Joe Rogan compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “the Gestapo” in the latest episode of his popular podcast Tuesday, openly breaking with President Donald Trump on his administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Rogan, one of the biggest podcasters in the world, had endorsed Trump in the 2024 election just days after holding a three-hour interview with him on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The show, which has consistently retained its No. 1 spot on the Spotify podcast charts, has more than 20.6 million subscribers on YouTube.
But on Tuesday, Rogan, who has been increasingly critical of Trump’s mass deportation agenda in recent months, expressed concern over ICE’s activities in an episode featuring Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. He said that “most people” believe law enforcement should arrest criminals, but that many of the same people also believe ICE is “operating illegally.”
“I can also see the point of view of the people that say, ‘Yeah, but you don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,’” Rogan said. “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
Viral videos of ICE agents behaving aggressively while detaining people on streets, in public spaces and at immigration hearings have flooded social media over the past year, stoking outrage and fear in cities across the country. Reports of agents arresting legal residents and U.S. citizens, as well as of alleged abuse at detention centers, have further eroded public trust and tolerance as protests break out in areas with ICE activity.
Rogan also criticized last week’s fatal shooting of a woman, Renee Nicole Good, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have alleged that Good was trying to run the officer over with her car, with Noem calling it “an act of domestic terrorism.” Those allegations, however, were thrown into question by videos and eyewitnesses.
Rogan said it was “very ugly to watch someone shoot a U.S. citizen, especially a woman, in the face.”
“It just looked horrific to me,” Rogan said. “I mean, when people are saying it’s justifiable because the car hit him, it seemed like she was kind of turning the car away.”
In a lengthy statement responding Rogan’s comments, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in part that the officer who killed Good “was in fear of his own life, the lives of his fellow officers and acted in self-defense. The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves.”
“ICE law enforcement approached the individual in question and gave repeated lawful commands to stop obstructing operations and then ordered her out of her vehicle for arrest. She refused to comply,” McLaughlin wrote as part of an email statement to NBC News. “She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, a deadly weapon, and hit a federal law enforcement officer.”
Rogan is part of a circle of comedian podcasters — many of whom are not overtly political but have mass appeal with conservative-leaning audiences — that Trump courted to boost his visibility and appeal during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Last year, focus groups of 18-to-29-year-old Trump voters — observed by NBC News as part of the 2025 Deciders series, produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago — found that some voters said podcasters like Rogan helped to persuade them to vote for Trump.
But in recent months, many podcasters in that circle have expressed open discontent with the administration they helped propel into office.
Rogan has called ICE’s deportations “f—ing crazy,” saying in one podcast episode that he “really thought they were just going to go after the criminals.”
Andrew Schulz, host of the “Flagrant” podcast, has similarly turned on the president, saying he felt duped. Schulz, who interviewed Trump on his show ahead of the 2024 election, expressed regret for his vote within six months of Trump’s inauguration.
“Everything he campaigned on, I believed he wanted to do,” Schulz said in a July episode. “And now he’s doing the exact opposite thing of every single f—–g thing. … I voted for none of this. He’s doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for.”
And “This Past Weekend” host Theo Von, who also interviewed Trump in 2024, had declared his support for the president while attending Trump’s inauguration last year. But when the official DHS X account used a clip of him to promote ICE arrests in September, Von stated that he didn’t consent to be featured in the now-deleted DHS video.
“I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos,” Von wrote on X. “When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are a lot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!”