A rumor that podcaster Joe Rogan added 3 million new subscribers after he announced an interview with former U.S. President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican candidate for the presidency, is circulating online. For example, the Facebook page America - Love It Or Leave It posted about it on Oct. 24:
Joe Rogan has picked up 3 million new subscribers since announcing the big interview with 45.
(Facebook/America - Love It Or Leave It)
As of this writing, the post had gained 2,800 reactions and 1,000 comments. Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. "This is how popular the peoples president is [sic] everyone take notice!!!," one commenter said.
However, there was no evidence that this many people had subscribed to "The Joe Rogan Experience."
Rather, the rumor originated with a post authored by the America - Love It or Leave It Facebook page. That Facebook page is part of a network of websites and social media pages that describes its output as being humorous and satirical in nature, America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD). The parent site also posted the claim on its Facebook page with the message, "And they said boycotts don't work."
The bio sections of both Facebook pages read: "Nothing on this page is real."
The fictional story spread after Rogan announced a major interview with Trump in October 2024.
ALLOD and its affiliates have a history of making up stories for shares and comments, sometimes relying on artificial-intelligence (AI) writing software to do its storytelling.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims from ALLOD in the past, including the assertion that podcaster Howard Stern had lost 1 million subscribers after his interview with Trump's opponent Kamala Harris, and a rumor that singer Taylor Swift lost 30 million followers on social media after she endorsed Harris.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.