Trump talks biggest mistake, JFK Jr., tariffs with Rogan

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Donald Trump had a lot to say during his nearly three-hour chat with Joe Rogan.

The former U.S. president, running for office for a third time as the Republican nominee, sat down with the podcast host in Austin, Texas, on Friday with the election just over a week away.

Rogan, who boasts more than 14 million followers on Spotify and nearly 18 million followers on YouTube, asked Trump about various topics including his biggest mistake while in office, making Americans healthy again, the military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, tariffs, and Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.

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About his biggest mistake, Trump said he regretted some of the appointments he made in the early days of his administration.

“The biggest mistake I made was I picked some people, I picked some great people, you know, but you don’t think about that,” he said. “I picked some people that I shouldn’t have picked. I picked a few people that I shouldn’t have picked.”

“And neocons,” Rogan replied.

“Yeah, neocons or bad people or disloyal people,” Trump added.

Elsewhere in the interview, Trump spoke about bringing on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “Make America Healthy Again” and whether the former independent presidential candidate would have a job in his administration.

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“Oh, I am, but the only thing I want to be a little careful about with him is the environmental,” Trump said. “Because, you know, he doesn’t like oil. I love oil.

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“I think just keep him out of the fire. So I’m going to keep him out of a little bit. I said focus on health. Focus. You could do whatever you want, but I got to be a little bit careful with the liquid gold.”

Speaking about the botched U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump called retired Gen. Mark Milley “stupid” for not removing military equipment before soldiers and said he would have fired everyone involved with the plan.

“Those generals should have all been fired …,” he said. “The people that were involved with Afghanistan should have all been fired. Then they’d be writing books about him [Milley], how stupid he was, and bad he was. But you take your soldiers out last.”

American forces left Afghanistan for good under President Joe Biden’s watch in August 2021. In the last days of the evacuation, 13 U.S. service members lost their lives due to a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital Kabul.

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Trump also spoke about tariffs, suggesting he could use it on foreign goods to replace the federal income tax.

“To me, the most beautiful word — I’ve said this for the last couple of weeks — in the dictionary today is the word tariff,” Trump said. “It’s more beautiful than love, more beautiful than anything. It’s the most beautiful word. This country can become rich with the use, the proper use of tariffs.”

Rogan asked if Trump was being serious about getting rid of income taxes and replacing it with tariffs.

“Yeah, sure,” Trump said. “Why not? Our country was the richest, relatively in the 1880s and 1890s. A president who was assassinated, named McKinley, he was the tariff king.”

The Tariff Act of 1890, which sought to protect American industries and workers from foreign competition, raised the cost of foreign goods by nearly 50%.

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“He spoke beautifully of tariffs. His language was really beautiful. ‘We will not allow the enemy to come in and take our jobs and take our factories and take our workers and take our families unless they pay a big price. And the big price is tariffs.’ And he’d speak like that, but he was right. And then around in the early 1900s, they switched over stupidly to, frankly, an income tax.”

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Trump was also asked about Harris, who called him a fascist who admires dictators after his former chief of staff John Kelly said the former president suggested that Adolf Hitler “did some good things” and wanted generals like the ones Germany’s Nazi leader had.

“There’s the rhetoric is also that you’re Hitler and that in order to stop Hitler, you have to do whatever,” Rogan said. “I mean, you’re hearing this now, Kamala compared you, said you love Hitler.”

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“Kamala is a very low IQ person,” Trump replied. “She’s a very low IQ. You know, I’m for taking tests too. I think anybody that runs for president should take, they should give them a test.

“And it’s not an age thing,” Trump continued. “If you look back on history, 70s and 80s, your greatest, some of your greatest leaders in the world, world history, long time world history, they were in their 70s and their 80s. But I think you should take cognitive tests. … They say it’s unconstitutional, but I think that’s ridiculous. I think Kamala should have a test because there’s something missing. There’s something wrong with her.”

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