Actor Mark Ruffalo took aim at Joe Rogan over the weekend, criticizing the podcast host for belatedly condemning President Donald Trump’s latest immigration enforcement efforts.
Ruffalo’s remarks came after Rogan called recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on construction sites and other workplaces “insane” during a July 2 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, prompting the Avengers star to respond on social media.
“Dear Joe Rogan, it’s a little late now to pretend like Project 2025 didn’t exist and wasn’t the playbook all along,” Ruffalo wrote on Instagram Threads. “You are either not that smart or not that dumb. It’s hard to tell at this point.”
Rogan, who endorsed Trump ahead of the 2024 election and hosted him during his campaign, voiced frustration with ICE’s crackdown during a conversation with Replit CEO Amjad Masad, saying the raids appeared to target everyday laborers rather than criminal networks.
“One is the targeting of migrant workers — not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Gardeners. Like, really?” Rogan said during the show. “That’s insane.”
Rogan has not responded publicly to Ruffalo’s comments.
Trump has defended the raids, while also announcing that his administration is developing new exemptions for essential workers in agriculture and hospitality. “They can be here legally. They can pay taxes. They’re not getting citizenship, but they get other things,” Trump said during a tour of a new immigration detention facility in the Everglades on July 1, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Trump also hinted that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would play a role in implementing the new worker protections.
Ruffalo, a longtime progressive activist, has been outspoken in his opposition to Trump’s immigration agenda. He recently participated in a “No Kings” protest in New York City, wearing a hat that read immigrant and speaking in defense of immigrant communities.
“The immigrants aren’t the criminals,” Ruffalo told the crowd, citing data that shows the majority of U.S. crime is committed by non-immigrants. “We’re being told to blame migrants for problems caused by billionaires and systems created to benefit the powerful.”
He also urged Americans to unify and “take our country back” from what he described as a political and economic elite scapegoating vulnerable communities.
As Project 2025 — a sweeping policy blueprint from Trump-aligned conservative think tanks — continues to draw scrutiny, Ruffalo’s comments reflect growing tensions between celebrity activists and influential media voices like Rogan who have at times supported the former president but now express concerns over his second-term agenda.
