MMA commentator Luke Thomas delivered a pointed rebuke of Joe Rogan on his show, arguing that the podcaster’s political turn has caused lasting damage to American discourse. The comments came after a viewer asked whether Rogan could ever redeem himself following his public endorsement of Donald Trump.
Thomas began by acknowledging that people are entitled to change their minds.
“All of us will make mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. All of us will change opinions. I’ve changed opinions. All of us will rethink things later in life. And so, for that reason, all of us deserve grace.”
But he drew a sharp line between honest reconsideration and what he described as Rogan’s pattern of gesturing toward left-wing sympathies.
Thomas noted, “But like, just kind of going out there and pantomiming vague left-wing ideas and then asserting that you’re leftwing.”
Thomas believed Rogan’s support for Trump carried more weight because he had already built a large audience that did not necessarily identify with the political right.
“You endorsed the most incompetent right-wing freak movement possible. You laundered the reputation of the inner circle of all of those people,” Thomas said. “You have done extraordinary harm as an influence campaigner, so to speak, to make those ideas palatable. Those ideas that are ruining the lives of ordinary people in this country and well beyond.”
Thomas pointed to the administration’s mass deportation campaign as one concrete cost, calling the resulting toll close to unforgivable on its own. He then widened his critique to what he sees as a project of institutional destruction, from research funding cuts to what he described as the largest firing of mass PhDs in history.
He cited a personal anecdote about a restaurant-owning friend who warned him against eating beef unless he could verify its source, using it as a window into concerns about the food supply.
“These people have no idea what has made America great,” Thomas said. “They have no idea what has powered it. And the very things that they disdain are the very ones that are actually responsible.”
