Podcaster Joe Rogan criticized President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies in a recent podcast episode as immigration raids continue to sweep the country.
Immigration raids took place across Los Angeles earlier this month, resulting in mass demonstrations across the city. In a podcast episode that aired last week, Rogan said that those raids were “f--king nuts” and questioned whether Trump would have won the election if he said this is how the administration would carry out deportations.
“Bro, these ICE raids are f--king nuts, man,” Rogan told guests Luis J. Gomez and Big Jay Oakerson.
Rogan endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, but has been critical of some of his policies since beginning his second term. He has also pushed back on Trump’s immigration policies, saying previously that deporting migrants to El Salvador was “horrific."
“The Trump administration, if they’re running and they said, ‘We’re going to go to Home Depot and we’re going to arrest all the people at Home Depot. We’re going to go to construction sites, and we’re going to just like, tackle people at construction sites’... I don’t think anybody would’ve signed up for that,” Rogan said.
“They said we’re going to get rid of the criminals and the gang members first, right? And now we’re seeing, like, Home Depot’s get raided. Like, that’s crazy,” he added.
Many of the Los Angeles protests took place after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers conducted a raid outside a Home Depot in the area. Rogan also criticized a law enforcement officer for hitting an Australian reporter with a rubber bullet during the Los Angeles protests, saying that it was “insane.”
Some social media users roasted Rogan for his criticism of the raids, saying that this is what he voted for.
“PSA: You were warned, Joe. Yet you signed up for it,” The Tennessee Holler wrote on X.
“When you lose Joe Rogan...”, the “Republicans Against Trump” account wrote on X.
Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh also weighed in.
“Hey @joerogan, he ran on ‘mass deportations.’ What did you think mass deportations meant?” Walsh wrote on X.
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote: “Correct. @joerogan is absolutely right. No one signed up for ICE raiding Home Depot.”
The ICE raids have also sparked widespread criticism of Trump’s immigration policies and how the administration is carrying out the deportations.
White House border czar Tom Homan has said agents are being forced to make more arrests in communities because of sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with ICE in certain cities and states. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide but seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.
Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday, said those policies have given agents “a bit of a morale problem because they’ve had the local government in this community tell them that they’re not allowed to do their job.”
“When that Border Patrol agent goes out to do their job, they said within 15 minutes they have protesters, sometimes violent protesters who are in their face obstructing them,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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