Joe Rogan says his interview with former President Donald Trump faced an “issue” that prevented it from surfacing on YouTube’s search function, a problem Google reportedly said it is addressing, as some fans allege—without evidence—the video sharing site has intentionally suppressed the interview.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - APRIL 12: Joe Rogan MC's during the UFC 300 ceremonial weigh-in at MGM Grand ... [+]
Rogan tweeted Tuesday his now-prominent interview faced “an issue with searching for this episode on YouTube” and uploaded the video in its entirety to X (Rogan did not speculate on the cause of the issue).
Rogan also reposted a video from David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO of software firm 37signals, showing dozens of incorrect videos appearing in his YouTube search and saying it “would be beyond bonkers if they're actively trying to suppress it. Must be a glitch, right?”
Hansson is one of dozens of X accounts reporting issues with finding the interview or noting YouTube’s search function showed snippets of the Trump interview instead of the full video, as some users appear to imply YouTube had intentionally suppressed it, with billionaire Elon Musk posting on X, “YouTube experienced some uh … technical difficulties.”
There is no direct evidence YouTube deliberately did not show the interview, which remains available and appears in search results when attempted by Forbes.
An unnamed spokesperson for YouTube parent Google told Variety late Monday the video “didn’t appear prominently” for “some searches on Monday,” and the issue had been “resolved,” though it didn’t specify what caused the issue (the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes).
On Oct. 25, Rogan first posted the highly anticipated hours-long interview with Trump to YouTube and Spotify.
After being first posted, Rogan said his team delisted the video from YouTube, meaning it was no longer visible, to fix what Rogan described as a “glitch” in the uploading process across his social media accounts; he later made the episode available, saying on Oct. 25, “there is no issue with YouTube censoring the Trump episode.”
Rogan’s episode with Trump quickly became one of the most notable episodes in the podcast’s history. It was the first time a former president went on the show and had been in the works for weeks, after Rogan previously said he would never host Trump on the show. For the Trump campaign, the interview was an opportunity to reach a voting bloc of young men who might be less inclined to vote in a strategy to combat the predicted strength of Harris’ female supporters. In the past year, Trump has been on dozens of similar podcasts catering to a male audience, but Rogan’s podcast is the most-listened-to podcast on Spotify. In the episode, the two talked about election fraud (but didn’t provide details), Trump’s policies as president and the existence of aliens.
It still appears unlikely, but Rogan posted Tuesday he hopes to make it happen. “For the record, the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast,” he writes, adding that “they offered a date for Tuesday,” but he “would have had to travel to her” for only an hour-long interview. Harris’ campaign has said she could not make it on the podcast due to scheduling conflicts.
37 million. That’s how many views Rogan’s interview with Trump has on YouTube. The podcast, which has been interviewing guests for over a decade, now only has two episodes with more views. Rogan’s most viewed episode on YouTube, at 61 million views, is with controversial character Bob Lazar and film director Jeremy Corbell, two names behind a prominent Area 51 documentary. His second most viewed YouTube episode, with 38 million views, is with famous whistleblower Edward Snowden.