Joe Rogan was fact-checked during an episode of his podcast after mistaking a video of President Donald Trump and Serena Williams for one that had recently been produced.
On an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience published on January 31, the host spoke to guest Brian Simpson, a stand-up comic who hosts the “Bottom of the Barrel” improvised comedy show, about how important it is that the government inspires people to exercise. Rogan also said that if Americans were healthier, there’d be “less losers.”
Rogan then went on to discuss a video of Trump playing tennis with Williams and commended the president’s ability to play the sport. However, his producer revealed that the footage was filmed 10 years ago when Trump would have been more spritely than he is now.
Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Rogan for comment on Thursday outside of normal hours.
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“Did you see him play tennis with Serena Williams? He took his shoes off and he’s playing tennis with Serena Williams,” Rogan said, to which Simpson asked: “I mean playing, playing?”
“Not playing, like, as good as she can play, she’s not going to embarrass him, they’re volleying back and forth,” Rogan responded.
When Simpson queried whether the president was running in the video, Rogan said: “He plays tennis man, he can play tennis. Like, the guy plays tennis, like, he’s—I mean, I don’t know how to play tennis so I don’t know if it looks good, but I’m looking at him hit the ball, it looks like he’s doing it the right—he doesn’t look like me if I was doing it, I’d be a f****** spaz, I don’t know how to play tennis.”
However, the podcast’s producer, Jamie Vernon, quickly cut in to reveal the footage had actually been filmed back in 2015 when Barack Obama was president.
“Oh, it was? Oh, oh God damn it, I got lied to by the [Instagram] Reels, I thought it just happened,” Rogan said as he laughed.
The men went on to watch the video, with Rogan saying Williams could “clearly f*** [Trump] up” and complimented the former professional tennis player’s “nice, gentle serve.”
“But look at it dude, he’s firing back,” Rogan continued, to which Vernon added: “Both of his shots were out of bound.”
“He’s old,” Rogan said. “I mean but he is doing better than I would,” Simpson quipped, to which Rogan agreed.
While Rogan acknowledged that Trump “eats nothing but McDonald’s, drinks diet Cokes,” he said he was “sharp as a tack.” He also said many men don’t enjoy going to the gym, instead opting to play various sports.
“There’s a lot of guys that are too, um, they can’t go to a gym. They need a purpose or they need something that occupies their brain so they play golf or they play tennis or they play games, they play pickup basketball,” Rogan continued.
“They do that for their health because they just can’t do the gym thing, ‘I just don’t want to do it,’ so they do something that keeps them active … so [Trump is] active but that dude just eats cheeseburgers and s*** all day long.”
Rogan, one of the most influential podcasters in the world, endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and interviewed him on The Joe Rogan Experience shortly before Americans went to the polls. He even attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.
