Joe Rogan has entered the conversation surrounding President Donald Trump’s contentious decision to conduct mass deportations of alleged criminals to what is being called the ‘world’s worst prison’.
On March 31, the Trump administration conceded in a court filing that an ‘administrative error’ led to Kilmar Armando Ábrego García from Maryland being deported alongside 250 other alleged criminals to El Salvador’s infamous Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT).
Following the disclosure that García has been wrongly imprisoned in the harsh Central American facility, Trump has asserted he possesses ‘proof’ that García is a criminal, posting a picture of García’s hand on Truth Social.
The image circulated by Trump seemed to show ‘M S 1 3’ photoshopped onto García’s knuckles. However, a photograph shared by El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, shows García’s hand without the ‘M S 1 3’ tattoo.
Joe Rogan has now issued a warning to Trump, whom he supported during the run-up to the presidential election six months prior.
Discussing the ‘admin error’ that resulted in García being jailed abroad on The Joe Rogan Podcast on Thursday (April 17), Rogan addressed his guest Deric Poston: “A very legitimate argument about the right to due process, if you get processed and shipped out of the country and put in a prison in El Salvador you know, what is the quote – was it Benjamin Franklin’s quote about innocence?”
Jamie Vernon, the producer of Rogan’s podcast, referenced Benjamin Franklin’s well-known quote: “It’s better 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer.”
Rogan went on: “I’m on that side of things, I mean I think due process exists for a reason and the reason is it is horrific for someone to be accused of something they didn’t do, be imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit and then live in a cell live in a cage with a bunch of people who did commit [crimes].”
Referencing Franklin’s quote, Rogan remarked: “That is wisdom that has survived hundreds of years, it’s incredibly accurate and it is the foundation of freedom. We have to make sure that these people are actually guilty otherwise we become monsters.”
He also cited a quote by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, from his 1886 work ‘Beyond Good and Evil’: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.”
Rogan added: “When you fight monsters be careful that you don’t become one – it’s very important, you can’t do that.”
This isn’t the first occasion the UFC commentator has criticized the Trump administration; he previously addressed this topic on March 29, just before the ‘admin error’ was made public.