‘Don’t Become Monsters!’ Joe Rogan Opposition to Trump on Due Process for Abrego Garcia Praised By Liberals

Caleb HoweApr 20th, 2025, 4:17 pm
 

Podcast host Joe Rogan warned against becoming “monsters” while “fighting monsters” as he discussed “over-correction” on illegal immigration and crime, such as abandoning due process in deportations of suspected gang members.

On Thursday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience from Spotify, Rogan was joined by comic and podcast host Deric Poston for a typically wide-ranging interview, during which they touched on illegal immigration and deportations like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Rogan, a supporter of President Donald Trump and frequent target of harsh criticism from Democrats and the media, earned some Easter weekend praise from that side of the aisle for his warning on due process.

Without mentioning Trump or Abrego Garcia by name, he made clear his view that it’s a bad thing and dangerous precedent to deport someone as a suspected criminal gang member without a trial or any due process of law.

Characterizing such a move as a reaction to “radical” policies from the left, Rogan warned against “over-correction.”

“So the over-correction is lack of due process,” he said. “The over-correction is like, round them all up, ship them to jail.”

He played out a bit of how that conversation would go, and then explained the problem.

“What if you are an enemy of, let’s not say any current president. Let’s pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador,” he said. “‘You’re a gang member. No, I’m not. Prove it. What? I got to go to court. No. No due process.”

“That is dangerous,” he said. “We got to be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters.”

A small clip of the conversation went viral, earning praise from Democrats and anti-Trump accounts, including big names like David Axelrod.

There were also many dozens more shares on X with the phrase “even Joe Rogan” on the subject into Sunday afternoon.

Another viral clip from Rogan’s show was less well-received over the weekend.

ROGAN: If you wanted to, like, destroy society and make it worse, what would you do? You’d bring people in from a third world country, don’t have them change anything, financially incentivize them to be there, give them free money while you’re not helping the poor people in America.

They were giving them debit cards, free housing, free food, putting them up in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Wild shit! If you want to destroy a society, that’s how you would do it. That’s how you would it.

POSTON: I mean that sounds like it’s working.

ROGAN: You would just keep doing it. Like it’s going in that direction. So, the problem with things that are going in a radical direction, is then there’s an over-correction. So the over-correction is lack of due process. The over-correction is like, round them all up, ship them to jail.

That’s like some things that you say when you’re not thinking things through. Like, what do you do about all the criminals? “Take them all, fucking send them to El Salvador.” What about due process? “No, fuck that.”

Well, here’s the problem with fuck that. What if you are an enemy of, let’s not say any current president. Let’s pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador. “You’re a gang member. No, I’m not. Prove it. What? I got to go to court. No. No due process.”.

POSTON: That’s dangerous, Joe. That’s dangerous.

ROGAN: That’s dangerous. That is dangerous. That’s — we got to be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters. But then again, you got to find these motherfuckers that are here that have terrorist cells and that are ready to fucking blow up malls in Dallas and and do crazy shit, which definitely, they’ve thwarted before.

So like this is the best argument for Um intelligence agencies is that there’s real threats, you know, like for someone to say fuck all the CIA fuck the FBI. What are you, crazy? Who’s going to investigate real threats? Like, the real world exists. As much as you want to pretend that the you know that we can all go kumbaya tomorrow if we all just lay down our arms.

No, there’s people that are 48 years old and dedicated to crime. Dedicated to crime in Guatemala and now they’re here, you know, and now there’s selling fentanyl and they’re not gonna stop Okay, they don’t give a fuck. Yeah, and they are on EBT cards where you’re getting money from the government Uh for free every month Because you’re in a sanctuary city and you get free food and you’re a criminal.

Watch the clip above via The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify.

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Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor

Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...