Rogan and Trump challenge the ‘Spirit of the Age’ in an epic interview

I just finished Joe Rogan’s interview with Donald Trump and wanted to share my thoughts while it’s still fresh in my mind.

This interview will likely be the most consequential political event of my lifetime — maybe ever. Future interviews will try to emulate its style and influence, making it a generational harbinger much like the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate of 1960. But whatever comes next will only build on the precedent set here for the following reasons.

If the culture war needs voices like Rogan and Trump, so be it.

Rogan arguably has the widest reach of any show since Oprah Winfrey, and his audience is distinct: men who see themselves as truth-seekers and who distrust the current political and media landscape.

For better or worse, Rogan now guides more of the next generation of male discipleship and leadership in this country than the church does — an influence shift that the church has allowed.

Trump is arguably now the most famous living person in human history. And yet the largest platform in the country was still able to grant him the opportunity to counter so many misconceptions of who he actually is, what he actually thinks, and the resistance movement he represents.

This interview alone won’t erase nearly a decade of malevolent corporate journalism, but it’s a D-Day invasion-level event. The marriage of the largest alternative media platform yet devised and the biggest living threat to the current media-political-industrial complex has established a beachhead in the enemy’s occupied territory. Just as June 6, 1944, forever shifted the momentum in the last great war, it is quite possible that October 25, 2024, will be seen by future generations as the great momentum-shifter in the great information war.

The benefit of this interview for candidate Trump could be equivalent to the largest and most expensive media ad buy in political history — something unattainable given the resources and precise messaging required to pull it off effectively.

This may become the most-watched interview in human history, featuring a candidate whose last two campaigns were decided by a combined margin of fewer than 130,000 votes in key swing states. It granted him an unrestricted platform to redefine himself for millions just as the election unfolds.

This single conversation inflicted more epistemological damage on the Spirit of the Age that threatens Western civilization than the Christian Church has managed in a generation. Once the institution that shaped this civilization, the church has become weakened and passive in confronting today’s cultural battles.

It was just two individuals, each with their own unconventional beliefs, pursuing truth, common sense, and the common good. It’s clear why the Spirit of the Age attempted to dismantle Rogan’s platform during the COVID-19 pandemic and has targeted Trump himself for assassination not once but twice. By contrast, it’s equally clear why many pastors don’t face such opposition — they simply aren’t seen as a threat, and tragically, few even aspire to be.

The conversation about environmentalism may be the best example. Trump demonstrated a surprising command of the issue and, in one interview, inflicted more damage on a core tenet of the left’s occult religion than I’ve ever seen in a single setting. Given Rogan’s largely post-partisan audience, the reach and impact of this moment are significant.

This was cultural evangelism in action. Trump dismantled the left’s climate narrative as effectively as John of Damascus challenged Islam or Francis Schaeffer deconstructed the counterculture. This approach poses a serious threat to the prevailing Spirit of the Age.

If Trump and Rogan can reframe common sense in a way that transcends the mostly artificial partisan divide, they present a far more existential threat to societal darkness than the current state of the church, sadly. This conversation unfolds against the backdrop of leftists attacking publications like the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times for not rubbing their bellies.

This interview also signals where the culture war may go post-Trump. With the church caught up in self-censorship and essentially emasculating itself, something else must emerge to confront the darkness. Would God prefer to use our family-values pastors who speak with little vice? Absolutely. But just as Gideon sounded the trumpet for battle, the church has decided it has better things to do.

So if the culture war needs voices like Rogan and Trump, so be it. As believers, we shouldn’t compromise our core principles — we’re not allowed that luxury. But we should recognize where the battle is, go there, and stand with those willing to fight. Not everyone storming the beaches of Normandy was a devout believer, yet they fought. Cast aside your sweater vests and furrowed brows and join this fight while we still can. Joe Rogan’s interview with Donald Trump confirms that this battle will happen — with or without us.