Joe Rogan Says Iran War Let Down Donald Trump Voters Who Wanted 'No More War'

Joe Rogan said Donald Trump's war with Iran has let down the voters who backed him because of his promise to keep the U.S. out of new wars. He is one of the most influential voices among the president's 2024 supporters.

The comments, on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience released Thursday, come five days before the midterm elections, with the war unpopular among voters. That includes some Republicans.

"So, you know, the thing that disappoints everybody who supported Trump before he got into office was one of his big things that everybody agreed with was no more war," Rogan said.

He went on: "Because we keep thinking, like, why we involve these unnecessary wars?" He tied that question to the influence of defense money, saying "the military industrial complex has a huge amount of cash."

Rogan spoke in general terms about what Trump's supporters feel. He did not say that he personally opposes the war, and he did not call on the president to end it.

Joe Rogan on Fears of Iran Strikes After the Midterms

Rogan's guest was the Irish comedian Colum Tyrrell, who described the conflict as a "real blunder, real disaster." Rogan then passed along a worry that is circulating among the president's critics on the right. He did not present it as his own prediction.

"Well, a lot of people are worried that after the midterms, so when the midterms are over that that's when they're going to start doing more shit in Iran," Rogan said.

He also said earlier presidents had faced the same pressure and turned it down. "They tried to talk Obama into doing it. They tried to talk Biden into doing it," Rogan said. "Nobody did it."

Rogan suggested the push came from abroad. He said whoever wants the U.S. to bomb Iran "might live in Israel," then added: "Not saying anything."

Neither Barack Obama nor Joe Biden ordered a war on Iran. Obama's administration instead negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump's Defense of the Iran War

Trump has defended the war as necessary to keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands. He made that argument again in a long Truth Social post attacking Bill Maher, which Rogan read aloud earlier in the same episode.

Rogan's criticism builds on doubts that other figures on the right have raised. Tucker Carlson recently agreed that Trump had betrayed his voters over the broken promise to end wars.

Polling on the Iran War: Republican Support Slips

The war has never had majority support. A Pew Research Center survey conducted March 16 to 22 found that 59 percent of Americans said the U.S. made the wrong decision in using military force, compared with 38 percent who said it was the right one. Seventy-one percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said it was the right decision.

Support has declined since then, including among Republicans. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 6 to 8 found that 40 percent of voters supported U.S. military action against Iran, including 85 percent of Republicans. By the time of Quinnipiac's July 23 to 27 survey, overall support had fallen to 34 percent and Republican support to 74 percent.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August put overall support at 31 percent. Republican support in that poll was 69 percent, down from 77 percent in March.

Trump's standing has fallen too. He sits at 37.6 percent approval and 59.3 percent disapproval in PolitiKool's polling average. Gas prices have also risen during the war, and the national average is $4.27 a gallon. JD Vance recently blamed "some tinpot dictator" for the pain at the pump.

What Happens Next

Voters go to the polls Tuesday, and Democrats lead by 8.5 points in PolitiKool's generic ballot average. If strikes on Iran do escalate after the election, as the people Rogan described fear, the president will face the voters who once cheered "no more war" without a campaign left to run.