Joe Rogan had one of the most disastrous weeks in JRE history after Theo Von’s latest appearance. For the second time in a row, Theo came on and started asking the uncomfortable questions that Rogan’s audience had been demanding for years: questions about the war, about Epstein, about Palantir, and about the billionaires that Rogan refuses to criticize.
Rogan’s response was to tell Theo he was losing himself and that he needed to get off his antidepressants, treating Theo’s genuine concerns about the state of the world like the ramblings of someone unwell.
The backlash was significant enough that Theo had to post on X defending Rogan and explaining things were taken out of context, despite the full three-hour episode being available for anyone to watch.
Rogan was then caught in a separate situation after claiming he was elk hunting in Utah when the Charlie Kirk incident occurred, only for footage to surface of him reacting to the news live on air during an episode with Charlie Sheen six months earlier.
Rogan’s response to all of this was to drop an episode with his safest guest Duncan Trussell, the one friend who would never push back or bring up Palantir.
The comment section had it figured out before the episode even aired, with top comments reading things like “Emergency Duncan episode to try and bury the Theo episode” and “Joe Rogan Experience brought to you by Palantir.”
In the episode with Duncan, Rogan agreed with almost everything he had gaslit Theo Von for. Duncan called MAGA a cult, compared Trump to a cult leader who had hypnotized his followers, and delivered a lengthy rant about how the no-war promise turned out to be hollow.
During the conversation, he said, “I fell for it. I really believed it. It makes me feel so dumb.” Rogan nodded along and engaged with every word. He even said, “I’m highly susceptible to propaganda. Me, too. I think everybody is.”
When Theo went down this road, Rogan redirected him to the Mothership for exercise and fresh air. With Duncan, he was an entirely different host. Duncan called Trump “our psycho president” and received zero pushback.
What Rogan will never do is name Trump directly, because doing so means owning the endorsement, and owning the endorsement means admitting his famous instincts never worked to begin with.
This became clear when Rogan was seen at UFC 327, smiling from ear to ear as Trump walked over and whispered in his ear, just days after agreeing on the podcast that they had all been conned by a cult leader into supporting a war.
