Politico is reporting that The Joe Rogan Experience, which helped tRump gain the support of those typically disengaged with politics, is pissing off a vocal contingent of fans with the host’s infatuation with Elon Musk.
A 1.5 million subscriber subreddit dedicated to Rogan — where fans of his podcast congregate to discuss the show and any other Rogan-related drama — has in recent days been overrun with memes and other posts complaining about Musk, the Trump administration and Rogan’s recent regular, full-throated defenses of the work of DOGE, the Musk-led initiative to slash federal spending.
Some critical comments from the Reddit group on Rogan’s recent episodes include “I really miss the old Joe, he’s a cuck now,” and “Old Rogan fans know that this podcast has essentially become a right wing talk show now.”
“I miss laughing in my car or actually learning something interesting with JRE,” a former fan insisted. “Everything is right-wing politics now. This pod sucks.”
As reported yesterday, Rogan has been dethroned from the top of the hill of podcasts by the anti-Trump brothers at MeidasTouch.
In the leadup to the election, Rogan’s ideology didn’t align perfectly with either party — it was always about a deep distrust of government systems, institutions and overreach. He actually endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary.
On the other side of the election, though, Rogan’s interests have been pervaded with all things Trump and Musk in every podcast.
On his show recently, Rogan argued that “[Musk] is a super genius that’s been fucked with. And when you’ve been fucked with by these nitwits that hide behind three letter agencies and you’re dealing with one of the smartest people alive … well, you fucked up. You fucked up and you picked the wrong psychopath on the spectrum, because he’s going to hunt you down. He’s going to find out what’s going on. And that’s good. That’s good for everybody.”
After Musk’s Nazi salute, he asked a female comedian guest whether she’d “seen the Kamala one, doing the Heil Hitler,” and suggested that Musk’s “autism” may have played a part.
Jamie Cohen, a professor at CUNY Queens College who teaches and writes about digital culture, believes Rogan is enamored with Elon, while his median listener doesn’t think about Musk much at all. “That’s where the problem comes from,” Cohen says. “[Musk] is a provocateur. The average person doesn’t have much time for that, except for the viral clips that come out of it. And being overloaded with that is exhausting.”
