Though President Donald Trump’s vice grip on right-wing culture helped push him to the presidency not once but twice, his war in Iran may have pushed away some of the most powerful voices in the so-called MAGA media, including podcaster Joe Rogan.
Rogan is among the growing list of conservative political pundits who have taken a stance against the war in Iran. On the March 10 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan and his guest, journalist Michael Shellenberger, discussed Trump’s motivations for the war, with Rogan calling out the president’s hypocrisy.
“It just seems so insane based on what he ran on,” Rogan said. “I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on ‘No more wars, end these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”
When Shellenberger pushed back, saying Trump specifically ran on the promise of no “endless wars,” Rogan replied, “They’re all endless.”
Though Rogan endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, he’s since been a frequent critic of the president.
The war in Iran has specifically been a sticking point for several right-wing media moguls: Tucker Carlson reportedly personally lobbied Trump against going to war. Ann Coulter posted on X, saying the war “does not make one American safer.” Matt Walsh said on social media that the conflict’s messaging is “to put it mildly, confused.” Megyn Kelly spoke out against the war on her own show, saying, “We’ve got seven U.S. personnel dead. We’ve got a girls school—175 young girls dead, in Iran.”
Trump has a simple counterargument for Republican voices turning against him: those people, he says, are not truly MAGA.
“MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe,” Trump said in a recent interview with independent journalist Rachel Bade. “And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it . . . This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
About Kelly specifically, Trump said, “She was critical of me for years and I didn’t lose. I won all three times by a lot.”
But the controversy may not be as bad for Trump as it looks on paper. As a Republican political operative told The Hill, conflict with pundits can make for “a great political antenna.”
“[Trump] loves taking the fight back to people who say things about him in the media,” the operative said. “Tucker has probably lost a lot of credibility in the White House, but I think Megyn Kelly will eventually find another issue to pair up with him on pretty clearly.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s diehard fans don’t seem swayed by the backlash. A recent poll from YouGov showed that 91% of MAGA supporters approve of Trump’s handling of the war in Iran, with Republicans in general not far behind with 83% approving.