Podcaster Joe Rogan slammed President Trump ahead of Sunday’s UFC event at the White House, fiercely criticizing the president on the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the ongoing war in Iran.
Rogan, who previously endorsed Trump in 2024, accused the commander in chief of failing to meet expectations regarding the full release of files regarding the late convicted sex offender and not fulfilling campaign promises during Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience alongside outdoorsman Cameron Hanes.
“We’re all pissed,” Rogan told Hanes. “We all thought that, you know, all that stuff was going to be released right after the election. It’s gonna — we’re gonna drain the swamp and find all the pedophiles.”
Hanes, an Oregon native, insisted Trump had “some draining the swamp going on” during his first term, giving him hope for the Republican’s return to the White House.
“I don’t even know what this is,” Hanes said. “I don’t even know what it is.”
Rogan, who has previously criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Iran, quickly shot back.
“Well, it would have been a whole lot different for — first of all, if we didn’t bomb Iran,” Rogan said. “I feel like we bombed them the first time, we were good. The second time was like, even the first time I was like, what the f**k are we doing?”
The United States and Iran have brokered a tentative agreement to end the war, beginning with the lifting of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, according to Pakistani officials. The sides will then begin 60 days of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the potential lifting of sanctions, sources told the Associated Press on Monday. The deal is expected to be signed on Friday.
Rogan, who would later commentate the UFC event at the White House on Trump’s 80th birthday, insisted the conflict, which began on February 28, had been largely unwanted by U.S. voters in an expletive-laced rant.
“That’s the real problem,” Rogan said on Friday. “Most people in the country don’t want it. Now look, I’m no f**king foreign policy expert. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I do know that all the people I know that really support Israel above everything else, they’re f**king super happy about it. But all the people I know that are like America first, or people that are like no new wars, that really thought that we’re gonna change things, and this is all just for money, we’re not gonna sacrifice soldiers for f**king money, those people are all upset.”
Just weeks earlier, Rogan insisted the war in Iran leaves the United States “vulnerable” and unprepared for unexpected crises.
“I don’t like the Iran war thing, but I like that,” Rogan said in late May regarding Sunday’s UFC event at the White House.
“You don’t like the concept that Iran can no longer have nuclear weapons?” comedian Harland Williams replied. “I think that’s better than a UFC fight.”
But Rogan said he feared a repeat of Afghanistan, where U.S. forces invaded following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks to launch the longest military conflict in American history, culminating in a chaotic withdrawal in August 2021.
“That is a good concept,” Rogan said last month. “However, I don’t necessarily know there’s a clear way to get out of this.”
Rogan’s critique last month came just days after an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, found that the Iran war has strained U.S. weapons stockpiles and will take years to replenish as a result of budget approvals, production time and allocations to allies. The podcaster has also previously warned about the potential of a military draft following calls by a prominent technology firm for universal national service.
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