Joe Rogan reacted to Palantir, the tech company streamlining data on U.S. citizens for the federal government, calling for a military draft. He objected to it, calling it a “crazy” idea on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Thursday with a brutal barrage of f-bombs.
“These motherfuckers are talking about drafting people,” said Rogan.
“I just don’t understand why anybody would want to support that. That sounds crazy. Especially after this Iran war, where everybody’s like, ‘Why the fuck are we in Iran?’ And if you signed up for that, that sounds nuts. Is that real?” he added.
Palantir Technologies, which is building systems used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israel Defense Forces, called for a draft on social media last month in a 22-point manifesto summarizing CEO Alex Karp’s 2025 book, “The Technological Republic.”
“National service should be a universal duty,” stated one of the earliest points included in the manifesto. “We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.”
Rogan endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but has since frequently criticized the MAGA leader over his “horrific” deportation tactics, “insane” immigration raids, and “terrifying” war on Iran. He was similarly shocked about the Palantir manifesto.
“Why the fuck would a tech company be saying that we need to move towards a universal national military service?” said Rogan. “How about fuck you? How about fuck you, you go? ’Cause you know none of these tech dorks that are running these companies, they’re not doing it.”
Catch the bulk of the exchange around 22:32:
The American Civil Liberties Union recently rang the alarm on Palantir’s “integration into the U.S. domestic security apparatus,” which remains ominously nebulous but reportedly includes risk-assessment technologies for so-called “predictive policing.”
Rogan remained focused on the company’s call for a draft.
“Throwing meat into the machine, throwing people’s children into these unnecessary wars,” he said. “Fuck you … It’s scary that they would, like, how about let’s figure out how to use your technology so there’s no more wars? Wouldn’t that be a better goal?”
Rogan continued, “Instead of getting kids to fucking learn how to go shoot people they don’t know because someone tells you to? And how many of these— out of all the wars we’ve been in since World War II, is it zero that made sense? I think it’s zero.”
While the U.S. military draft isn’t currently active and no one has been drafted since 1973, a measure in the annual defense policy bill Congress passed last year has reportedly ensured that eligible men will be automatically registered for the draft pool starting in December.
Rogan has yet to fully break with Trump, but said, “I don’t think there’s one war that we’ve been in since World War II that makes any fucking sense at all. And they’re like, ‘The solution is: We need more people to be forced into it.’”