Joe Rogan Jokes About ‘Kind of Adorable' Ilhan Omar Mistake

Podcaster Joe Rogan ridiculed a viral gaffe by Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, insisting her “World War Eleven” blunder had been both confounding and amusing.

Rogan, 58, discussed the widely circulated faux pas during Wednesday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience as he shifted the conversation with comedian Brian Simpson from pythons to politics.

“Yo, did you see Ilhan Omar?” Rogan asked. “She was reading off of a script.”

Rogan explained Omar, who was born in Somali, has been accused by conservative critics of being connected to sprawling fraud in Minnesota.

The 13-second clip, which circulated this week, actually originates from a January 2025 press conference in Washington, where the congresswoman and several Democratic lawmakers spoke on the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, a proposal to repeal the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

“So, she’s reading off this script, and you know how people write World War II and they use like II [double capital ‘I’] for two?” Rogan continued. “OK, yeah, she reads it as World War Eleven.”

Simpson then groaned, prompting Rogan to erupt in laughter.

“She’s a congresswoman!” he continued. “It’s kind of adorable. It’s kind of adorable because I don’t think English is her first language already-at least it doesn’t sound like it.”

Rogan proceeded to play an unedited version of the clip, which shows Omar quickly correcting herself.

“At least she caught it though,” Simpson said.

“I didn’t know she caught it,” Rogan replied. “I never saw it. They always cut it off before it before she caught it.”

Simpson suggested the careful editing exemplified the “brutal” nature of politics.

“It’s gross,” Rogan replied. “But how could you say, World War 11? Like, you know there haven’t been 9 other wars you forgot about.”

Still Close to Trump

The exchange came days after Rogan said that despite some public disagreement and commentary about his relationship with President Donald Trump, he remains close to the commander in chief.

Rogan endorsed Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, but has clashed with the president over the war in Iran and federal immigration enforcement operations. The podcast host has also suggested the conflict in the Middle East serves a distraction from the handling of the Epstein files.

“Look, the Epstein files come out, we go to war with Iran,” Rogan said on his podcast earlier this month. “It’s a good way to get people to stop talking about certain things.”

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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 7:27 AM.