The ‘Manosphere’ Starts to Turn on Trump

It was once hard to imagine Joe Rogan, Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz—three of the loudest voices in the right’s online culture—openly criticizing Donald Trump. They were cornerstones of his appeal among young, anti-establishment male voters, whom he rode to a decisive election victory in November.

Now, however, they’re questioning whether the man who promised to drain the “deep state” has instead become part of it, while flirting with the very elites he once vowed to expose — and leaving some of his loudest supporters openly entertaining the idea that “America First” might now belong to the socialists and a younger generation of Democrats.

“I’m willing to vote Democrat. Show me one that says something that makes sense, that I can trust, that’s not dying, said Rogan on his most recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

Schulz echoed the sentiment a day later.

“The only party right now, that to me seems ‘America First,’ is the Democrat Socialist party,” the influencer said on his Flagrant podcast on July 10. “Bernie [Sanders] is ‘America First.’ [Zohran] Mamdani, and all his ideas that he will not be able to execute — and I frankly think many of them are not good ideas — but he is, no doubt, ‘New York First.’ … The policies seem to want to help people here, that’s what I care about.”

Frustration within the Manosphere

A growing number of influential podcasters and pundits in the so-called manosphere are breaking with Trump, citing frustration over his immigration policies, broken promises, and the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein revelations.

Rogan, arguably the most prominent among them, and whose endorsement some analysts credit with boosting Trump’s re-election, has repeatedly slammed Trump’s immigration agenda. He called the administration’s ICE raids “insane,” saying they targeted “construction workers and gardeners” instead of criminals.

“The Trump administration—if they’re running and they say, ‘We’re going to go to Home Depot and arrest all the people at Home Depot, we’re going to construction sites and just tackle people at construction sites’—I don’t think anybody would have signed up for that,” Rogan said on his show on June 18.

According to The Washington Post, Rogan raised these concerns directly with Trump during a June 30 dinner with UFC president Dana White. The trio discussed the administration’s migrant worker policies, the outlet reported.

Two days later, Rogan doubled down. “There are two things that are insane. One is the targeting of migrant workers—not cartel members, not gang members… just construction workers,” he said on his July 2 show, also questioning incidents like the deportation of an international student over a political op-ed.

In June, comedian and frequent Rogan guest Dave Smith apologized for supporting Trump and even called for his impeachment. Smith, host of the libertarian podcast Part of the Problem, said he felt betrayed by Trump’s actions on Iran.

“I supported him… I apologize for doing so,” Smith said on the Breaking Points podcast. “He should be impeached and removed.”

Schulz and Dillon Join the Critique

On July 10, during a fiery episode of the Flagrant show, Andrew Schulz turned on Trump with the same bluntness that once made him a MAGA favorite. Just months after hosting Trump and predicting his victory, Schulz told his audience:

“Everything he campaigned on, I believe he wanted to do, and now he’s doing the exact opposite of every single f—ing thing.”

Schulz, who confirmed he voted for Trump, said he expected the president to stop foreign wars and reduce the federal budget — but instead, Trump escalated both. “I voted for none of this!” he exclaimed, mocking those who still defend the administration.

Comedian Tim Dillon, another former MAGA darling, added his own barbed humor. On his June 14 podcast, he painted a grim picture of Los Angeles under Trump’s immigration crackdown:

“Rubber bullets to the face, National Guard in the streets, so many things go so badly so fast.”

Weeks later, Dillon doubled down, mocking the construction of a detention facility in Florida, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” On his show, he ridiculed its remote Everglades location, the use of alligators and pythons as deterrents, and the inhumane conditions, calling it a “Tiger King–style” stunt rather than serious immigration policy.

Dillon said he had advised the administration early on to focus on criminals instead of rounding up workers, only to be ignored.

“If this is what winning looks like,” Dillon remarked, “you really have to wonder if anyone’s steering the ship.”

Epstein Files Further Erode Trust

For many of Trump’s online allies, the final blow wasn’t the immigration raids or broken promises but the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

On Monday, the Department of Justice released a memo reaffirming the medical examiner’s report that Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan cell in 2019, rejecting the existence of a “client list” and finding no evidence of blackmail.

Yet, the belief that Epstein kept a list of powerful clients remains widely accepted in these circles, fueled in part by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who claimed on Fox News in February that the list was “on her desk.”

Trump allies like Laura Loomer and Elon Musk publicly criticized the DOJ, with Musk accusing Trump of suppressing Epstein’s client names. “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Musk posted on X.

Rogan weighed in with a cryptic, cutting post:

Schulz was more direct, accusing the administration of lying to the public:

“By saying that didn’t happen, you have to tell a lot of other little lies. Lying to Americans is not ‘America First.'”

But it was Dan Bongino — the former right-wing podcaster brought into Trump’s FBI to help “drain the swamp” — who found himself in the most uncomfortable position. Last year, as part of the ‘manosphere’ he told his audience the Epstein files would “rock the political world,” promising bombshell revelations. But after reviewing the files in his official role, he reversed course.

“I have seen the whole file… He killed himself,” Bongino said in early May.

That declaration infuriated Trump’s base. Loyal followers who once cheered Bongino began accusing him of a cover-up.

Bongino was said to be shaken by the backlash, and he has reportedly told colleagues he’s considering resigning from the FBI over how the Epstein affair has been handled. Megyn Kelly, a Bongino ally, is now among the voices on the right who have since rallied around the FBI deputy and suggested that Bondi should be fired over her handling of the Epstein files.