Joe Rogan accused Vice President JD Vance of political posturing after Vance suggested that unidentified aerial phenomena could be demonic in nature, telling researcher Jesse Michels on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Vance is “signaling to the tribe” rather than engaging with actual evidence.
The topic came up as Rogan and Michels, host of the YouTube channel American Alchemy, discussed the overlap between UFO encounters and religious experience.
“JD Vance. That’s right,” Rogan said.
Michels brought up Vance’s book, pointing out what he saw as an irony between its title and the vice president’s public comments about the phenomenon.
Michels responded, “Oh, he had a book called Communion while simultaneously calling aliens possibly demons.”
Rogan explained that he had previously pressed Vance on the apparent contradiction. “He didn’t really have a good explanation for that. I pressed him on that,” he said.
Michels recalled Vance’s reaction, saying, “And he kind of laughed very uncomfortably because he didn’t know what to say.”
Rogan said he takes issue with the framing, not with Vance personally. “I think with all due respect to Mr. Vance, who I really like as a person, I think he’s a very nice guy,” Rogan said. “I think he’s signaling to the tribe.”
Michel stated, “It is a political polemic. You’re not looking at the data. He says, ‘I want to look into the UFO issue. I just haven’t had the time.’ I actually understand that there’s a lot going on in the world, but it’s also, you’ve had some time.”
He suggested that Vance’s religious framing could appeal to traditionalist Christian voters. “You’re a traditionalist. You’re like, why do we have to deal with this new agey stuff? It’s just, you know, go back to the scripture, and they’re demons,” Michels said, prompting Rogan to reply, “I like how this guy’s talking.”
Michels argued the demon framing conveniently shuts down further inquiry. “It ends the conversation because then it’s like, okay, but if there are demons, there are angels too. And what is a demon? And what is an angel?”
He also noted that some serious UFO researchers, including French astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, have entertained the idea that certain encounters pattern-match to descriptions found in religious texts, citing the biblical phrase “do not fear” as a phrase reportedly heard by both abduction witnesses and figures in scripture. But he distinguished that kind of open inquiry from Vance’s blanket dismissal, calling it one of two “failure modes” alongside dismissing the topic outright for religious reasons.
Rogan pushed back on the idea that Vance’s position was rooted in genuine investigation, comparing it instead to politicians who tell their base what it wants to hear.
“I do think very unfortunately that there are politicians that say things, we both know this, that they don’t necessarily believe because they think that their base wants to hear it,” he said.
