During his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Michael Douglas sat down to promote his new memoir, but the conversation turned pointed when the actor pressed his host on President Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Douglas traced his interest in nuclear policy back to his work on “The China Syndrome,” a film about a nuclear meltdown that premiered 12 days before the real-life Three Mile Island incident.
“I had like an epiphany. I’m not a religious guy, but I felt like somebody was telling me something,” he said, explaining how that moment pushed him to study nuclear weapons and plutonium’s half-life.
That history led him to a direct appeal about the Ukraine war.
“I don’t know what Putin has on Trump or what this connection is or why Trump always feels like he’s got to reach out to help Putin,” Douglas said. “And this 93% of our country, Republicans and Democrats, don’t like Putin. It’s one of the few things that really aligns us together.”
Douglas floated a proposal: that Trump and Putin “dramatically reduce, if not give up” their nuclear stockpiles as part of a Ukraine peace deal, pointing out that Ukraine itself gave up its nuclear weapons.
“If he can do that, and he could, if he spent the next three years of his presidency negotiating with Putin, we could get rid of nuclear weapons. And I guarantee I would commit my life for him getting that Nobel Peace Prize because he would deserve it,” he said.
Rogan called it a great utopian idea but was skeptical any nuclear power would actually disarm while others still held weapons.
He said, “It’s a great utopian idea. I agree with you. It would be awesome if there was no nuclear weapons.”
The two also discussed the Iran conflict, with Douglas noting that most Americans believed a vote for Trump meant “no more wars.”
He referenced one of Trump’s own comments on the matter: “I remember one of his speeches or one of his interviews, someone was asking him about Ukraine. Do you want Ukraine to win? Do you want Russia to win? And he said, I just want people to stop dying.”
Later, Douglas described visiting Ukraine himself.
“I’ve been over there a couple years ago to Ukraine, to Kyiv. I’ve met with President Zelensky,” he said, adding that he found the president’s wavering support troubling. “I’m really disappointed of the president that this sort of wishy-washy support. Maybe he can give me an answer about what the connection to Putin is, but I think it’s disturbing.”
Douglas pointed to Russia’s continued strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure despite stated peace efforts. “The Russians have attacked six different energy supply centers in Ukraine with the so-called peace proposals has been made about not attacking energy.”
He also noted Zelensky’s proposal of a 60-day ceasefire tied to elections, and Putin’s response: “No.”
