn’t have picked.” Rogan asked if Trump was referring to “neocons,” to which Trump replied, “Yes, neoconservatives, bad people or disloyal people.”

In this context, Trump mentioned two former members of his administration: John Kelly, a retired Marine general who was Trump’s chief of staff, and John Bolton, his national security adviser – both of whom have been sharply critical of Trump and the threats he poses. Kelly and Bolton are among many former Trump officials who have become highly critical of the former president since serving under him. In interview in the New York Times this week, Kelly claimed that Trump meets the definition of a fascist and does not understand the Constitution, and also confirmed earlier reports that Trump had spoken admiringly about Adolf Hitler.

In his interview with Rogan, Trump called Kelly “a bully but a weak person” and claimed he was “evil,” disparaging Bolton as an “idiot.”

Additionally, Rogan asked Trump if he was “totally committed” to appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his administration. In August, Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. Trump replied: “Oh, totally yes. But the one thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environment. Because he doesn’t like oil. I love oil and gas.”

The entire episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Trump is available on the website YouTube AND Spotify.

In a post on X, Rogan said that the episode’s upload to YouTube had been temporarily suspended after a technical issue delayed the episode’s distribution on Spotify. “I have no problem with YouTube censoring the Trump episode,” Rogan wrote. “It was supposed to stream simultaneously on Spotify and YouTube, but there was a glitch in Spotify’s streaming system, so we’ve removed the YouTube link until it’s fixed. It should be fine now.

The best of diversity