As wildly popular podcaster Joe Rogan comes under heavy fire for spreading Covid-19 misinformation and his long history of racist, misogynistic and transphobic remarks, former US President Donald Trump has encouraged him to stand his ground.
In a statement issued on Monday night, Mr Trump wrote that the host should shrug off the attacks against him and resist efforts to silence him or change his ways.
“Joe Rogan is an interesting and popular guy,” wrote the ex-president, “but he’s got to stop apologising to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics.
“How many ways can you say you’re sorry? Joe, just go about what you do so well and don’t let them make you look weak and frightened.
“That’s not you and it never will be!”
While the growing outrage at Mr Rogan was sparked by a recent run of interviews where he and his guests shared false claims about Covid-19 and the veracity of peer-reviewed scientific research into the virus and vaccines designed to protect against it, many of his critics have pointed to myriad incidents in which he uses racist epithets, jokes about coercing women into sex acts, and mocks trans people using offensive terms.
Mr Rogan has apologised for some of the incidents, and Spotify – which paid $100m to host his podcast exclusively – has removed multiple back episodes while defending its decision to keep him on its platform.
As major artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell withdraw their music from Spotify citing Mr Rogan’s hosting of misinformation, many on the right besides Mr Trump are defending him from what they consider an act of organised left-wing “cancellation”.
Right-wing website Rumble yesterday offered Mr Rogan $100m to defect from Spotify to its “anti-censorship” platform, writing that “we stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation”.
