International
Trump, Joe Rogan talk about corrupt media, vaccines, ‘gender transitions’ for children in 3-hour interview

From LifeSiteNews
By Stephen Kokx
In a highly anticipated interview with Joe Rogan, Trump rebuked ‘gender transitions’ for minors, said there must be voter ID and no mail ballots in the future, affirmed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be part of his administration, and vowed to end the war in Ukraine.
Debunking claims from the Harris campaign that he is “exhausted,” Donald Trump sat down with popular podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday for an extensive, though not entirely earth-shattering, three-hour interview.
During the recording at Rogan’s Austin, Texas-based studio, Trump made no major missteps; nor did he or his interrogator tread new ground. Instead, the two held a relaxed conversation about issues Trump has addressed over the past several years, though some remarks about aliens were new.
Rogan initially asked Trump what it was like becoming president. Trump said it was a “surreal” experience while also praising the grandeur of the White House, explaining that he was especially in awe of the Lincoln bedroom. He then went on one of his famous “weaves” or tangents about how President Lincoln had “the yips” when it came to fighting Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Trump admitted to Rogan – as he has to others previously – that he hired “many people” he shouldn’t have, like Bush-era neocon John Bolton. He reiterated that he was a “New York guy” all his life and not a D.C. guy, so he had to rely on others to help him appoint his cabinet. Trump has recently said elsewhere that he knows how “the swamp” works now and that he wouldn’t make the same staffing mistakes if re-elected.
Donald Trump says the biggest mistake of his presidency was hiring neocons. pic.twitter.com/FruMi04tJv
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) October 26, 2024
The most interesting parts of the interview didn’t come until the 2-hour mark, when Rogan praised Trump’s embrace of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rogan asked Trump how he plans on “making America healthy again” with Kennedy, to which Trump responded by saying Kennedy has lots of ideas and that his presence in the campaign has many executives in Big Pharma worried. Regardless, he said Kennedy will 100 percent be part of his administration and will be able to do “whatever [he] want[s],” though not with environmental issues.
Joe Rogan says he loves Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr. teaming up to Make America Healthy Again. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
ROGAN: "Are you completely committed to him in your administration?"
TRUMP: "Oh, I am. I said, focus on health. You can do whatever you want."
ROGAN: "Do you have anyone… pic.twitter.com/w5idXALoDe
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) October 26, 2024
Rogan also asked about vaccines, though he didn’t press Trump on his controversial Operation Warp Speed initiatives. Trump seemed to agree with what Rogan was saying about how vaccines can cause adverse health issues, but the two disappointingly didn’t pursue the topic at length. Still, Rogan reminded Trump that the U.S. is one of only two countries that allows pharmaceutical drugs to be advertised on television.
“What a lot of these drugs do is act to mitigate the effects of poor metabolic health. Most of these problems that these people are suffering from wouldn’t exist if we put an emphasis on metabolic health,” he said. “If people got healthier… a whole host of these problems that people are having would go away. And the problem with that from the pharmaceutical drug standpoint is they wouldn’t be able to sell drugs to these people… If we can send $175 billion to Ukraine, we can do something to fix a lot of the health problems the United States has.”
Trump agreed that there are many “side effects” to certain drugs and that he would “never take” some of them.
Trump told Rogan that his teenage son Barron has helped him with his podcast strategy, as he has appeared on a number of shows watched primarily by young men, also called “Zoomers,” in recent weeks. The approach has resulted in a massive uptick in favorability among male voters under 25 years of age. Rogan notably told Trump that “the media, to a large extent, acts as a propaganda arm of the Democrat Party.” He said that independent media is how you get around that.
TRUMP: "It's a lot easier if you are a Democrat."
ROGAN: "The media, to a large extent, acts as a propaganda arm of the Democrat Party… Most young people are aware of it. I think boomers still read the newspapers and believe in CNN."
pic.twitter.com/8Y7wtqHWne— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) October 26, 2024
Rogan further commented on the political realignment taking place under Trump. He said that “the rebels” are “Republicans now. You want to be a rebel? You want to be punk rock? You’re want to like buck the system? You’re a conservative now.”
“And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism,” he added.
