Joe Rogan tore into New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's recently announced budget proposal on Thursday's episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, calling the Democratic Socialist mayor "a fucking psychopath" during a conversation with author Michael Malice.

Breitbart reported that the podcaster zeroed in on one line item in particular: spending on migrants.

"The amount for migrants is crazy. There should be zero dollars for illegal immigrants."

That sentiment, delivered with Rogan's characteristic bluntness, captures something that New York's political class has spent years trying to avoid saying out loud. The city's taxpayers have been footing an ever-expanding bill for illegal immigrants, and Mamdani's budget apparently does nothing to reverse course.

The Conversation New York's Leaders Won't Have

What followed between Rogan and Malice was a remarkably honest exchange about the practical impossibility of the situation New York has created for itself. Malice, the Anarchist Handbook author making his tenth appearance on the show, pushed back slightly on the idea of literally zero funding.

"I don't think you could have zero, because if they're gonna be there, you have to feed them, you have to do something with them — if you don't feed them, they're gonna be robbing stores."

Rogan's solution was simple: "get them jobs." Malice wasn't buying it.

"Wouldn't you rather give them food than a job? I don't want them taking American citizens' jobs."

That exchange crystallizes the trap that sanctuary city policies have built. You can't spend zero because the people are already here. You can't employ them without displacing American workers. You can't house and feed them indefinitely without bankrupting the city. Every door leads to another locked door.

Rogan offered the cleanest exit: "Get them a job in Guatemala." Then, more directly: "Unless you're going to remove them from the country."

A Democratic Socialist's Budget in a Broken City

Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist serving as mayor of the largest city in the country, represents the furthest-left governance experiment New York has attempted in modern memory.

That his budget proposal provoked this kind of reaction from the most-listened-to podcaster in America tells you something about how far outside the mainstream his priorities sit.

The specifics of the proposal remain sparse in public discussion, but the broad strokes were enough for Rogan to render his verdict. And Rogan's audience, which dwarfs the viewership of most cable news programs, heard it plainly.

Both Rogan and Malice acknowledged the mess without pretending there's a painless answer. "The whole thing's a mess," Rogan said. Malice agreed, adding that even detention isn't free: "Even if you want to put them in jail, that's not cheap."

But notice what neither of them did. Neither suggested the answer was more spending. Neither argued the city simply needs better "management" of its illegal immigrant population. The conversation kept circling back to the same gravitational truth: people who aren't supposed to be here shouldn't be subsidized by people who are.

Why This Conversation Matters More Than the Budget

New York's political establishment has operated for years under the assumption that compassion requires compliance, that if illegal immigrants arrive, the only moral response is to open the checkbook. That assumption has gone largely unchallenged in the city's own media ecosystem.

Then Joe Rogan calls your mayor a psychopath in front of millions of people, and suddenly the framing shifts.

This is the dynamic that terrifies the left about Rogan. He doesn't operate inside their permission structure. He asks the questions that normal people ask at their kitchen tables:

• Why are we spending this much on people who came here illegally?
• Why can't we just send them back?
• Why does every proposed solution cost American citizens more money or more jobs?

These aren't radical questions. They're obvious ones. But in New York City politics, obvious questions are treated as hate speech.

Malice, for his part, kept the conversation grounded. "You can't just throw them away," he noted, acknowledging the human reality while refusing to let that reality become a blank check.

That's the distinction the left can never seem to make. Recognizing that people exist and deserve basic dignity is not the same as endorsing unlimited public expenditure on their behalf, especially when their presence in the country is itself a violation of law.

The Real Audience for This Moment

Malice posted about the episode on X, noting it was his tenth appearance and joking that "tenth time's the charm."

He also showed up wearing what he described as "peculiar face paint," explaining he "just wanted to have a fun look." The lighthearted framing underscores something important: this wasn't a somber policy seminar.

It was a casual conversation between two guys who said what millions of Americans already think.

And that's precisely why it landed. Mamdani can draft whatever budget he wants. But when the most influential voice in podcasting looks at your proposal and calls you a psychopath, the political cost has already been paid. No committee hearing will undo that.

New York chose a Democratic Socialist mayor. Now the rest of the country gets to watch what that means for the people actually paying the bills.