Right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan had a big laugh over President Donald Trump’s surprising response to the possibility of a terror attack at his 80th birthday bash—and the nation’s 250th anniversary fete, which featured bloody UFC fights on the White House lawn last weekend.
Trump seemed almost nonchalant about the possibility, Rogan indicated on Saturday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
“I said to Trump, ‘I hope we don’t die in a terrorist attack,’” recounted Rogan, who was on the scene at the White House as the master of ceremonies and fight commentator for the big event. “He goes, ‘We gotta go somehow.’ I go, ‘What the f---, dude?’” Rogan said, cracking up.
Rogan’s podcast guests, mixed martial arts coach Trevor Wittman and UFC Lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, also laughed about the president’s response, and both admitted they considered the possibility of terrorism.
Wittman said he was “honestly really nervous. I was like, dude… something could happen.” Gaethje admitted he had the same thought, but laughed it off. “I was like, f--- it. If I get taken out in the middle of the cage, how f---ing legendary would that be?”
Rogan began to worry about the threat of an attack at the event earlier in the year, particularly because of Trump’s war with Iran.
“I know it’s going to be very high-security and high stress and weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a f---ing war,” Rogan said on his podcast in March. “I would hope the war will be sorted out by June, but quite honestly, I’m not confident that’s going to be the case. So that’ll be weird—having this very high-profile event where everyone’s in one place at one time right there.”
Rogan spoke out against the UFC contest before the event, but ended up blown away by the spectacle.
“That was the wildest experience that I’ve ever had in my 20-whatever years of calling combat sports. There’s nothing even close. It was the greatest night of fights of all time. It was the only night in the history of the sport where every single fight ended by knockout,” he said.
“I felt so American,” Rogan stated.