Rogan spend a large chunk of the rest of the interview asking Trump to provide more evidence of 2020 election interference. Trump, who has repeatedly discussed the topic before, especially during his debates with Biden and Harris, brought up the Russia collusion hoax, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and how states changed voting laws in the lead-up to the election and said that, in the future, there must be voter ID and no mail-in ballots.
.@joerogan: Not having Voter ID is the most bizarre argument that I've never seen anybody articulate in a way that's convincing.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because they want to cheat.
ROGAN: Well, it doesn't make sense any other way. pic.twitter.com/KfiazrahkP
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 26, 2024
Rogan agreed with the voter ID proposal while adding that he’d like to see debates change so the candidates sit down and simply discuss issues on their own without moderators.
The last half hour of the conversion proved to be the most relevant for religious and conservative Americans. After telling Rogan that Kamala Harris, who he called a “very low IQ person,” would be “lying on the floor comatose” if she appeared on his show, Trump hit back at her for claiming he is Hitler, saying that she is losing badly.
Trump also received praise from Rogan for his “comedic” timing and sensibilities, especially at his rallies. Rogan said that in order to do well in politics one should approach it with that sort of mindset at times. He praised Trump especially for his performance at the Al Smith Dinner earlier this month.
Trump also criticized pollsters, calling many of them “probably fake,” while also rebuking “sex change” surgeries for minors without parental consent and the Democratic Party’s push to ensure gender-confused males are able to compete in women’s sports. Rogan called that idea one of the most “bizarre and polarizing ideas of the left.”
"Who's going to vote for someone who wants to have men playing in women's sports?"
Donald Trump goes off on the Joe Rogan podcast on the far-left radical gender theory promoted by democrats, that's not popular by the electorate but by party elites. pic.twitter.com/vma471bwNo
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) October 26, 2024
The remainder of the interview was spent talking about the JFK files, extraterrestrials, and the war in Ukraine. Trump said, as he has before, that his CIA director at the time Mike Pompeo as well as other “good people” asked him to not release all of the JFK files. But Trump appeared to say he would release the other 50 percent of them so the nation could have a “cleansing.”
Rogan then asked Trump about aliens. Trump cryptically referred to them as “people coming from space” while recalling that he has spoken with pilots in the military who have told him they have seen objects in the sky that could not be operated by human beings.
Before ending the podcast Trump told Rogan that he will meet with both Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy and end the war in Ukraine immediately.
Trump said that he will ensure the U.S. is respected again if re-elected and that the Chinese in particular are “dreaming” about a Harris presidency because they will take advantage of America if she is in office.
“She can’t put two sentences together … these guys are very smart; they’re very streetwise and they’re very tricky and evil and dangerous. And if she becomes the president of the United States — which I cannot believe can happen — I don’t think this country’s going to make it. I think really bad things will happen to our country.”
Following the interview, Trump flew to the battleground state of Michigan for a rally that began after 10 pm.
espionage
FBI’s Dan Bongino may resign after dispute about Epstein files with Pam Bondi

From LifeSiteNews
Both Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been taking the heat for what many see as the obstruction of the full Epstein files release.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino took the day off on Friday after an argument with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s case files.
One source close to Bongino told Axios that “he ain’t coming back.” Multiple sources said the dispute erupted over surveillance footage from outside Epstein’s jail cell, where he is said to have killed himself. Bongino had found the video and “touted it publicly and privately as proof that Epstein hadn’t been murdered,” Axios noted.
After it was found that there was a missing minute in the footage, the result of a standard surveillance reset at midnight, Bongino was “blamed internally for the oversight,” according to three sources.
Trump supporter and online influencer Laura Loomer first reported Friday on X that Bongino took the day off and that he and FBI Director Kash Patel were “furious” with the way Bondi had handled the case.
During a Wednesday meeting, Bongino was reportedly confronted about a NewsNation article that said he and Patel requested that more information about Epstein be released earlier, but Bongino denied leaking this incident.
“Pam said her piece. Dan said his piece. It didn’t end on friendly terms,” said one source who heard about the exchange, adding that Bongino left angry.
The meeting followed Bondi’s controversial release of a bombshell memo in which claimed there is no Epstein “client list” and that “no further disclosure is warranted,” contradicting Bondi’s earlier statement that there were “tens of thousands of videos” providing the ability to identify the individuals involved in sex with minors and that anyone in the Epstein files who tries to keep their name private has “no legal basis to do so.”
