JD Vance opens up to Joe Rogan: Admits Epstein files missteps, accuses Israel of prolonging Iran war

Vice President JD Vance appeared in a nearly three-hour interview with Joe Rogan , in which he spoke candidly about three of the most sensitive issues for the MAGA movement and the Trump administration itself in recent months: the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the war with Iran, and the rise of socialism among young Americans. The episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" was released on Wednesday and is generating a great deal of controversy and public reaction.

Israel and the "endless" war

Vance argued that sectors of the Israeli government are seeking to sabotage negotiations between Washington and Tehran in order to keep the conflict active indefinitely. "I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from negotiations because they want to continue the military campaign," he said during the conversation.

The vice president went further and spoke of a "very discreet, extremely well-funded … literal foreign-influence campaign" aimed at derailing the agreement with Iran, though he avoided directly naming Israel as the culprit. Even so, he emphasized that Trump's decision to go to war was not influenced by Israel: "I think the president, completely separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon."

Vance also acknowledged that there are figures within the Israeli government who do not want an endless conflict, as they understand that it would harm both them and Washington, and that the pursuit of peace is essential to restoring normalcy in the Strait of Hormuz.

"You can bomb them. You can take away their radar. You can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it's just too easy to fire at ships in the straits," Vance said. "So, you've got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem."

Epstein: The White House "screwed up," but there was no cover-up

When asked about the delay in releasing the files related to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Vance acknowledged serious communication failures within the White House, though he denied that there was a deliberate cover-up, as Democrats and critics of the administration allege.

"We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files. Like, we just did," he admitted. "But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No."

The vice president also defended former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was removed from office shortly after the controversy over the release of files that turned out to contain no new information about Epstein. "I know Pam. I like Pam. I don't think there was anything malicious going on. I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment," explained Vance, who also described himself as a "OG Epstein conspiracy theorist."

"He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence," Vance said of Epstein. "He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence."

"I've asked, 'Were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else's?' And the answer is no," the vice president continued. "But if that s–t existed, it wouldn't exist in 2026."

"Democratic socialism," the looming threat

In another part of the interview, Rogan admitted to feeling uneasy about the rise of Democratic socialists in American politics. Vance agreed with this assessment and warned that if the Republican Party fails to reverse four decades of economic mistakes, a large portion of the younger generation will end up voting for a socialist candidate.

"We were left in quite a hole by 40 years of bad policy," said the vice president, who pointed to the offshoring of industrial jobs and workers' lack of bargaining power as the central causes of the phenomenon. "This is 40 years of failed bipartisan leadership which has created, really, a kind of shell corporation out of the United States of America. We don't make enough of our own stuff. We don't have enough self-reliance. Our workers don't have enough bargaining power. That has led, in a lot of ways, to this kind of socialism fervor. And we have to keep fixing these problems."

Vance also took issue with sectors of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whom he accused of inadvertently favoring large corporations by promoting open-border policies. "Corporations care way more about open borders than they do about any other policy the DSA cares about," he said, adding that this approach ends up further weakening the American middle class.