Donald Trump met with Joe Rogan to record a three-hour interview for “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Friday. The episode was released later on Friday evening.

In the wide-ranging discussion, Trump said his biggest mistake during his time 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 would release evidence that the election was “stolen,” Trump changed the subject.

Rogan asked Trump whether the former president made “poor decisions” when appointing officials to the White House. After bragging about his Supreme Court nominees, Trump admitted that “the biggest mistake I made” was “picking some people I shouldn't have picked.” Rogan asked if Trump referred to “neoconservatives,” to which Trump replied, “Yes, neoconservatives or bad people or disloyal people.”

In this regard, Trump named two former members of his administration: John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who had been Trump's chief of staff, and John Bolton, his national security adviser – both of whom have sharply criticized Trump and the dangers he poses. Kelly and Bolton are among many former Trump officials who have been highly critical of the ex-president since their time in office. In an interview with The New York Times this week, Kelly said Trump fits the definition of a fascist and has no understanding of the Constitution – and confirmed earlier reports that Trump had made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler.

In the interview with Rogan, Trump called Kelly “a tyrant but a weak person” and said he was “bad” while disparaging Bolton as “an idiot.”

Rogan pressed Trump over the former president's claims that “you were robbed in 2020” when Trump lost to Joe Biden in the US presidential election.

“How do you think you were robbed?” Rogan asked, according to Mediaite's summary of the exchange. Trump said, “This election was so crooked, it was the crooked election.” Rogan asked for some examples. Trump responded: “Well, let's start, let's start at the top and with the easy things.” They were supposed to get approval from the legislature for the things they did, and in many cases they didn't get it, they got it not.” Rogan wanted to know what “legislative approval” he was talking about. Trump continued: “For example, for an extension of the vote, for an earlier vote.” All these different things. By law, they had to obtain legislative approval. You don't have to go any further. If you look at Wisconsin, they have basically admitted that the election was rigged, robbed and stolen. They did not allow access to the ballots in certain areas because the ballots were not signed. They weren't originals. They were – we could go into these things. We could get into the voting, or we could get into the overall standings.”

Rogan then asked Trump, “Are you ever going to present this?” Trump seemingly ignored the question and instead brought up the story about Hunter Biden's laptop, which the New York Post first reported shortly before the 2020 election. A letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials at the time the initial story was published said: “They believed that the contents of the laptop – full of evidence of drug use, prostitution and foreign business dealings – could be part of a Russian campaign to influence the election.” “ reported the New York Times. However, the laptop actually belonged to Hunter Biden. On Rogan's show, Trump repeated baseless Republican claims that the seeds of doubt about the authenticity of the laptop somehow helped elect President Biden.

Rogan and Trump agreed on a number of issues. Rogan claimed that “the rebels are now Republicans” and called the conservatives “punk rock” while “the liberals are now for silencing criticism.” They are proponents of censorship. You talk about regulating free speech. It's banal to look at.” Trump responded: “They're going after their political opponents. They did something that is only done in third world countries.” Trump added, without providing any evidence: “I could have put corrupt Hillary (Clinton) in prison.”

Additionally, Rogan asked Trump if he was “fully committed” to appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his administration. In August, Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. Trump responded: “Oh, I totally am. But the only thing I want to pay a little attention to with him is the environment. Because he doesn't like oil. I love oil and gas.”

The full episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Trump is available on YouTube and Spotify.

In a post on X, Rogan said the YouTube upload was temporarily suspended after a technical issue delayed the episode's distribution on Spotify. “There is no problem with YouTube censoring the Trump episode,” Rogan wrote. “It was just supposed to go live on Spotify and YouTube at the same time, and there was an error in Spotify's upload system. Therefore, we have removed the YouTube link until the issue is resolved. It should be fine now.”