Influential podcaster Joe Rogan this week questioned President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran, saying some of the president’s supporters feel “betrayed” by the war.
Speaking about Iran with conservative writer and author Michael Shellenberger in a podcast episode released Tuesday, Rogan said the military operation “seems so crazy based on what they used.”
“I mean, that’s why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? You ran on ‘no more wars,’ ‘end these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one where we can’t even clearly define why we did it,” added the podcaster, who featured Trump on his show two years ago and endorsed him on the eve of the 2024 election.
Shellenberger responded to Rogan by saying that during the election campaign, Trump “said he’s against endless wars.”
“They’re all endless,” Rogan responded, pointing 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 nearly nine years.
Earlier in the podcast episode, Rogan also called US military action in Iran “crazy,” while comparing it to an operation in Venezuela earlier this year, where US troops captured then-President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York to face criminal charges.
“That one was, at least, clean. They come in, kidnap him and take him out. This one is crazy,” said Rogan, whose podcast has nearly 21 million subscribers on YouTube.
He and Shellenberger continued to discuss the president’s possible motivations for attacking Iran, with Rogan questioning 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, “If we add (Iran) to the pile, it really looks like there’s a real possibility that we’re entering World War III.”
In response to an NBC News request for comment on Rogan’s comments, a White House spokesperson defended the president, saying the decision to attack Iran is “as first as the United States can be.”
“President Trump is bravely protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime, and that is putting America first. The entire administration is working together to end Iran’s ability to possess a nuclear weapon, use or develop ballistic missiles, arm its proxies, or use its now-defeated navy,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
“The president has called attention to the threat from the Iranian regime before taking office, and his predecessors have talked about doing something for 47 years. Fortunately, President Trump had the courage to finally do something about it, and Iran is being completely crushed under the weight of the United States military,” Kelly added.
Rogan and other “manosphere” podcasters such as Andrew Schulz, Theo Von and the Paul brothers were credited last year with helping Trump make gains among young men in the 2024 presidential election after they featured him on their podcasts, which regularly generate viral moments and garner millions of views.
In his victory speech on election night in 2024, Trump even thanked some of these podcasters, mentioning them by name.
But Rogan’s criticism of the president this week is not the first time in Trump’s second term that the podcasters who helped him in 2024 have spoken about his policies. In recent months, Rogan, Von, Shawn Ryan and others have spoken out publicly against the president’s mass deportation agenda, his administration’s support for Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the administration’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s records and Trump’s attacks on comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
During a January episode of his podcast, Rogan said he could “see 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 have come to?
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 to the podcaster about his criticism.
“I think he’s a great guy, and I think he likes me, too,” Trump said, adding, “And, you know, liking him isn’t important. It’s just that I think we do a phenomenal job, but I don’t think we’re good at public relations.”
Young men’s support for Trump nationwide began to decline in public polls and focus groups last year, a trend that has continued this year. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found that 33% of men ages 18 to 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 United States disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation in Iran, according to an NBC News poll released last week. Some of the president’s most vocal supporters, such as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and conservative activist Jack Posobiec, have questioned how the offensive against Iran aligns with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Since the United States and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran earlier this month, seven U.S. service members have been killed and Iran has responded by launching attacks on Israel, nearby U.S. bases and other targets in Middle Eastern countries.
The president has wavered in recent days when talking about how long the war could 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 Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the war will end “when the commander in chief determines that military objectives have been fully met 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 in Iran would end “soon” and that there was “virtually nothing left to target,” in an interview with Axios.
He added: “The war is going very well. We are way ahead of schedule. We have caused more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period.”
