During the most recent episode of his eponymous podcast, Joe Rogan spoke about Donald Trump failing to keep his promises in the second term, with his guest Michael Douglas. Rogan, 59, shared:“What Trump stood for, some of it turned out to not be real. Like one of them was 'no wars.' Well, look, we're at war with Iran, so that wasn't real. The other thing was closing the border. That is real. But then, with that, you have the ICE. Tim Dillon had a great description of ICE. He said, ‘Former backyard carnival wrestlers who took like a seven-week course.’”The Joe Rogan Experience host continued to state:“And it's nuts to just give someone a $50,000 signing bonus, you train them for seven weeks and then give them guns, and you have a militarized force running through the f**king city streets... Look, I understand why they have to put a mask on their face because they get targeted. It’s like, we are setting a weird precedent if you allow militarized force to just go through your cities with no identification… I understand you are trying to take out violent criminals. I support that and I get that… But of course, people are gonna say it’s an overstep. It seems crazy.”Oscar-winning actor, film producer, and philanthropist Michael Douglas, 82, appeared to agree with Joe Rogan.More about Trump offering a $50,000 signing bonus to ICE agents amid Joe Rogan’s recent criticismIn July 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a recruitment drive for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, unveiling posters reading “America Needs You” and “Defend the Homeland” alongside images of Uncle Sam, Donald Trump, and then DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. This is a defining moment in our nation's history,” Noem shared in a statement at the time.Subsequently, ICE announced signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan aid, and forgiveness payments of up to $60,000 to “brave and heroic” U.S. citizens interested in helping the Trump administration with their deportation efforts. The recruitment drive was not only meant for deportation agents, but also criminal investigators, lawyers, student visa adjudicators, and others.Back then, ICE hoped to hire at least 10,000 new employees over the next four years and get funding worth $165 billion from the DHS. The agency also promised overtime pay and “enhanced retirement benefits.”Last year, ICE had approximately 20,000 personnel, including agents and support staff, spread across 400 offices in the country. They received salaries between $49,739 and $89,528 annually, depending on designation, experience, and educational qualification. ICE also said that it had a Dual Compensation Waiver to hire retired officials on a term-limited basis.“Re-employed annuitants will receive both their full basic annuity and full salary. But annuity supplements and Social Security benefits may be reduced depending on an individual’s salary,” the statement read.At the time, Trump also signed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill into law and allocated $76 billion to ICE, making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the United States.According to the White House reports, ICE has deported between 590,000 and 605,000 people since Trump took office for his second term in January 2025.