MAGA loyalists are furious that Joe Rogan threw his support behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rather than Donald Trump for president.
The hugely influential populist podcaster called the independent candidate “the only one that makes sense to me” during a discussion on Thursday’s “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Rogan reasoned that he considered Kennedy “legitimate” because the longshot candidate doesn’t make politics about personal attacks. The clip was shared by Kennedy, who thanked Rogan for his unofficial endorsement on social media.
“From one ‘legitimate’ guy to another, thank you @JoeRogan for always putting substance first,” Kennedy said.
But personal attacks were what Rogan got from rabid Trump supporters like the Florida man who goes by Catturd and has 2.7 million followers.
“If you endorse RFK Jr — you’re not helping Trump,” he posted in a flurry of messages referring to Rogan’s show as the “gayest, low IQ, dumb, male blonde joke” in podcasting.
While Trump followers sometimes identify with Rogan’s enthusiasm over conspiracy theories and vaccine hesitancy, the 56-year-old pundit has expressed support for Democrats including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former President Barack Obama. He said in 2022 he doesn’t support Trump and wouldn’t host him on his show.
X user Johnny Maga also took issue with Rogan.
“Joe Rogan will go down as a guy who had a real opportunity to make a meaningful impact and squandered it,” the influencer wrote to his 114,000 followers.
MAGA influencer Vince Langman also expressed regret that rather than helping Trump, Rogan expressed support for a candidate “with literally zero percent chance of winning.”
Kennedy is polling at around 5%.
Even Trump took a shot at Rogan.
“It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring,” he posted on Truth Social.
Rogan responded to Friday’s backlash by stating he didn’t “endorse” Kennedy by complimenting his civility and gave credit to Trump for his resilience after surviving an assassination attempt last month.
“I’m not the guy to get political information from,” Rogan said.
