Joe Rogan declared the Jeffrey Epstein files are terrifying and insisted they are “definitely not a hoax,” breaking with President Donald Trump’s repeated dismissals.
The podcast giant unloaded during a Thursday episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” calling the newly released material the one story he “hate[s] the most.”
He told Black Rifle Coffee Co. Chair Evan Hafer that the revelations left him rattled.
“This is the one that I hate the most,” Rogan said. “This one scares the s**t out of me.”
He described the figures tied to Epstein as “Literally demonic human beings that are running the world and don’t give a f**k about human lives.”
The remarks came days after Rogan addressed his own appearance in the files and rejected any suggestion that he had contact with the disgraced financier.
Newly disclosed records show Epstein emailed Lawrence Krauss after the theoretical physicist appeared on Rogan’s show in September 2017, asking for an introduction.
“Jeffrey Epstein was trying to meet with me,” Rogan said earlier in the week.
“And I was like, what? Like, no thanks. It’s not even a possibility that I would’ve ever went, especially after I Googled him.”
“One of my guests was trying to get me to meet him. I was like, ”b**** are you high? Like, what the f*** are you talking about?’” he snarled.
Rogan told actress Cheryl Hines there was no scenario in which he would have agreed to meet Epstein, unless he were “a guy who is sucking up to the rich and powerful.”
“Some people get intoxicated by being in a circle of rich and powerful people — even if they don’t have any ambitions of being one of those people. They just want to be around them,” he added.
The podcaster then turned his focus to the Trump administration’s handling of the files after the Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Jan. 30.
Rogan reacted to a headline his producer pulled up that read, “FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show.”
“That’s the gaslightiest gaslighting s**t I’ve ever heard in my life,” Rogan said.
“What do they think is going on? Just a bunch of fun? A bunch of guys hanging out, being fellas? Having cocktails, talking about science?”
He questioned why certain names remain redacted in the files, but not others.
“How come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people? What is this? This is not good. None of this is good for this administration,” Rogan went on.
“It looks f*cking terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax,” .
He continued pressing the point. “This is not a hoax. Did you not know? Maybe he didn’t know, if you want to be charitable, but this is definitely not a hoax,” Rogan said.
“And if you got redacted people’s names, and these people aren’t victims, you’re not protecting the victim. So what are you doing? And how come all this sh*t is not released?”
The latest document release outlines exchanges between Epstein and high profile figures including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick addressed his interactions with Epstein during a Tuesday hearing after files showed they remained in touch as late as 2018.
“I literally met him three times over 14 years with widespread in between,” Lutnick said.
He previously described a turning point after noticing a massage table in Epstein’s home.
“In the six or eight steps it takes to get to his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick said on “Pod Force One.”
“So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. That guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross.”
Rogan has floated other theories about the political fallout surrounding the files.
In January, he suggested that chaos in the news cycle could be masking deeper issues.
“They said they released them, but what did they release?” Rogan asked during a separate episode. “The whole thing’s weird.”
When comedian Ehsan Ahmad noted that other controversies appeared to drown out discussion of the files, Rogan leaned toward the microphone and whispered, “I think some of that’s on purpose.”
During another recent episode, Rogan blasted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a “dangerous f**k” while discussing unrest and fraud allegations in the state.
“He’s a dangerous f**k,” Rogan said after comedian Andrew Doyle raised Walz’s debate performance against JD Vance. Rogan added that Walz’s mannerisms struck him as fake and performative.
He speculated about Walz stepping away from Minnesota’s gubernatorial race.
🚨NEW: Joe Rogan *NUKES* Tim Walz🚨
"HE'S A DANGEROUS F*CK … just the way he behaves is so odd. The way he waves and runs on stage and — it's all just so fake and performative. I don't know any men like that that aren't dangerous."@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/bsdR1IF2lT
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) February 4, 2026
“How do we know? Well, one way we know is because he’s resigning,” Rogan said.
“He’s not running for governor again. He was in the process of running for governor, he’s decided to step out of public office entirely now.”
Rogan suggested that unrest in Minnesota coincided with fraud revelations for a reason. “This is all by design,” he asserted, before adding, “Who f***ing knows.”
He later tied the broader political climate to the 2024 election and what he described as a narrow margin between outcomes.
Rogan argued that the country could have taken a very different path if events had unfolded differently, framing the moment as fragile.
“And that’s why people support Donald Trump,” Rogan said. “It’s an alternative to what we all saw coming.”