Vice President JD Vance appeared in a nearly three-hour episode of Joe Rogan’s hugely popular podcast released Wednesday, cautiously defending the war with Iran while also hinting at skepticism about it, and saying that the White House had “mishandled” the release of the Epstein files.
It was Mr. Vance’s second time on Mr. Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” after having joined him for a similarly lengthy conversation a week before the 2024 presidential election. At the time, Mr. Vance was a senator from Ohio and Donald J. Trump’s running mate.
Now, with Mr. Trump approaching the midpoint of his second term, Mr. Vance is seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2028 who must balance his own ambitions with loyalty to his boss. Here are five takeaways from the interview, a friendly discussion that was recorded on Tuesday.
Vance Cautiously Defended the Iran War
Mr. Rogan, who endorsed Mr. Trump in 2024, has been a forceful critic of the Iran war since its earliest days. He has called it one of the “craziest” wars in U.S. history, said it left many Americans feeling “betrayed” after Mr. Trump ran on a pledge to avoid wars and declared that “nobody thinks it’s a good idea.”
In the newer episode, Mr. Rogan asked Mr. Vance about the war.
“If it was your call, would you have done exactly the same thing?” the podcaster asked.
Mr. Vance, who initially cautioned Mr. Trump against military intervention in Iran before publicly supporting it, laughed before somewhat sidestepping the question.
“The president said publicly that JD was ‘less enthusiastic’ about it, I think was the exact phrase that he used,” Mr. Vance said, accurately quoting the president. But he also said that, as the vice president, he did not feel that his role was to be a “public commentator.”
Mr. Vance said he knew that Mr. Rogan — and many of his own friends — were strongly opposed to the war, which began in late February and entered a new stage this month after a cease-fire deal crumbled.
But the vice president said he would support any decision the president made, as long as he thought the decision was “legal and ethical.” The war, Mr. Vance argued, fit that description. He said he had tried to “make it as successful as possible.”
“The goal is certainly good,” Mr. Vance told Mr. Rogan, “which is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”
Mr. Rogan, often a friendly interviewer, did not push back.
Vance Said the War Was Not Being Driven by Israel
Some prominent conservative critics of the conflict have charged that the Israeli government, which joined the United States in starting the war in February, had pushed Mr. Trump into it.
Mr. Rogan asked Mr. Vance if the United States would have participated without the influence of Israel.
“I think the president, completely separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Vance replied.
Mr. Rogan pressed Mr. Vance.
“Do you think he would have continued with the most recent campaign if it wasn’t for the influence of Israel?” he asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Vance said. “Yes, I do.”
Mr. Rogan expressed surprise.
“Really?” he asked.
The White House ‘Screwed Up’ on the Epstein Files
The conspiracy-minded Mr. Rogan questioned Mr. Vance about the Trump administration’s handling of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that many Americans had been “concerned” by the “tremendous amount of resistance to those files being released.”
Mr. Rogan raised one baseless theory that the Epstein files had been used to blackmail the Trump administration into going to war.
Mr. Vance said he was one of the “O.G. Epstein conspiracy theorists,” but added that the idea that Mr. Trump had been blackmailed was “crazy to me.”
Still, the vice president said the White House had “mishandled” the Epstein files, and that the government should have released them earlier.
“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,” Mr. Vance said. “We just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.”
Mr. Vance said Pam Bondi, the first attorney general in Mr. Trump’s second term, had “overstated what we had and what we didn’t have” in an effort to “respond to the political moment.”
Later he added: “We did release all these files. Did it take longer than it should have taken? Yes.”
A Blueprint For the Fall Elections: Common Ground Against Socialism
Mr. Rogan, who has said he feels “politically homeless” in Mr. Trump’s term, has a complex political identity. He endorsed Mr. Trump in 2024, but said in 2020 that he would “probably vote” for Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and democratic socialist.
Yet, in the interview, Mr. Rogan and Mr. Vance found common ground over their shared concern that socialism was ascendant in the United States, after democratic socialists won a series of Democratic primary elections in this year’s midterms.
“I’m really concerned that people think that’s a good idea, and that they think that socialism just hasn’t been done correctly,” Mr. Rogan told Mr. Vance. “That drives me nuts.”
Mr. Rogan said that while many “kind and empathetic young people” had been drawn to socialism, “it always leads to one thing: It leads to a very powerful military government that controls the population — period, end of discussion.”
Mr. Vance said, “correct” — adding that socialism was both “crazy” and a natural response to growing inequity in the U.S. economy.
“Extreme wealth inequality does create problems,” Mr. Vance said, adding that too many young people couldn’t afford to buy homes. Unless more young Americans “own something, socialism is the inevitable income,” he said.
He said the Trump administration was making progress on the issue. Housing prices have climbed overall since Mr. Trump returned to office, but more recently, they have started to fall in some parts of the country.
A Little Chat About Space Travel
The conversation repeatedly circled back to a favorite topic of Mr. Rogan’s: space travel.
Mr. Vance said he had concerns about it.
“I want humans to be a multiplanetary species,” Mr. Vance said. “I want us to go to Mars and set up a colony.”
But, he added, the “problem with space travel” is that human DNA “seems to not function as well when it’s not on Earth-style gravity.”
Humans need to “figure out a solution to that problem,” the vice president said.
“I don’t think, conventionally, there is a satisfactory solution,” Mr. Rogan replied.
The post Iran, Epstein, Space Travel: 5 Takeaways From JD Vance’s Interview With Joe Rogan appeared first on New York Times.
