Trump’s Loyalty Double Standard with Joe Rogen and Republicans

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit <a href="https://michaelfanone.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_7">michaelfanone.substack.com</a><br /><br /><p>Here’s what’s happening right now, and it’s the kind of thing that tells you how power actually works inside this administration.</p><p>Trump is running a loyalty purge over Iran criticism — but he’s not purging everyone the same way.</p><p>If you’re a Republican senator, House member, or longtime loyalist and you raise even mild questions about the Iran strategy, you get the full treatment: public humiliation, threats, “disloyal” branding, whispers about primaries, and a pile-on designed to make you an example.</p><p><p>The Michael Fanone Show is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></p><p>But if you’re <strong>Joe Rogan</strong> — with a massive audience and cultural leverage — you can question the entire war on air, and Trump doesn’t touch you.</p><p>No nickname. No tantrum. No scorched-earth Truth Social spree.</p><p>That’s not restraint. That’s a calculation.</p><p>Because Trump doesn’t reward loyalty. He rewards leverage.</p><p>People inside his party depend on him. They need his endorsement, his fundraising pipeline, his base. He knows that. So when they step out of line, he can crush them fast — and everyone else gets the message.</p><p>Rogan doesn’t need Trump. If anything, Trump needs Rogan’s platform more than Rogan needs Trump’s approval. Rogan reaches the voters Trump can’t reliably reach through traditional politics: young men, independents, people who don’t live on cable news. That’s electoral power. That’s influence. And Trump doesn’t pick fights he can’t win.</p><p>So you end up with this upside-down system where the people who actually have constitutional responsibilities — oversight, war powers, questioning strategy — get terrorized into silence, while media personalities with no formal responsibility get treated like protected assets.</p><p>That should bother you even if you agree with Trump’s Iran policy.</p><p>Because it means dissent isn’t being handled based on whether it’s right or wrong. It’s being handled based on whether it threatens him.</p><p>And it explains the dead silence you’ve probably noticed from GOP lawmakers. When the cost of asking questions becomes political execution, people stop asking. Oversight dies, not because Congress lacks authority, but because individual members are too afraid to use it.</p><p>And once you can silence elected officials on something as serious as war, you can silence them on anything.</p><p>That’s the point.</p><p>If this feels like an authoritarian system, it’s because it operates like one: the boss courts people with independent power and punishes people who are dependent. Loyalty isn’t about principle — it’s about knowing your place.</p><p>Watch who gets attacked. Watch who gets ignored. That’s the hierarchy.</p><p>If you want more of these “pull the curtain back” breakdowns — become a paid subscriber. This is the stuff that gets buried under the daily outrage, and it matters more than the outrage does.</p><p>And if you know someone who still thinks Trump’s loyalty tests are about ideology, send them this. It’s not ideology. It’s control.</p><p>🟧 <strong>Paid subscribers get 15% off your next merch order</strong>🟧 <strong>Founding Members get 20% off for life</strong></p><p>You’ll get the link in your welcome email.</p><p><strong>GET DISCOUNTS BELOW! ENJOY!</strong></p>