There's trouble in paradise, and in the aftermath of Elon Musk losing his 'First Buddy' status as President Donald Trump's BFF, the Commander-in-Chief could be losing support from another major backer.
While Joe Rogan's podcast has had numerous famous guests over the years, few will top having a presidential candidate (and future returning President) on their show. In October 2024, Donald Trump's campaign trail took him into a three-hour interview with The Joe Rogan Experience, where the two discussed everything from extraterrestrial life to JFK's assassination, telling Kim Jong-un to 'go to the beach' to how he didn't 'lose' the 2020 election.
Rogan has since been a loyal supporter of the POTUS, even attending his January 2025 inauguration. However, the cracks might be showing thanks to the controversial and somewhat botched release of the Epstein files.
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Following calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be fired following the underwhelming spectacle of handing Republican influencers heavily redacted dossiers, the pressure has mounted for President Trump to release them in their entirety.
Trump has pulled a spectacular U-turn on their release, while Congress voted almost unanimously to release them to the public. There's plenty of scandalous speculation about why the President might not want the files to be released, especially with Jon Stewart saying he's 'sure' Trump's name will appear in them – also clarifying this doesn't necessarily imply guilt.
During his November 19 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the main man sat down with comedian Brian Simpson and discussed the Epstein file scandal.
Rogan notably called out Trump's turnaround on the files, telling Simpson: "I heard there’s no files. I heard it’s a hoax. And then all of a sudden, he’s going to release the files. I thought there was no files. He wants an investigation now! Like, what is going on?"
Trump has faced continued flak for claiming the Epstein files are a 'hoax' perpetuated by the Democrats, with Stewart claiming Fox News has been trying to distract from the issue. Still, as a growing number of his Republican allies have joined the cause, asking for everything to be made public, it feels like the President was left with no other choice. Breaking his silence on the matter, a defiant Trump stated: "House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
Elsewhere, Rogan confirmed that he once looked at buying Epstein's infamous Caribbean island, which is known as 'Pedophile Island' by the locals. It's not the reported crimes that went down there putting Rogan off, with the podcast host explaining: "We looked at that island. We were trying to buy it. We were actually — I shouldn’t say we were trying to buy it, we were thinking about it very briefly... But it was too expensive. It was like 55 [million]."
We're sure people could think of numerous other reasons not to buy Epstein's island, but in the end, billionaire investor Stephen Deckoff stumped up $60 million for it in 2023.
With Rogan supposed to be a staunch supporter of Trump, we imagine the President isn't best pleased by his latest comments.