Joe Rogan spent a portion of his Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday lamenting President Donald Trump’s age and his decision to enter into a war with Iran.
The podcast host — who has previously attended UFC fights alongside the president — said on Wednesday that Trump “doesn’t have much to lose,” referencing the fact that Trump will soon be turning 80.
Konstantin Kisin, a British political commentator, jokingly asked why someone such as Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — who was killed during the opening attack of Trump’s war in Iran — would look at Trump and say “let’s f*** with that guy.”
Rogan agreed, though his answer was more cynical than celebratory.
“Right, he’s 80, he doesn’t have much to lose. That’s the scary thing about old leaders — it’s like, death is imminent. It’s within a decade, if you’re lucky,” Rogan said. “That’s spooky.”
Trump’s 80th birthday is June 14. Assuming he serves his full term, Trump will be the oldest to ever serve as the U.S. president, beating out former President Joe Biden by a matter of months.
Rogan explained why Trump’s age alarmed him, noting that elderly leaders are “making decisions for babies and children and the future of the world, if everything goes great.”
Another guest on the show, Francis Foster, noted that cognitive functions begin to “degrade” in people around Trump’s age. Kisin noted that both former President Barack Obama and former Prime Minister Tony Blair aged significantly during their leadership tenures and said he thought it was “weird” that Trump hadn’t.
Rogan agreed and noted that Trump had a “terrible diet” that includes an abundance of McDonald’s.
The podcaster has also been critical of Trump’s decision to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran.
During his show, Rogan complained that Trump’s military adventurism is going to spark World War III.
“The problem is from the outside, like the rest of the world, you look at this unnecessary aggression by the United States government, and then you tack on whatever propaganda they have already been spitting out about America for the last 20 or 30 years, and then this war with Iran gets really ugly,” Rogan said. “Because that’s how you start a World War III. You start a World War III by doing something that — other than people that wanted this forever — who else thinks that’s a good idea?”
Rogan questioned who would think “it’s a good idea to just attack a country that isn’t doing anything,” adding that Iran hadn’t “done anything.”
More than 1,250 Iranians have been killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes so far, including 175 civilians in a school. Most of the deaths at the school were children. A U.S. military investigation determined the strike was caused by the U.S. Seven American service members have been killed.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have insisted the attack on Iran was necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Netanyahu has been making the claim that Iran is at the threshold of possessing a nuclear weapon since 1992.
Rogan said he wanted to see more “proof” that Iran actually was building a nuclear weapon.
Kisin tried to sway Rogan, saying that there is evidence Iran was “ramping up” its nuclear program, but Rogan was unconvinced.
“But that’s still not clear that justifies an invasion, when North Korea has nuclear weapons,” Rogan said. “It’s like, are we just trying to get to a point where they’re like North Korea? Who the f*** is worried about North Korea? Zero people.”
He also doubted that Trump had a plan following the assassination of Khamenei.
“The idea you could just take the guy out and that’s a wrap — I mean it doesn’t seem well thought out, to be charitable,” Rogan said.
During the Tuesday edition of his podcast, Rogan seemed disillusioned by Trump’s apparent deviation from his campaign messaging.
“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.”
