Joe Rogan found out about the Elon Musk-Donald Trump war in the middle of taping his new interview with Kash Patel.
Trump’s FBI director was defending himself from reports that he’d drastically reduced briefing meetings at the Bureau during the Joe Rogan Experience taping on Thursday when Rogan’s producer cut in. After Rogan read aloud Musk’s tweet accusing Trump of being named in the Epstein files, he exclaimed, “What the f--- are they doing?”
In an afternoon post on X, Musk wrote that it was “Time to drop the really big bomb,” as he claimed Trump “is in the Epstein files” and “that is the real reason they have not been made public.” He added, “Have a nice day, DJT!”
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Musk’s sarcasm about the “bomb” he’d dropped really seemed to surprise Rogan just as much as the information itself. “‘Have a nice day, DJT’?” Rogan read again, incredulous. “Someone should take his phone away.”
Musk and Trump had reached the climax of their public spat on Thursday, just after Trump threatened to cut billions of dollars in government contracts and subsidies that support Musk’s businesses. The threat prompted the Tesla CEO to go nuclear in their war of words.
“Jesus Christ, that’s a crazy thing to say,” Rogan said after reading Musk’s tweet. “How does he know?” he then asked Patel. “Does he know that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files? Does he have access to the Epstein files?”
Patel, who was also apparently learning about the major escalation in real time, was coy. “I don’t know how he would, but I’m just staying out of the Trump Elon thing. That’s way outside my lane,” he said. “I know my lane and that ain’t it.” Rogan’s takeaway was that social media had soured Musk’s “mental health.”
“I understand he owns Twitter. I think it’s bad for your mental health. I think posting things public all day and arguing with people all day is bad for you,” Rogan said.
Patel insisted earlier on in the interview he was “working his a-- off” to give the American public the information on the Epstein case that “we’re allowed to give you.” He had also declared he’d never “participate in hiding information about Epstein’s grotesque activities” as Rogan grilled him about the night Epstein died.
“You’re gonna get the video of the cell and you’re gonna see for yourself,” he said of the soon to be released video footage from the night of Epstein’s death, to try and dispel rumors that he was murdered. Rogan questioned why the video wasn’t “released immediately,” to which Patel responded by seemingly blaming former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
But no matter what people see, he added, “We will never be able to convince everyone.”
