Featured Image Credit: The Joe Rogan Experience / YouTube
Joe Rogan's digital empire hasn't just been challenged by rival shows, but the long-running host and UFC commentator now claims that 'multiple US presidents' have tried to get Spotify to remove his chart-topping podcast.
He's made no secret of his politics over the years, frequently expressing his right-wing talking points and on many occasions offering his support to Donald Trump outside of a few rare policy disputes.
Consequently, many have asserted that Joe Rogan's popularity – especially among young males in the United States – can play a major role in influencing voting decisions, which is why his decision to snub a show with former Vice President Kamala Harris prior to the 2024 election was heavily criticised after hosting Trump on the show.
His show, The Joe Rogan Experience, began back in 2009, and there have been three different U.S. presidents across five separate terms — and Rogan now claims at least a few of them have tried to get him taken off of Spotify.
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As reported by Dexerto, he made the wild claim during the 2515th episode of his podcast, declaring:
"They tried to crush my sponsors. They organized campaigns. There was PACs involved. I can't even talk about it. But there was presidents involved and former presidents involved that were contacting Spotify."
Rogan further claimed that they "spent a lot of money, a lot of money" trying to take him down, but did not specifically name which prominent political figures were involved in the action against his podcast.
Considering Rogan officially joined Spotify in September 2020, that would mean that for there to be 'multiple' presidents involved it would apply to both former President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump.
His support for the latter makes this possibility unlikely, and its far more probable that Rogan is referring to Biden and former Democratic chief of states, perhaps even involving Barack Obama, but that possibility – and Rogan's entire claim – remain merely allegations at this point in time.
He also emphasized the importance of his relationship with Spotify, attributing that to his ability to maintain his position on the platform.
"Thank God I was on Spotify. And thank God Spotify is not an American company," Rogan continued. "And also it helped that I was number one [on the charts] in, like, 90 countries and not number 90 in one country, you know? That helped. That helped a lot."
Spotify would understandably be reluctant to part ways with its best performing podcast – especially after paying a reported fee of around $200 million for exclusive rights to the show – even when placed under pressure by what was likely an incumbent government in its biggest market.
