Joe Rogan highlights how fear of backlash silences artists from publicly endorsing Donald Trump: "The country is going in the wrong direction"
Joe Rogan revealed that many celebrities thanked him for daring to endorse Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential elections. Rogan interacted with Trump on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Oct. 26 and endorsed the Republican party candidate.
In a recent episode of the podcast, the 57-year-old said that he feels many people, especially public figures, pick sides purely to avoid being attacked and potentially canceled.
"If you say you support 'X', you might not even support 'X', but if you say you support 'X', you're not going to get attacked and the right people will leave you alone or agree with you and appreciate you or praise you - 'Thank you for saying that.' There's a lot of that out there. There's a lot of people that don't speak their mind."
He added:
"Do you know how many artists have reached out to me... Artists like musicians, and comedians that thanked me for endorsing Trump because they can't do it. They said they want to but they don't want to be attacked. They can't say it. they think the country is going in the wrong direction.
"They think this control of social media by the government, which we would have had pretty much fully if it wasn't for Elon Musk buying Twitter. That this is a dangerous precedent to set. Whether it's a right-wing government or a left-wing government."
Check out Joe Rogan's comments below (2:07:35):
Joe Rogan praises Donald Trump for standing up for free speech
In the aforementioned episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Joe Rogan shared his thoughts on the importance of free speech and instances of government interference in countries like the United Kingdom.
Rogan then praised Donald Trump for his commitment to preserving people's right to free speech:
"That's happening in the UK where people are being imprisoned for tweets and Facebook posts. It's mind-bending. The whole thing is nuts. It's a dangerous path that we were on. We were on that path. Trump has vowed to have free speech become a very important part of what he's standing for and that this censoring of information needs to stop and that we need to stop all government influence in what people have to say. That alone [is admirable]." [2:08:35]
Trump defeated Democratic party candidate Kamala Harris by a wide margin in the 2024 United States elections to earn his second presidential tenure. He will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025.