3.3.2 – Informal Sources of Presidential Power
3.5.2.3 – Coalition of Supporters
On 18 April 2026, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to speed up research into psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine. The order tells the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track reviews of psychedelic treatments and instructs the Drug Enforcement Administration to ease the rules that currently restrict research. It sets aside $50 million in matching funds for state research programmes and widens access under the Right to Try Act for veterans and patients with serious mental illness. Standing directly behind Trump at the Oval Office signing ceremony was the podcaster Joe Rogan.
Rogan’s presence was striking because he has spent the past month attacking Trump’s most controversial decision: joining Israel’s war against Iran. In March, Rogan said the decision “seems so insane based on what he ran on”, arguing that Trump had promised “no more wars”. Just days before the signing, he said many Trump voters felt “betrayed”. Yet while Trump publicly dismissed other former allies like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens as “nut jobs” for similar criticism, Rogan was treated very differently. Vice President JD Vance personally visited him in Austin, and Trump invited him to the White House.
The reason is political survival. Rogan’s podcast reaches over eleven million listeners and was credited with helping Trump win young men in 2024. But his coalition is now fracturing. A Silver Bulletin average on 23 April 2026 put Trump’s approval at 39 per cent and his net approval at minus 18.8, matching the lows of his first term. An AP-NORC poll showed approval among men falling from 47 per cent at the start of his second term to 38 per cent. A Yale Youth Poll found that 72 per cent of voters aged 23 to 29 now disapprove of him, with young men swinging sharply towards the Democrats.
What this episode shows is how presidential power works beyond the formal powers set out in the Constitution. Executive orders let a president act quickly, but they depend on public support to stick. Trump’s outreach to Rogan is an example of what scholars call the power of persuasion: a president using personal influence, rather than law, to hold a coalition together. It also points to the limits of the imperial presidency. A president who has lost his voters has lost his leverage, and even a figure as powerful as Trump must now court an independent podcaster to shore up a base that is slipping away.