Joe Rogan Experience #2552 - Ehsan Ahmad & Deric Poston · Aired Sep 10, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
The Agency for International Development specializes in regime change by funding rebel groups and cultural revolutions in certain countries.
The finding
What the evidence shows
There is a real case behind this. The AP reported that USAID secretly funded a program from about 2009 to 2011 to infiltrate Cuba's hip-hop scene and cultivate anti-government sentiment among young Cubans, without disclosing US involvement. But USAID's stated mission is poverty reduction, humanitarian aid, and democracy support, and most of its budget goes to things like health and food assistance, not political destabilization. Calling regime change what the agency specializes in stretches a couple of documented covert programs in specific countries into a description of the whole agency's purpose.
Read the supporting source · www.nbcnews.com ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that the Agency for International Development specializes in regime change by funding rebel groups and cultural revolutions in certain countries?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. There is a real case behind this. The AP reported that USAID secretly funded a program from about 2009 to 2011 to infiltrate Cuba's hip-hop scene and cultivate anti-government sentiment among young Cubans, without disclosing US involvement. Joe Rogan said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2552 - Ehsan Ahmad & Deric Poston, aired Sep 10, 2026, at 49:28. The supporting source is nbcnews.com, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
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- Editorial context review
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- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
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