Conservative podcaster Joe Rogan criticized President Donald Trump for campaigning on "no more wars" before attacking Iran late last month, remarking that "this is why a lot of people"—MAGA voters—"feel betrayed."
Rogan, along with guest Michael Shellenberger, criticized the Trump administration's intervention in the Middle East that has already resulted in the deaths of at least seven U.S. service members and heightened global tensions.
Rogan said:
“Well, it just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars, and these stupid senseless wars, and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”
Shellenberger suggested that Trump had positioned himself as opposing “endless wars," to which Rogan responded, “Listen, man, they’re all endless,” drawing a comparison to how Donald Rumsfeld had once estimated the length of U.S. involvement in Iraq:
“Do you ever hear Rumsfeld talk about Iraq when it first happened? They were talking about like six weeks. Six weeks. Oh, yeah. Six weeks."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Rogan has a point, believe it or not.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has strongly criticized U.S. military involvement in Iran, describing the attack as “absolutely disgusting and evil” during an interview with ABC News in late February. Carlson said the war is "going to shuffle the deck in a profound way."
Former Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene—once a major Trump ally—referred to the Trump administration as "a bunch of sick f**king liars."
Greene argued that the administration had betrayed its campaign pledge of “No More Foreign Wars, No More Regime Change,” noting that Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their allies promised to put “America FIRST.”
She said her generation had been “let down, abused, and used” by endless conflicts that left “thousands and thousands” dead or wounded, and warned that younger Americans were being “abandoned.” Greene skeptically invoked the justification of “freeing the Iranian people,” adding a dismissive “Please.”
But this realization of Rogan's hasn't spared him from criticism considering the major role he played in getting Trump a second term in the first place.
Rogan has criticized the Trump administration more and more in recent months.
In January, he remarked on Trump's deployment of ICE agents around the country, saying the administration's immigration crackdown is being used as a distraction from the Epstein files scandal.
Of the files, Rogan, joined by fellow comedian Ehsan Ahmad, said:
“It’s gonna go on for a long time, I suspect. I mean they said they released them, but what did they release?”
Ahmad remarked that the files haven't been at the top of the headlines because of the administration's focus on immigration raids in Minnesota and the protests that have erupted since Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE agent (Good's fellow Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti would be killed by ICE agents just two days after Rogan's episode aired).
Rogan said he believes "some of that's on purpose," suggesting ICE abuses have been specifically timed to distract from Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sexual abuser, pedophile, and sex trafficker.
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