Sitting at the helm of the biggest podcast in the world, if Joe Rogan decides to take on a news story, he knows some 14.5 million people might be listening. His recent scathing rant about Donald Trump, then, was a pointed one.

Despite previously being a vocal supporter of the president, Rogan pulled no punches while discussing the government’s handling of the Epstein files – the sex offender’s rumoured client list which allegedly features several household names. Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It is no secret that Trump and Epstein shared a friendship over the years. In fact, last month Elon Musk publicly claimed that Trump was named in the Epstein files.

‘They’ve got videotape and all of a sudden they don’t,’ Rogan said on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. ‘Like, what? Why’d they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s**t? Why’d they say that?’ The host then specifically called out Trump’s attorney general asking, ‘Didn’t Pam Bondi say that?’

In May, Bondi told journalists the FBI was reviewing ‘tens of thousands of videos’ that she alleged showed Epstein ‘with children, or child porn’. A few weeks later, the Department of Justice and the FBI shared a memo saying there was ‘no incriminating client list’, even though in February Bondi claimed the document was ‘sitting on [her] desk right now to review’. The memo also stated ‘there was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions’. Understandably, this U-turn has prompted widespread outrage from those expecting the list to be published.

Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, for one, posted on X to say he would force the House to vote on ‘releasing the COMPLETE files’. He added, ‘We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency.’ Meanwhile Marjorie Taylor Greene, part of Trump’s base in Georgia, told Real America’s Voice network, ‘I think the Department of Justice and the FBI has more explaining to do – this is Jeffrey Epstein.’

‘This is the most famous paedophile in modern-day history,’ she continued, ‘and people are absolutely not going to accept just a memo that was written that says there is no client list.’

In a flagrant bid to dismiss further discourse about the Epstein files, Trump made the rather galling claim that former president Barack Obama, who was in office between 2009 and 2017, and former FBI director James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 to 2017, ‘made up’ the list in the first place.

As Trump was leaving the White House recently, a reporter confronted him about the U-turn and asked if Bondi had seen his name on the alleged client list or whether it appeared in any of the Justice Department’s files. ‘She’s given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen,’ Trump said. ‘And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama.’

On his podcast, Rogan took the opportunity to directly accuse the president of brushing the Epstein files under the carpet. ‘Just bomb Iran and everybody forgets,’ he said. ‘Everybody forgets about it.’ It’s a surprising line of attack from the right-wing podcaster, who was only pictured with the president a few months ago and has largely been considered part of his ‘MAGA base’. In fact, Rogan is often credited as playing an influential role in Trump’s reelection. 

However, Rogan is right to call out Trump’s repeated attempts to dodge all questions about Epstein. During a recent cabinet meeting the president was asked about the Epstein memo and said, ‘Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas.’ Referring to the 4 July flooding along the Guadalupe River he added, ‘It just seems like a desecration.’

His thinly veiled attempts to distract people from the dismissal of the Epstein files is not Rogan’s only gripe with the president. He recently called the ICE raids in California, where immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) launched a series of targeted raids on working migrant communities, ‘insane’. ‘There are two things that are insane: one of the targeting of migrant workers. Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers,’ the podcaster exclaimed. ‘Just construction workers. Showing up on construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?’.

Unsurprisingly given the scope of Rogan’s audience, this particular rant warranted a response from the government. According to the NY Post, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security insisted ‘an overwhelming majority’ of those subjected to raids had prior criminal convictions. US officials have previously claimed the operations are ‘targeted’ at criminals and potential public safety threats, but a significant number of undocumented migrants detained by the Trump administration have otherwise clean records, the BBC reported.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – a project from Syracuse University that complies immigration figures – estimates that of the 51,302 people in ICE detention facilities as of 1 June, about 44% had no criminal record aside from entering the US without permission.

Whatever way you look at it, this is a government full of alarming contradictions. Trump is a man who prides himself on sticking to his promises and ‘getting the job done’, but even his most loyal supporters are starting to question whether this is true. First, he lost the support of his right-hand tech bro, Elon Musk, and now Joe Rogan is turning on him. If even the loudest right-wing voices are using their platforms to call him out, Trump is running out of places to hide.