Source: Radio New Zealand
By Aaron Blake, CNN
Podcaster Joe Rogan Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports / Reuters via CNN Newsource
Analysis – If there’s one figure who epitomized President Donald Trump’s ability to cobble together a winning coalition in 2024, it might have been Joe Rogan – the influential podcaster who made big news by endorsing Trump on the eve of the election after interviewing him.
(On the flipside, much ink has been spilled about the Kamala Harris campaign not booking a date with Rogan’s podcast and the detrimental effect that might have had on her bid to become president.)
Sixteen months later, Rogan epitomizes Trump’s problems in holding that coalition together.
Rogan has broken with Trump on several major issues since mid-2025. And polling shows the issues he’s picked happen to be some of Trump’s biggest political liabilities – including the war with Iran, the Jeffrey Epstein files and immigration enforcement.
Iran
The big, new one is the war with Iran. Rogan said Tuesday that Trump’s ongoing assault on the country broke his promises to his voters.
“But it just seems so insane based on what he ran on,” Rogan said. “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.”
Rogan had also been skeptical of Trump’s plans to target Venezuela before the ouster of Nicolas Maduro back in January. But he said that operation was at least “clean.” The military engagement to bring in Maduro lasted only a few hours, as opposed to the war with Iran, which is nearly two weeks old with no clear end in sight.
“It just doesn’t make any sense to me – unless we’re acting on someone else’s interests, like particularly Israel’s interests,” Rogan added. “It just didn’t make any sense to me.”
Nearly every poll shows the war with Iran is unpopular, with a majority opposing it and independents opposing it around 2-to-1. In fact, it might be the most unpopular new military conflict in a very long time.
Epstein
Rogan has for months expressed incredulity about the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
Similar to Iran, he’s cast it as a betrayal of Trump’s supporters, even suggesting that their belief Trump would make Epstein materials public if he won the election was a part of why they backed him.
“There’s a lot of stuff about, you know, when we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things are going to be resolved. We’re going to drain the swamp. We’re going to figure everything out,” Rogan said in July. “And when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody’s been talking about forever, and then they’re trying to gaslight you on that?”
Last month, he called the FBI’s claim that there is no evidence Epstein had clients “the gaslightiest gaslighting sh*t I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Two days later, on February 12, he took aim at the Justice Department’s strange and inconsistent redactions practices.
“Like, what is this? This is not good. None of this is good for this administration,” Rogan said. “It looks f**king terrible. It looks terrible.”
Jeffrey Epstein pictured with Donald Trump. Getty / Davidoff Studios Photography
Rogan criticized Trump in particular for referring to the matter as a “hoax,” and even entertained the idea that Trump knew what Epstein had been doing.
“It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real, this is all a hoax. This is not a hoax,” Rogan added. “Like, did you not know? Maybe he didn’t know, if you want to be charitable. But this is definitely not a hoax.”
A January CNN poll found just 6% of Americans said they were satisfied with what the federal government had released of the Epstein files to that point.
A more recent Reuters-Ipsos poll from last month showed 65% of Americans said the federal government was “probably” or “definitely” hiding information about Epstein’s death, which was ruled a suicide, and 75% said it was “probably” or “definitely” hiding information about his supposed clients.
Immigration
Rogan has also amassed a growing volume of comments critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
It really kicked off in April, when he called the Trump administration’s sending undocumented migrants to a brutal El Salvador prison “horrific.”
By July, he called the administration’s targeting of immigrants without criminal records “insane.”
“Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just construction workers showing up in construction sites and raiding them,” Rogan said. “Gardeners. Like, really?”
Later that month, Rogan decried how US citizens were getting caught up in the raids, and how Trump was trying to deport pro-Palestinian activists with legal status.
“A bunch of people that are totally innocent are going to get caught up. They already have been,” Rogan said. “You know, they have been.”
In mid-October, he said people were right to be concerned about out-of-control border-crossings in recent years. But he added that, “The military in the street, I think, is a dangerous precedent.”
He also criticized the administration for “ripping parents out of their communities,” adding: “I did not ever anticipate seeing that on TV on a regular basis.”
“I really thought they were just going to go after the criminals,” he said.
Rogan has called the administration’s targeting of immigrants without criminal records “insane”. OCTAVIO JONES / AFP
Rogan went on to criticize the administration for the killings of both Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
“It just seemed all kinds of wrong to me,” he said of Good’s death, adding that it “just looked horrific to me.”
And he even invoked the Gestapo, the secret police in Nazi Germany.
“And then I can also see the point of view of the people who say, ‘Yeah, but you don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be US citizens,'” he said. “They just don’t have their papers on them. Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
Trump’s approval numbers on immigration have gone from about 10 points positive a year ago to about 10 points negative today – in large part because the American people also see his administration’s enforcement operations going too far.
The killings of Good and Pretti, in particular, have resulted in the administration signaling a change of course in an election year.
Tariffs
This has been one of Trump’s most unpopular issues for a long time. And while Rogan hasn’t spoken about it as much or as forcefully, he has called Trump’s strategy into question.
When Trump launched his tariffs against Canada a year ago, Rogan called the move “stupid.”
“We got to become friends with Canada again. This is so ridiculous,” Rogan said. “I can’t believe there is anti-American, anti-Canadian sentiment going on. It’s the dumbest f**king feud.”
He added the next month: “I’m scared of this tariff stuff because it’s radical change.”
Tariffs have been one of Trump’s most unpopular issues for a long time Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
Uncharacteristically, Trump hasn’t hit back at Rogan.
Asked about Rogan’s criticisms last month by NBC News, Trump said they had spoken recently.
“I think he’s a great guy, and I think he likes me, too,” Trump said.
He added: “And, you know, liking me isn’t important. What happens is that – I think we do a phenomenal job, but I don’t think we’re good at public relations.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand