Podcast host Joe Rogan took aim at President Donald Trump’s war in Iran on Tuesday, joining a chorus of voices who historically supported the president and are now speaking out against his intervention in the Middle East.
Rogan, who endorsed Trump just days before the 2024 election and attended his inauguration, said during Tuesday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” with guest Michael Shellenberger, that a key selling point of Trump’s campaign was the promise of “no more wars.”
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“Well, it just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right?” Rogan said. “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.”
Shellenberger suggested Trump was specifically against “endless wars.”
“Listen, man, they’re all endless,” Rogan replied, before comparing the current situation to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s estimation of how long the United States would be involved in Iraq.
“Do you ever hear Rumsfeld talk about Iraq when it first happened? They were talking about like six weeks. Six weeks. Oh, yeah. Six weeks,” Rogan said.
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The comments Rogan was referring to were made by Rumsfeld ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003.
“I can’t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t gonna last any longer than that,” Rumsfeld said in an interview with Infinity Broadcasting.
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While Rogan didn’t directly compare Rumsfeld’s comments with recent remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, others have suggested they echo what many Bush administration officials said before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The progressive MeidasTouch Network outlet, for example, posted a video comparing Rumsfeld’s comments with Hegseth’s comments following the initial strike on Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces.
“We can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,” Hegseth said.
Other figures who previously endorsed Trump have also spoken out against his decision to launch a military campaign in Iran. Former Fox News host and vocal Trump ally Tucker Carlson has fervently spoken out against U.S. intervention in Iran, calling the attack “absolutely disgusting and evil,” during an interview with ABC News in late February.
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Carlson also suggested the move is likely to cause a rift within Trump’s base, saying, “This is going to shuffle the deck in a profound way.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), in the wake of her public falling out with the president, also spoke out against U.S. involvement in Iran.
“The Trump admin actually asked in a poll how many casualties voters were willing to accept in a war with Iran???” Greene wrote on X shortly after the attacks began. “How about ZERO, you bunch of sick fucking liars. We voted for America First and ZERO wars.”
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Despite many on the right breaking with Trump on this issue of Iran, recent polling has found a vast majority of registered Republicans support the president’s actions. A Fox News poll conducted earlier this month found that 84% of Republicans approve of the current U.S. military action against Iran. However, that same poll found that the war is unpopular among Democrats and independents, with only 20% and 40% approving of it, respectively.