MMA analyst and political commentator Luke Thomas has come out swinging at Joe Rogan over what he sees as a transparently hollow effort to separate himself from the MAGA movement he helped amplify.
Thomas, speaking on his program Luke Thomas Gets Political, was unsparing in his assessment of Rogan’s recent remarks calling MAGA supporters “dorks,” arguing the move rings false given Rogan’s own track record.
“Joe, that’s your audience,” Thomas said bluntly. “His audience and him are the exact same thing. They’ll support right-wing candidates. They’ll support right-wing ideas. They’ll support right-wing concepts. They’ll support right-wing framings. They’ll support right-wing scams.”
Thomas pointed to the pattern he sees as defining for Rogan and figures in his orbit, including podcast personality Tim Dillon.
He stated, “I rewatched his interview with JD Vance. He also admits he fell for the Iraq war. Tim, buddy, if you keep falling for right-wing scams, you probably have some questions you better start asking yourself.”
For Thomas, the issue is one of intellectual accountability. He maintained that he personally saw through what he described as the Trump presidency being a scam with little difficulty, and that repeated susceptibility to the same type of political deception is revealing.
“If you keep falling for right-wing scams, it says something about you,” he noted.
The analyst pushed back against the centrist framing many in Rogan’s sphere claim for themselves. According to Thomas, self-identifying as a moderate does not align with the actual political positions and endorsements being made.
He stated, “You may not wear a MAGA hat anymore, and you might have some heterodox views here or there, but you’re right-wing. And they just don’t ever want to accept it.”
Thomas reserved particular criticism for Rogan’s attempt to position himself above or apart from his own fanbase. He said, “Him calling people MAGA dorks, it’s like dude, you’re going after your own audience with that s**t.”
Crucially, Thomas argued that no amount of rhetorical repositioning can undo the tangible acts of support Rogan has made. “There is no getting away from the fact that you had Trump on the show and you gave him a ball wash and then you’ve endorsed him,” he noted. “Like you can do whatever you want from here on out. There’s no getting that back.”
