MMA analyst and political commentator Luke Thomas pulled no punches recently when addressing Joe Rogan‘s political identity on his show Luke Thomas Gets Political, making the case that the podcast giant is far more right-wing than he lets on.
Thomas took issue with Rogan distancing himself from his own fanbase, particularly after Rogan was seen dismissing MAGA supporters.
“I could not accept his trying to walk out of the back of the room calling MAGA dorks,” Thomas read out a fan’s comment. He then stated, “People got bitter at me when I said this on Twitter, but I was like, Joe, that’s your audience. His audience and him are the exact same thing.”
From there, Thomas laid out what he sees as a clear pattern of right-wing alignment that Rogan consistently refuses to own publicly.
“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 said.
He drew a parallel to commentator Tim Dillon, pointing to Dillon’s own admission that he was misled on the Iraq war. Thomas suggested that repeatedly being deceived by the same political side is telling.
“If you keep falling for right-wing scams, it says something about you,” Thomas said. “I didn’t fall for that one. That was very easy for me to see that that was very obviously a scam. And so was this Donald Trump presidency.”
For Thomas, the most revealing part is not what Rogan does, but how he labels himself when asked directly.
“If you ask them, ‘Oh, are you right-wing?’ No, I’m a moderate centrist. I’m back to normal,” Thomas said, mimicking the deflection. “It’s like, no, you’re not. You’re right-wing, brother. 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 also addressed the moment that he believes settled the question for good regarding Rogan’s political positioning. Despite any attempt to rebrand or moderate his image going forward, Thomas argued the record is clear.
“Him calling people MAGA dorks, it’s like dude, you’re going after your own audience,” Thomas said. “But 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. You can do whatever you want from here on out. There’s no getting that back.”
