Donald Trump made an appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast Tuesday as the former president has slowly come to realize that internet-based media is vital to reaching people in 2024. And while it’s not the first podcast Trump has ever done, it is one of the larger ones—right up there with the tech-focused All-In podcast, which Trump appeared on back in June. Well, one of the larger ones until Joe Rogan potentially invites Trump on, something he talked about with Fridman.
Fridamn asked Trump about psychedelic drugs, the war in Ukraine, and any secret alien files that might be released someday. Trump also said that he loves to write on Truth Social at all hours, but that he gets criticism when he posts after 3 a.m. ET. The former president often writes particularly unhinged things in the middle of the night on his social media platform.
“Trump was truth-ing at three o’clock in the morning,” Trump said on the podcast, mimicking how he thinks reporters talk. “And there should be no problem with that. When they think about time zones, how do they know about, like, you know, in a time zone, like an Eastern zone?”
Trump clearly got very confused and misspoke a number of times, including when he talked about appearing on “The Answer” with Rosie O’Donnell when he meant the daytime talk show “The View.” The former president also rambled about how Joe Biden “thinks he looks good in a bathing suit, which he doesn’t.”
One of the more awkward moments during Trump’s relatively short 45-minute chat (most Fridman interviews are several hours), was when he was asked about the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and any files that Trump might release if he becomes president again.
“Um, he was a good salesman. He was, you know, a hale and hearty type of guy,” while suggesting he might release files on Epstein.
In reality, Epstein was one of Trump’s friends and there’s an incredibly creepy video of the two dancing with their lecherous looks in the 1990s. So Trump is clearly lying about releasing whatever files the U.S. government may have locked up about the guy.
Fridman kept insisting he’s an independent but did everything in his power to normalize Trump as just another politician that regular people could vote for with a clean conscience. Fridman called Trump “a great dealmaker,” and at one point even seemed to be doing political strategizing for Trump, telling the former president, “you are at your best when you’re talking about a positive vision of the future.” Trump doesn’t have a positive vision for the future, for whatever it’s worth.
And that’s actually the most dangerous element of interviews like these. At least when Trump appears on Fox News or some unhinged right-wing podcast, the audience is already made up exclusively of people voting for Trump. But Fridman is a little different. His chats can appeal to apolitical people, and there are probably many listeners who don’t care much about politics and will hear this as an endorsement of Trump as a normal individual.
Trump isn’t normal. He’s a wannabe fascist and adjudicated rapist whose dark vision for the country includes tearing apart families, denying women the right to health care, and literally executing people who he believes have betrayed him. And obviously, none of that stuff was brought up by Fridman, a terrible interviewer who achieves nothing but carrying water for a dangerous man.
The podcast is available on YouTube, but if you don’t want to sit through the entire thing, we’ve got a list summarizing it below.
- Trump rambled about newer forms of media outside of TV with genius lines like, “The whole plane of platform is changing a lot.”
- Fridman asked Trump what he’d specifically do to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Trump said his usual bullshit that he’d end the conflict with Russia but didn’t want to give away too much, saying “I can’t give you those plans.”
- Trump complained that Harris had a “softball” interview with Harris, which is a funny thing to complain about in the middle of a softball interview with Fridman.
- Trump said there was a “great possibility” of World War III.
- Trump said replacing Joe Biden on the ticket was a “coup,” and repeatedly stumbled over his words trying to talk about how Biden is mentally checked out.
- Trump falsely said the 2024 election was a “fraud.”
- Trump falsely said undocumented immigrants vote in elections.
- Trump falsely said other countries are emptying their mental institutions into the U.S.
- Trump called the attempt on his life “not a pleasant experience.”
- Fridman asked Trump about Project 2025 and the former president said he hadn’t read the 900-page policy document. Trump tried to distance himself from the plan but admitted there are “some things I like” about it.
- Trump said he agrees with the legalization of medical cannabis but suggested he doesn’t like recreational weed.
- Fridman told Trump that he recently did ayahuasca and said the spiritual benefits could help members of Congress if they used it. Trump just seemed very confused during that portion of the interview.
- Trump said “I guess I’d do it, but I haven’t been asked and I’m not asking them” about the Joe Rogan podcast.
- Trump acknowledged his “reposts” on Truth Social can get him in trouble, without recognizing that his normal posts are just as fascist and unhinged. “I call it my typewriter,” Trump said of his Truth Social posts.
- Trump also denied calling dead soldiers “suckers and losers.”
- Trump spewed many lies about Kamala Harris, including conspiracy theories about her being a secret Communist.
- Trump said he needs to “fight fire with fire” when people are attacking him.
- Trump repeatedly praised authoritarian figures, including Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban.
- Trump falsely said NATO wouldn’t exist without him.
- Trump said he’s gotten more publicity than “anybody who’s ever lived.”
- Trump said, “you’re supposed to go to heaven, ideally, not hell. But you’re supposed to go to heaven if you’re good.”
- Trump also denied breaking federal law when he used Arlington National Cemetery as the backdrop for his campaign commercial.
- In one of the only direct moments of the interview, Fridman pointed out that Trump “had some hesitation” about releasing some of the documents on Epstein. Trump responded that he didn’t think he had any hesitation and insisted “I’m not involved.”
Arguably the funniest line of the interview was Trump saying “I don’t talk about the past, I talk about the future,” which is quite hilarious. All this guy talks about is the past and how he was cheated in 2020. But Trump’s rhetoric isn’t very funny overall. It’s a threat to the safety and security of the U.S. if this man takes power again.
Trump said at one point in the interview that he’s “leading in the polls,” but he’s actually struggling now that Kamala Harris has entered the race. Harris has taken a solid lead in national polls, as well as slight leads in most battleground states, across several different pollsters.
FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average currently has Harris up 3.2 points. But nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen until people actually go to the polls in November. And while it’s not clear whether Fridman will vote for Trump, it almost doesn’t matter. The podcaster has already helped Trump with this interview more than a single vote ever could.
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