Actor Mark Ruffalo has called out the podcaster Joe Rogan for his previous support of Donald Trump after Rogan voiced criticism of the president’s ICE raids.
Rogan, 57, supported Trump throughout the 2024 election campaign, but has recently begun to share doubts over how the current administration has handled immigration, calling the aggressive tactics “insane”.
“We were told there would be no – well, there are two things that are insane,” Rogan said during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience released Wednesday featuring Replit CEO Amjad Masad. “One is the targeting of migrant workers. Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?”
A short clip of Rogan’s conversation with Masad was shared on the social media site Threads, which prompted Ruffalo, 57, to call out the podcaster for backing Trump, knowing full well what his policies on immigration were.
“Dear @joerogan, it’s a little late now to pretend like Project 2025 didn’t exist and wasn’t the playbook all along,” wrote the actor. “You are either not that smart or not that dumb. It’s hard to tell at this point.”
Project 2025 is a 900-plus-page policy book authored by a conservative think tank which was published in 2023. It details how a second Trump administration could overhaul the federal government as America knows it, dismantle departments, expand the president’s executive authority, put an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, and purge the federal workforce and replace them with political appointees.
The Trump administration has used hostile immigration raids against convicted criminals and migrants without criminal histories alike as part of its push to detain 3,000 undocumented people a day and rapidly deport millions.
Raids have taken place in homes, businesses, and residential areas across the country, ranging from restaurants and farm fields to Home Depot parking lots around Los Angeles and a Louisiana racetrack.
Ruffalo has been an outspoken critic of Trump for numerous years and was recently spotted at the “No Kings” anti-Trump protests in June.
Speaking to The Independent in 2020, the actor – who plays The Hulk in the Avengers movies – called Trump “public enemy number one,” adding: “Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. This dude is standing in the way of anything significant happening in the world as far as climate change is concerned. It’s f***ing terrifying and it keeps me up at night. Most people don’t realise what’s coming.”
