Joe Rogan is watching his own circle peel away from Donald Trump, and he still isn’t moving. Comedians who once rode the same wave into the 2024 election, including Andrew Schulz, Theo Von and Tim Dillon, have each shifted their tone on the administration in recent months. Rogan hasn’t followed, and according to Marc Maron, that isn’t an accident.
Maron addressed the shift directly on the Trash Tuesday podcast, breaking down which of his old targets have actually reconsidered their politics.
“It seems like some of them have sort of rethunk it a bit, but like I don’t know that I can really. Mostly Tim, and I feel like Andrew has kind of rethunk it. I don’t expect Theo to rethink much, and I don’t, you know, that’s not a slag on him. And I think Joe knows where his bread is buttered.”
That last line is the crux of it. Maron’s argument isn’t that Rogan lacks the awareness to see what’s happened over the past year. It’s that Rogan has too much riding on the relationship to walk it back the way Dillon or Schulz have.
Rogan’s ties to the administration go well beyond a friendly interview. He signed a content deal with Trump earlier this year, and he remains closely linked to UFC CEO Dana White, who has been one of Trump’s most visible and vocal billionaire supporters throughout his orbit. White’s proximity to Trump, combined with Rogan’s own business entanglements, gives Rogan a financial and social stake in the relationship that his comedian peers simply don’t share.
Maron laid out why he thinks so many people in that world ended up here in the first place, describing it as a reaction rooted in resentment toward “wokeness” rather than any real engagement with policy.
He stated, “I really think that a lot of people don’t have a world view, they act, react emotionally, and also they’re looking to do what’s best for them. But I really don’t think in order to really get from, you know, I want to say tr**ny, I want to say r*t*rd, and that’s what I’m going to vote for this, I’m going to vote for anti-wokeness so I can have the freedom to do that.”
“And to get there from there, to realize they’re going to use that as an umbrella for all the policy necessary to dismantle liberal democracy on all levels under that anti-woke umbrella, for them to know that that was going to happen would take a worldview,” Maron noted.
Maron also pointed to the financial gap between comedians like Rogan and their audiences, suggesting it explains why some in that circle stay locked into positions long after the political winds shift.
“Once you get into the 1%, that your life is that. So once you sort of look at all these guys jockeying for position in the 1%, hundreds of millions of dollars, you’re talking a lot of money. So whatever goes on at the Kevin Hart roast or whatever racist thing they say, they’re still flying far above the world and the average person and the average person’s problems and concerns. They don’t have any of them.”
Whether Rogan eventually follows Schulz, Von or Dillon toward a more critical stance remains to be seen. For now, his business ties to Trump’s world, especially through White, appear to be the anchor keeping him in place.
