During a recent of The Joe Rogan Experience featuring Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson, host Joe Rogan made claims about d**g overdose deaths declining under the Trump administration while examining what appeared to be statistical data.
“From the time Trump’s been in office, deaths by overdose have dropped off a cliff,” Rogan stated while looking at a graph displayed during the podcast. He attributed this apparent decline partly to military action, saying the decrease was happening “because they’re blowing up the f**king boats that are bringing in all the d**gs.”
The conversation occurred during a broader discussion about d**g trafficking and cartel operations. Rogan expressed support for aggressive enforcement measures, stating that Trump “genuinely hates that they’re bringing d**gs into this country.”
“One of the things that Trump was saying is they’re poisoning our kids and that 100,000 people are dying every year from overdoses. We have to put a stop to this,” Rogan explained to Steveson.
When examining the graph, Rogan pointed to what he interpreted as a significant decline in overdose deaths, telling his guest to “look at that drop” in the statistics displayed. He specifically referenced the chart showing deaths from all d**gs, noting what appeared to be a peak between 2023 and 2024, followed by a downturn.
The podcast host connected this perceived decrease directly to enforcement actions, reiterating his earlier point about military intervention against trafficking vessels entering American waters.
However, the problem with Rogan’s assertion becomes clear upon closer examination. The graph he referenced showed data ending before Trump’s second presidential term commenced, and more importantly, before any reported boat strikes or naval operations against trafficking vessels had occurred. This means Rogan was attempting to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between actions that hadn’t yet happened and outcomes already recorded in historical data.
According to sources, one of the most concrete policy changes during that period was under the Biden administration: the expansion of access to naloxone. Making Narcan available over the counter in 2023 dramatically increased public access to a life-saving overdose reversal d**g, allowing families, first responders, and even bystanders to intervene immediately. That kind of harm-reduction measure directly aligns with a drop in fatal overdoses in a way speculative military action does not.
Additionally, Rogan’s explanation relies on a timeline that simply doesn’t hold up. He’s attributing a statistical trend to actions that hadn’t yet occurred, while ignoring documented public health interventions already in place. The idea that overdose deaths suddenly “fell off a cliff” because Trump was “blowing up boats” not only misreads the graph, but glosses over the real, measurable impact of expanded naloxone access.
14k likes on a post where Rogan demonstrates an inability to read a basic graph – the timeline shows the drop happened in Biden’s term.
It’s hard to swallow that we live among people who don’t even know how to look at fucking dates properly. https://t.co/SLaxkB30fw
— Mike (@themessychef30) January 2, 2026
This isn’t the first time Rogan has made bold claims about policy impacts without carefully examining the timeline of events. The podcast host, who commands an audience of millions, has significant influence over public perception of political and social issues.
