Luke Thomas addressed Joe Rogan’s appearance at the White House press conference on his show Luke Thomas Gets Political. Rather than joining the chorus of people condemning Rogan outright, Thomas zeroed in on something more structural: the cost of maintaining access to power.
Thomas acknowledged that Rogan’s push for expanded research into psychedelics, specifically for veterans and other vulnerable populations, could have genuine merit.
“It is at least conceivable to me that he is pursuing a noble end here,” Thomas said. “That could be valuable. It could be nothing too. We shall see.”
He also noted concerns about the process itself: “A podcaster calling up the president to get FDA authority granted… I don’t think the process should work like that.”
But the core of his argument was not about the d**g or the press conference. It was about what maintaining that kind of access requires.
“In order to maintain that connection, in order to maintain these efforts that the administration is now giving favor to, it requires a bit of being all-in on Trump generally,” Thomas said.
He went further, pointing to how Trump operates with even longtime supporters. Thomas stated, “Trump famously doesn’t tolerate even a shred of criticism from even longtime supporters. He’ll cast them out immediately.”
That reality, Thomas argued, makes any meaningful critique from Rogan essentially impossible while the relationship holds. He said, “You just can’t do it. You have to be separated from the administration in order to be truly without compromise from it.”
Thomas was direct about how he responds when people point to Rogan as someone who pushes back on the administration.
“I often throw cold water when people are like, ‘Oh yeah, Rogan’s really going after Trump.’ I’m like, ‘Not really.’ They maintain a close association.”
He also preemptively addressed what any future mild criticism from Rogan would actually mean.
“When the next time he offers, ‘Oh yeah, I think it’s real bad that ICE is warehousing little kids across the country,’ you know, ‘Oh, he’s finally turning on Trump.’ No, he’s not. He can’t. He’d have to fully abandon all of this. And I don’t think he’s really prepared to do that.”
