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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Many of Donald Trump’s supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview.
Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state.
Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.
The interview, taped in Austin, Texas, was released Friday night and ran a whopping three hours, with Trump telling many familiar stories from his rallies and other interviews but also engaging with Rogan on topics like the existence of UFOs.
Democrat Kamala Harris was also in Texas Friday for an appearance with superstar Beyoncé in Houston at an event highlighting the conservative state's abortion ban, which was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe were nominated by Trump.
Minutes before Trump's Michigan rally was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was just leaving Texas, more than two hours away by air. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, “We’re going to have a good time tonight.”
Trump eventually took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures dipped to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The crowd erupted into cheers as video screens showed Trump’s plane arriving and then him walking off his plane and down the steps.
“I am so sorry,” he said. “We got so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.”
Attendees who hadn't left bundled up, some covered by blankets, as they waited for him to land. The crowd sounded and looked disengaged as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon tried to kill time onstage. Hats were thrown to attendees.
Among those who stuck around at Trump’s rally were John and Cheryl Sowash, who live in Traverse City, and arrived at the airport at 4 p.m.
“Things happen,” said John. “He spoke to a lot more people talking to Joe Rogan than he did here.”
Indeed, Cheryl said she was worried about Trump, who had missed speaking to a larger crowd.
“He’s gonna be disappointed, because there were twice as many people here. He missed it,” she said.
His interview with Rogan created another opportunity for the Republican nominee to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid. Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and tapping surrogates who sometimes use crude language.
Throughout the lengthy conversation, Trump told familiar stories but occasionally dropped new color and nuance.
Rogan pressed Trump on whether he’s “completely committed” to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his administration.
“Oh, I completely am,” Trump responded, but added he and Kennedy disagree on environmental policies. He said he’ll tell Kennedy to “focus on health, do whatever you want.”
Kennedy has been instrumental in spreading skepticism about vaccines, rejecting the overwhelming consensus among scientists that the benefits of inoculation outweigh the rare risk of side effects.
Trump again seemed to entertain the idea of eliminating federal income taxes, telling Rogan, “Yeah, sure why not?” when asked by the podcast host if he was serious about it.
He also repeated at length his grievances about the 2020 election but said, "If I win, this will be my last election.”
Trump said he’s “never been a believer” in theories about extraterrestrial life visiting Earth. He said he is asked constantly about what the U.S. government knows about “the people coming from space.” He said as president he was told “a lot” but he dodged Rogan’s entreaties to discuss alien life in detail.
And he criticized federal subsidies aiming to significantly boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. Chipmakers have credited the legislation for enabling billions of dollars in new factories, including in battleground state Arizona.
He also ripped Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that has long been aligned with the U.S.
“You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump told Rogan. “OK. They want us to protect and they want protection. They don’t pay us money for the protection, you know? The mob makes you pay money, right?”
Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose Beijing government considers Taiwan a breakaway province, a “brilliant guy, whether you like it or not.”
The podcaster is known for his hours-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed as a comedian friend described repeatedly coercing young female comics into sex.
Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he declined to host Trump on his podcast before because he did not want to help him.
Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that Kennedy, then a candidate, was the only person running for president who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.
In Michigan and at an earlier press conference in Texas, Trump repeatedly mocked his opponent’s rally in Houston. “Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” he told the Michigan crowd.
He used his trip to Texas, his second stop in a border state in two days, to escalate his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration.
“We’re like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want,” Trump told supporters Friday in Austin. Trump has continued to push the unfounded idea that foreign governments actively send criminals to the U.S.
Harris said the remark is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.”
“The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are, and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris told reporters in Houston before her event.
As the temperature in Michigan dropped Friday night and many in the crowd streamed out, Trump suggested that his campaign advisers have urged him not to repeat his past statements about being the “protector” of women.
The former president mimicked advice he said he was getting: “‘Sir, please don’t say you’re going to protect women.’” But he said he planned to keep saying it. “I mean, that’s our job.”
That too was a response of sorts to the Harris event, which was focused on protecting reproductive rights and included a string of women talking about having their health threatened by strict abortion restrictions.
Trump’s rally was also interrupted twice by audience members needing medical attention. After the second incident, Trump asked organizers to play the song Ave Maria to fill the time.
That was reminiscent of a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania when medical attention being required in the audience caused Trump to sway to that and other songs for nearly 40 minutes.
This time, though, he continued speaking after “Ave Maria” ended.
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Weissert reported from Washington and Cooper from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Melissa Perez Winder in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this report.