Joe Rogan has suggested President Donald Trump is using ICE raids and fraud claims in Minnesota to distract people from the stalled release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Rogan, who’s been credited with helping Trump clinch a win in the 2024 election thanks to his massively popular podcast, was speaking to fellow comedian Ehsan Ahmad when the pair discussed the Trump administration’s failure to release all documents linked to the late pedophile, despite being mandated to do so by Dec. 19.
“I recorded my special on the 25th of October, and I have a bunch of Epstein jokes in there,” Ahmad said. “And in the meantime, they said they’ll release the files and I was like, ‘Oh no,’ but they still haven’t released them. And I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, the jokes still hold.’”
“Well, it’s gonna go on for a long time, I suspect,” Rogan replied. “I mean, they said they released them, but what did they release?”
Ahmad added that the administration hadn’t released any new files “for a minute,” before saying the fury has been “drowned out by everything else that’s been going on with like Somalians and the ICE shooting. It feels like that’s completely drowned out anything about it.”
“I think some of that’s on purpose,” Rogan whispered into the mic.
Tensions in Minneapolis have dominated headlines after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Rene Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross earlier this month, which fueled widespread protests and prompted public scrutiny of the agency’s aggressive tactics. The conduct of other ICE agents, who have been routinely seen manhandling people on the streets as they carry out Trump’s hardline immigration policies, have also sparked backlash.
At the same time, Trump and his MAGA allies have fixated on alleged fraud in Minnesota, which they have attempted to largely blame on the state’s Somali population.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice admitted that it still had more than 2 million Epstein documents in “various phases of review,” meaning the department had so far released less than 1 percent of the total files.
Elsewhere on his show, Rogan and Ahmad discussed news of a federal judge blocking a bid by two congressmen to install an independent monitor who will ensure the DOJ complies with the law mandating the release of all files related to Epstein.
Rogan, who is becoming increasingly critical of the president after endorsing him in 2024, also mocked Trump and other MAGA figures who spent months furiously demanding the full release of the Epstein files, only to now walk back those calls. MAGA influencers were even handed binders at the White House last February touting the Trump administration’s “transparent” handling of the case and pledge to release everything, though it quickly became clear the binders contained nothing new.
“So a federal judge said, ‘No, you can’t force them to release it,’ even though you campaigned on it,” Rogan said. “You really ran out, you stood outside with a bunch of binders, ‘We’ve got it.’”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
