UFC commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan had some pointed things to say about the MAGA movement this week, and Vice President JD Vance did not seem to agree with it.
On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the podcast host and comedian questioned whether belonging to any large political movement does more harm than good to those within it. The discussion came during a conversation with guest Dave Smith, a stand-up comedian and political commentator who said he was never particularly attached to the “Make America Great Again” label to begin with.
Rogan acknowledged the appeal of the underlying idea before pivoting to his critique. “Here’s the thing. Like, first of all, America is great. Make America greater, I’m down,” Rogan said. “But ‘Make America Great Again,’ and then it becomes a movement of a bunch of dorks because a lot of them are dorks.”
He expanded on that characterization, arguing that major political movements tend to attract a faction of followers who latch onto the identity without offering anything of real substance. “A lot of them are these really weird, uninteresting, unintelligent people that have got something they cling to,” Rogan continued. “And there’s a lot of people that are just real genuine patriots and they’re all lumped into this one group and you’ve got to accept the dorks, too.”
To illustrate his point, Rogan reached for a sports analogy, suggesting that movements without entry standards become weighed down by their least thoughtful members. “The concept of making America great is a great idea,” he said. “But as soon as you have a team and you allow anybody to join up, you don’t even have tryouts for your team.”
He also raised the issue of online manipulation, describing how anonymous accounts and foreign-operated bots can amplify fringe views and attach them to a movement’s image without its consent. Rogan was quick to note that none of this criticism was partisan. “Whether it’s a Republican group, a Democrat group, a MAGA group, a woke group, whatever it is, you messed up by being in a group,” he said.
The two also talked about about cracks forming in the coalition that carried Donald Trump to victory in 2024. But it was another remark attributed to Rogan, one concerning deportation statistics, that appeared to particularly draw Vance’s attention.
Rogan had reportedly suggested that figures from the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama eras showed a stronger record on deportations than the current Trump administration. Vance dismissed the comparison outright.
During a recent appearance on Benny Johnson’s show, Vice President JD Vance addressed those remarks. “I’m going to text Joe because that is definitely wrong,” Vance said.
He then walked through the distinction between border turnaways and what his administration considers actual deportations. Under Obama, Vance argued, the government routinely classified individuals turned away at the border as deportees, a counting method that artificially inflated the official figures. The Trump administration’s focus, he said, is on removing people who had already settled inside the country during the Biden years.
“When you look at the deportation numbers that go back to the Obama administration, they would count somebody who showed up at the border and they turned away as a deportation,” Vance said. “Now we have almost no one showing up at the border because the border is secure.”
He continued: “What we’re talking about is interior deportations. We’re taking the flood of people that Joe Biden led into our country and getting them out of our country. The numbers from the Obama administration or any other administration, they weren’t doing a tenth of what we’re doing. So Joe is wrong on this. We’ve been the best administration in American history at deporting illegal aliens.”
Vance also pointed to what he characterized as the unique burden facing the current administration. “The problem is we also followed the worst administration at letting them in. So there’s a lot of work to do,” he said.
The host then asked him about Joe Rogan calling supporters dorks. He asked: “Joe’s saying MAGA’s full of dorks. What do you think?”
“I think we have many, many fewer dorks than the far left, but everybody’s got some dorks,” Vance replied. “We love our dorks. We love our cool kids. We love anybody who wants to save the country.”
