Joe Rogan Says He Opposes Donald Trump's Iran War: 'It's a Giant Quagmire'

Joe Rogan said he does not like President Donald Trump's war with Iran "in any way, shape, or form," calling it "a giant quagmire" with "no easy way out." He made the remarks on The Joe Rogan Experience.

Rogan endorsed Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, and he told his guest, the actor Michael Douglas, that Trump's promise to keep the country out of wars was part of the appeal. "What Trump stood for, some of it turned out to not be real. One of them was the no wars. Well, look, we're at a war with Iran. So that wasn't real," Rogan said.

The comments come less than three weeks before the midterm elections. Trump's approval rating stands at 37.8 percent in PolitiKool's polling average.

What Joe Rogan Said About the Iran War

Douglas, who is promoting his new memoir, raised the subject after Rogan explained why he left the Democrats. Rogan pointed to the border, Joe Biden's mental decline and COVID-19 vaccine mandates. "I know that's how you felt. But I'm curious about this. How do you feel now?" Douglas asked.

"Well, how I feel now is I do not like this Iran war in any way, shape, or form. It doesn't make any sense for us," Rogan answered. "They were trying to get every single president, including Trump, in his first term, to do this... But now we've done it, and it's very clear, it's a giant quagmire."

Rogan said he believed "the majority of the United States felt like one of the things that we were voting for when we voted for Trump is no more wars," and that "most people who voted for him based on that feel very upset that there's a new war going on." He also said, "I don't know how they convinced Trump to do it."

He did not give Trump a failing grade across the board. Rogan said Trump's promise to close the border "is real" and credited the president with pushing psychedelic therapies such as ibogaine. "I give him credit for that," he said.

Joe Rogan's Caveats on Iran

Rogan hedged several times. "Obviously I'm not an expert on international relations, but I don't think the picture that they painted of how this was going to go down was even remotely accurate," he said.

He said that if the U.S. was going to strike, the better moment would have been during the mass protests inside Iran, when the government cracked down on demonstrators. "I think if they had gone in during the time where people were protesting in the streets, that would have been a completely different experience," he said. "If they really were going to do this from the beginning, that would have been the opportunity."

He also gave the war's supporters a hearing. He said that the argument that Iran was the world's leading funder of state terrorism was likely accurate: "I'm sure a lot of that's true."

"I'm not a fucking expert," Rogan added. People who "actually understand missile production," he said, "do say that Iran was ramping up their missile production and that if they had gotten a nuclear bomb, it would have been a fucking terrifying scenario."

Rogan did not call for U.S. forces to withdraw, and he did not say he regretted voting for Trump.

This isn't the first time he has broken with Trump over Iran. Within two weeks of the U.S. and Israel launching strikes on Iran on February 28, Rogan said on his show, "It just seems so insane," and "This one's nuts." The Boston Globe framed his comments as a sign that Trump's supporters felt "betrayed."

Donald Trump's 'No Wars' Pledge

Trump made the promise repeatedly during his 2024 campaign. "With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness, and chaos will be over. I don't have wars," he said at the Republican National Convention in July 2024. In his victory speech that November, he said, "I'm not going to start a war, I'm going to stop wars," according to a CNN fact-check.

In a June interview with NBC News, Trump disputed that framing: "First of all, I didn't guarantee no war."

Polling on the Iran War

Rogan's doubts run against the view of most Republicans, who backed the decision to use force. A Pew Research Center survey conducted March 16-22 found that 59 percent of Americans said the decision to use force was wrong. Seventy-one percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said it was right.

Other voices on the right have made similar warnings. War Room host Steve Bannon has said that war-weary Trump voters could stay home in November.

What Happens Next

Election Day is November 3. Whether the doubts Rogan and other Trump voters have voiced lower Republican turnout is an open question.