Joe Rogan calls out Michelle Obama, Oprah DNC speeches on wealth inequality

Podcaster Joe Rogan accused TV personality Oprah Winfrey and former first lady Michelle Obama of brazen hypocrisy in their DNC speeches Thursday.

Oprah slammed former President Trump at the convention while saying the work of maintaining a democracy “requires standing up to life’s bullies” and describing how she has seen and sometimes been on the receiving end of “racism and sexism and income inequality and division.” 

Shortly after, the Trump campaign posted a thank-you letter Winfrey wrote in 2000 suggesting that he would be a good president. “Too bad we’re not running for office,” Winfrey wrote. “What a team!”

Likewise, the former first lady spoke about how her mother showed her “the meaning of hard work and humility and decency,” and added, “She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed. They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning.”

But on Thursday, amid a conversation recalling how prominent public figures turned against Trump in recent years, Rogan mocked how both of these women have become fabulously wealthy in their own right. 

“How about Oprah?” Rogan said. “Oprah was talking about her and Trump running together, and now she’s speaking to the DNC that he’s a threat to democracy and she’s up there talking about income inequality, like, ‘Hey lady… you’re rich as f—.’ I’m like, ‘How is that equal?’”

Joe Rogan accused Oprah Winfrey and former first lady Michelle Obama of hypocrisy in their DNC speeches. YouTube / PowerfulJRE
The Trump campaign released a letter Oprah wrote to Donald Trump in 2000 suggesting he’d be a good president. REUTERS

The podcaster then added, “And also when Michelle Obama was saying, you know, I think she was saying her mother or grandmother was always suspicious of people who took more than they needed, like, you are worth so much money. That’s so crazy. You did it on a civil servant’s salary which is insane.”

Rogan was not the only public figure to call out Oprah’s hypocrisy. The major media mogul’s denunciation of income inequality rang hollow to people who pointed out her current enormous net worth, which Forbes estimated is $3 billion. 

Michelle Obama was criticized for saying her parents “were suspicious” of the rich even though she has a reported net worth of $70 million. Getty Images

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch wrote, “Kinda weird for Oprah, with her Hawaiian estate and multiple homes, expensive wardrobes, frequent luxury vacations, etc., to talk about income inequality.”

Meanwhile, Trump War Room, the official account of former President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, shared a clip of Michelle Obama’s speech and commented, “Michelle Obama says her parents ‘were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.’ She has a net worth of $70 million and lives in a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard.”