Influential podcast host Joe Rogan this week questioned President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran, saying some of the president’s supporters feel “betrayed” by the war.
Speaking about Iran with conservative author and columnist Michael Shellenberger in a podcast episode released Tuesday, Rogan said the military operation “looks pretty crazy based on what he ran into.”
“I mean, that’s why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on ‘dead wars’, ‘ending these senseless, senseless wars’, and then we have another one that we can’t even clearly explain why we did it,” this podcaster, who caught Trump on his show two years ago and endorsed him on the eve of the 2024 election, added.
Shellenberger responded to Rogan, saying that, on the campaign trail, Trump “said he was against endless wars.”
“It’s never ending,” Rogan replied, referring to comments former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made in 2003, at the start of the Iraq War.
“It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months,” Rumsfeld said at the time of the war, which lasted about nine years.
Earlier in the podcast episode, Rogan also called the action of the US military in Iran, “nuts,” while comparing it to the operation in Venezuela earlier this year where the US military captured former President Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York to face criminal charges.
“That one, at least, was clean. They came in, kidnapped him, took him out. This is us,” said Rogan, whose podcast has nearly 21 million subscribers on YouTube.
He and Shellenberger continued to discuss the president’s possible reasons for striking Iran, with Rogan asking whether Trump was influenced by Israel or “the war hawks around him.”
Later in the podcast episode, Rogan pointed to the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, telling Shellenberger, “adding [Iran] on the whole, it feels like we’re about to enter World War III.”
In response to NBC News’ request for comment on Rogan’s remarks, a White House spokesman defended the president, calling the decision to strike Iran “as America first as it gets.”
“President Trump is boldly defending the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue regime of Iran — and that’s as America First as it gets. The entire administration is working together to eliminate Iran’s ability to have a nuclear weapon, use or develop ballistic missiles, arm proxies, or use a now-defunct navy,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
“The President has called out the fear of the Iranian regime before he took office, and his predecessors have talked about doing something for 47 years. Thankfully, President Trump finally had the courage to do something about it, and Iran is being crushed completely under the weight of the United States Military,” said Kelly.
Rogan and other “manosphere” writers such as Andrew Schulz, Theo Von and the Paul brothers, were credited last year for helping Trump win among young men in the 2024 presidential election after they hosted him on their podcasts, which often generate viral moments and collect millions of views.
In his 2024 election victory speech, Trump even thanked some of these students, calling them by name.
But Rogan’s criticism of the president this week isn’t the first time in Trump’s second term that podcasters supporting him in 2024 have spoken out about his policies. In recent months, Rogan, Von, Shawn Ryan and others have spoken out against the president’s mass deportation plan, the administration’s support for Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the administration’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s records and Trump’s attack on comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
During a January episode of his podcast, Rogan said he “has seen the point of view of people” questioning ICE’s tactics, adding, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where are your papers?’ Is that what we came for?”
Trump responded to Rogan’s comments during an interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas last month. Calling Rogan a “great guy,” Trump said he spoke with the broadcaster about his criticism.
“I think he’s a good man, and I think he likes me,” Trump said, adding, “And, you know, liking me isn’t important. What’s happening is — I think we’re doing an amazing job, but I don’t think we’re doing very well in public relations.”
Young men’s support for Trump across the country began to decline in public polls and focus groups last year, a trend that has continued this year. A February Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 33% of men aged 18-29 approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, compared to 43% of the same group who said the same in 2025.
A majority of registered voters in the US disapprove of the president’s handling of the situation in Iran, an NBC News poll released last week found. Some of the president’s most vocal aides, such as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and conservative activist Jack Posobiec, have questioned how the attack on Iran fits with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran earlier this month, seven US military personnel have been killed and Iran has responded by launching strikes against Israel, nearby US bases and other targets in the Middle East.
The president these days has moved when he talks about how long the war might last.
Last week, he suggested it could take a month or more, but added that the military was prepared to continue the operation, “as long as necessary.”
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said on Tuesday the war would end “when the commander-in-chief determines that the military objectives have been fully achieved, and that Iran is in a position of complete and unconditional surrender, whether they say so or not.”
On Wednesday, Trump predicted that the war with Iran would end “soon,” and that “there’s almost nothing left to target,” in an interview with Axios.
He added, “The war is going very well. We are ahead of schedule. We have done more damage than we thought, even in the first six weeks.”
