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By Rachael O'Connor
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Joe Rogan has drawn ire from MAGA Republicans after calling some in the movement "unintelligent."
The podcast host was speaking in the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with his guest, comedian Dave Smith, when the pair discussed politics. Newsweek has contacted representatives for Joe Rogan for comment on this story.
Rogan has previously described himself as identifying as "an American" rather than with the Republican or Democratic parties. He endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, and interviewed him on his podcast shortly before Election Day, later going to his inauguration.
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However, Rogan has been critical of Trump in the past and voiced support for Democratic Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2020 election cycle. More recently, Rogan has criticized Trump over the war in Iran, and his repeated calls for Canada to join the United States.
Rogan and Smith discussed the MAGA movement and what it actually entails, saying that the right-wing movement in the United States has been split into conservatives and MAGA conservatives.
When discussing what MAGA actually stands for—"Make America Great Again"--Rogan complained "that phrase sucks."
"America is great. Make America greater, I'm down. But 'make America great again,' and then it becomes a movement of a bunch of f****** dorks?"
Rogan continued, in an expletive-ridden rant: "A lot of them are dorks. A lot of them are really weird, f****** uninteresting, unintelligent people that have got something they cling to."
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Rogan said that, while "a lot" of the MAGA movements are "genuine patriots," they are "lumped into this one group, and you've got to accept the dorks too? F*** that."
Rogan said becoming part of a group was damaging to the movement, using an example of online bots pretending to be MAGA supporters and saying "crazy" things. Being lumped in with a group happens on the right and left divide, he added.
Rogan and Smith's wide-ranging conversation had seen them both praise and criticize Trump's administration, criticizing the war in Iran but praising the president's hard-line stance on border controls.
But the clip criticizing MAGA went viral, with one post from X user @amconmag racking up more than 3 million views, as some conservatives commented that they felt Rogan's stance was unfair.
User @jjverre, who describes himself as a conservative on his bio, asked: "When did Joe become an elitist? You only matter to Joe if you're an amazing, accomplished, intelligent person."
User @AmericaJoJo, who describes themselves as aligned with MAGA politics on their page, argued: "He isn't wrong but they aren't true MAGA, there are a lot of dork grifters."
And @RedRifle93, whose account doesn't imply any particular political leaning and instead centers on sports, wrote: "Yeah, I feel like you're not allowed to be a republican without being MAGA these days."
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