Joe Rogan, whose podcast helped President Trump make gains with young men before the 2024 election, is starting to sound like a disappointed voter. On a podcast episode with conservative writer Michael Shellenberger released on Tuesday, Rogan questioned the war on Iran, saying many supporters feel "betrayed" after Trump campaigned on ending foreign wars, NBC News reports. The operation, Rogan said, "seems so insane based on what he ran on." He linked the Iran campaign to what he called "endless" US wars, recalling Donald Rumsfeld's famously wrong 2003 prediction that the Iraq war would be over in months.
Trump "ran on 'no more wars,' 'end these stupid, senseless wars,' and then we have one that we can't even really clearly define why we did it," Rogan said. He described the Iran action as "nuts," contrasting it with the US operation that seized Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face charges. "Neither thing made any sense," Rogan said, but at least the Venezuela operation was "clean." He floated the idea that Trump may be influenced by Israel or "war hawks around him," and warned that with Iran added to conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, "it genuinely feels like there's a real possibility that we might be entering World War III."
Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, has seemed increasingly skeptical of the administration in recent months, though his Tuesday remarks were "unusually direct," the New York Times reports. In December, he described the plaque insulting Joe Biden that Trump put up at the White House as "so crazy." In January, he criticized the administration's immigration crackdown, saying, "Are we really going to be the Gestapo? 'Where's your papers?' Is that what we've come to?"
The White House pushed back against Rogan's "betrayal" remarks. Trump "is courageously protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime—and that is as America First as it gets," spokesperson Anna Kelly told NBC. Rogan's criticism comes as other right-leaning influencers and some early Trump boosters question the Iran strategy and as support for Trump among young men has slipped in polls.
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