The memo “is attempting to sweep the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal under the rug,” according to independent investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger in a superb analysis published on X.
“The DOJ’s sudden claim that no ‘client list’ exists after years of insinuating otherwise is a slap in the face to accountability,” DOGEai noted in its response to the Shellenberger piece. “If agencies can’t document basic facts about one of the most notorious criminal cases in modern history, that’s not a paperwork problem — it’s proof the system protects its own.”
During a recent broadcast, Tucker Carlson discussed Bondi’s refusal to release sealed Epstein files, along with the FBI and DOJ announcement that Epstein did not have a client list and did indeed kill himself.
Carlson offered the theory that U.S. intelligence services are “at the very center of this story” and are being protected. His guest, Saagar Enjeti, agreed. “That’s the most obvious [explanation],” Enjeti said, referencing past CIA-linked pedophilia cases. He noted the agency had avoided prosecutions for fear suspects would reveal “sources and methods” in court.
Investigative journalist Whitney Webb has discussed in her book “One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein,” how the intelligence community leverages sex trafficking through operatives like Epstein to blackmail politicians, members of law enforcement, businessmen, and other influential figures.
Just one example of evidence of this, according to Webb, is former U.S. Secretary of Labor and U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta’s explanation as to why he agreed to a non-prosecution deal in the lead-up to Epstein’s 2008 conviction of procuring a child for prostitution. Acosta told Trump transition team interviewers that he was told that Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” adding that he was told to “leave it alone,” The Daily Beast reported.
While Epstein himself never stood trial, as he allegedly committed suicide while under “suicide watch” in his jail cell in 2019, many have questioned the suicide and whether the well-connected financier was actually murdered as part of a cover-up.
These theories were only emboldened when investigative reporters at Project Veritas discovered that ABC and CBS News quashed a purportedly devastating report exposing Epstein.
Business
Trump confirms 35% tariff on Canada, warns more could come

Quick Hit:
President Trump on Thursday confirmed a sweeping new 35% tariff on Canadian imports starting August 1, citing Canada’s failure to curb fentanyl trafficking and retaliatory trade actions.
Key Details:
- In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said the new 35% levy is in response to Canada’s “financial retaliation” and its inability to stop fentanyl from reaching the U.S.
- Trump emphasized that Canadian businesses that relocate manufacturing to the U.S. will be exempt and promised expedited approvals for such moves.
- The administration has already notified 23 countries of impending tariffs following the expiration of a 90-day negotiation window under Trump’s “Liberation Day” trade policy.
Diving Deeper:
President Trump escalated his tariff strategy on Thursday, formally announcing a 35% duty on all Canadian imports effective August 1. The move follows what Trump described as a breakdown in trade cooperation and a failure by Canada to address its role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis.
“It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship,” Trump wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney. He added that the tariff response comes after Canada “financially retaliated” against the U.S. rather than working to resolve the flow of fentanyl across the northern border.
Trump’s letter made clear the tariff will apply broadly, separate from any existing sector-specific levies, and included a warning that “goods transshipped to evade this higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff.” The president also hinted that further retaliation from Canada could push rates even higher.
However, Trump left the door open for possible revisions. “If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,” he said, adding that tariffs “may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship.”
Canadian companies that move operations to the U.S. would be exempt, Trump said, noting his administration “will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely — In other words, in a matter of weeks.”
The U.S. traded over $762 billion in goods with Canada in 2024, with a trade deficit of $63.3 billion, a figure Trump called a “major threat” to both the economy and national security.
Speaking with NBC News on Thursday, Trump suggested even broader tariff hikes are coming, floating the idea of a 15% or 20% blanket rate on all imports. “We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay,” he told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, adding that “the tariffs have been very well-received” and noting that the stock market had hit new highs that day.
The Canadian announcement is part of a broader global tariff rollout. In recent days, Trump has notified at least 23 countries of new levies and revealed a separate 50% tariff on copper imports.
“Not everybody has to get a letter,” Trump said when asked if other leaders would be formally notified. “You know that. We’re just setting our tariffs.”
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