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By Shannon Power
Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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Joe Rogan suggested former President Donald Trump has a tough road ahead of him if he wants to be voted in as leader of the U.S. again.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for November's presidential elections, would have to "correct course" over his prior acceptance of Covid-19 vaccines while he was in office to win over voters, the podcaster said.
While president in 2020, Trump signed an executive order to help expedite access to vaccines in the fight to help curb the coronavirus pandemic. He even dubbed it "Operation Warp Speed" after he left the White House, but he has since dialed back his support of vaccines and his role in getting the drugs to the American public.
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Rogan made the comments on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, after his guest, comedian Tim Dillon, claimed Trump's biggest "downfall" in the 2024 presidential race will be his handling of the Covid pandemic and vaccine program.
"He was the guy who [put] 'Warp Speed' into place... and I think that's his biggest vulnerability," said Rogan.
"A lot of people don't trust him because of that period and he hasn't corrected course, right?"
As an avid critic of Covid vaccines, Rogan mused that Trump has probably not done a full U-turn on his bragging about his vaccine legacy because "it's very difficult for him to ever say that he's wrong."
Newsweek contacted Trump's representatives by email for comment.
At the time, Trump received bipartisan praise for his work on the Covid vaccine, but a Newsweek analysis of Trump's campaign rallies found he had shifted his rhetoric on vaccines after being booed at multiple rallies in 2021. In his recent speeches, he stopped taking credit for the vaccines and highlighted his opposition to vaccine and mask mandates, or simply avoided discussing the pandemic at all.
"This was one of the few real successes in his leadership during the initial stages of the pandemic. Moderate and undecided voters are more likely to view that vaccine effort positively, so he could use it to argue that he does know how to make government 'work' when it's necessary," Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek in April.
At recent rallies, Trump vowed he would "not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate," but his campaign clarified to Newsweek he was only referring to Covid vaccines, rather than general vaccination requirements that have been in place for decades.
Trump has spoken about why he does not discuss the vaccines anymore.
"I really don't want to talk about it because, as a Republican, it's not a great thing to talk about, because for some reason it's just not," Trump said in a June 2023 interview with Fox News host Bret Baier.
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