Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Joe Rogan, Donald Trump
Luke Davies
UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan has accused U.S President Donald Trump of ‘trying to gaslight’ his supporters over the Epstein Files.
JRE podcast host Rogan, 57, and Trump, 79, appeared to be supportive of each other, voicing similar views during the President’s appearance on the 57-year-old’s podcast in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election.
But in recent months, like that of Trump and Elon Musk, Rogan’s opinion appears to have changed, with the pair’s relationship seemingly souring of late.
During an episode of JRE alongside Mike Baker, a former CIA covert operations officer, which was released on July 25, Rogan accused Trump of gaslighting his supporters over the Epstein files.
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“This one’s a line in the sand, because this is one where there’s a lot of stuff about, you know, when we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things are going to be resolved, going to drain the swamp, going to figure everything out, and when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody had been talking about forever, and then they’re trying to gaslight you on that,” said Rogan.
The Epstein files relate to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. As reported by BBC News earlier this month, pressure has been growing for Trump to be more transparent concerning investigations into Epstein’s alleged crimes.
The President was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s but is not accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the former financier.
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In 2019, Epstein was charged with running a network of underage girls for sex. He died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial.
Several conspiracy theories about Epstein’s activity have since been put forward with “a vast trove of documents including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, and items confiscated from raids of his various properties”, according to BBC News.
Some material has previously been released to the public relating to Epstein and co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to traffic girls for sex.
And just weeks after Trump took office, the Department of Justice and the FBI released further “declassified Epstein files”.
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However, a group of people invited to the White House were left disappointed when “they realised that the 341 pages handed to them were mostly material that was already out there”.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice and the FBI said that no further material would be released.
So, what has Trump previously said about Rogan?
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In April of this year, Rogan gave his take on Trump’s aggressive migrant deportation plan, explaining how "rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process" was "dangerous”, as relayed by ABC NEWS.
"We gotta be careful that we don't become monsters while we're fighting monsters," Rogan said, referencing Trump’s plans on immigration.
When pressed on Rogan’s quotes by ABC, Trump responded: “Oh, I agree with that a hundred per cent, yeah.
"We want to be careful. We are careful."