President Donald Trump cracked a joke about wanting to take a psychedelic for symptoms of anxiety and depression during a White House event touting the benefits of the drugs.
Joe Rogan, who has been fiercely critical of Trump’s war in Iran, was a special guest in the Oval Office Saturday morning to witness the president sign an executive order to “accelerate medical treatments for serious mental illness,” including psychedelic therapies, which Rogan advocates.
Trump touted the success of the psychedelic drug ibogaine—a Schedule I controlled substance—and cited a study in which he said participants experienced an “80 to 90 percent reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety within one month.”
“Can I have some, please?” Trump quipped, prompting the room to erupt in laughter. “I’ll do whatever it takes…I don’t have time to be depressed. If you stay busy enough, maybe that’s what works too, that’s what I do.”
Rogan, who endorsed Trump for president in 2024, said the executive order came about after he sent Trump a text message about psychedelic therapies.
open image in gallery“I want to tell everybody how this happened,” Rogan said. “I sent President Trump some information… the text message that came back: ‘Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let's do it,’” Rogan claimed. “It was literally that quick.”
Trump clarified that he “had it checked out” with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was also in attendance Saturday, and other members of his administration. “I didn't just do it,” the president said.
The president also took a swipe at Rogan for being a “liberal” after the podcaster called out Trump’s “terrifying” war in Iran on his show Thursday.
“Anytime you’re involved with you’re shooting missiles into towns and blowing things up, blowing up infrastructure, blowing up bridges, you know, and Israel’s blowing up Lebanon,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Now, it’s like, What the f*** are we doing? How is this still going on?”
“We all respect Joe,” Trump said Saturday. “He’s a little bit more liberal than me and that’s okay.”
open image in galleryThis week Rogan also poked fun at Trump’s claim that a controversial AI-generated image he posted depicted him as a doctor— not Jesus.
Rogan was at the White House event after raising the profile of ibogaine on his podcast. He has hosted former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the co-founder of a group called Americans for Ibogaine, who made the case for reducing federal limits on the drug on the show.
The administration is now taking steps to ease access to psychedelics that Trump said were already designated as potential breakthroughs by federal regulators.
Veteran organizations and psychedelic advocates have long contended that the ibogaine, which is made from a shrub native to West Africa, has great promise for hard-to-treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid addiction.
Owners of ibogaine clinics said the impact of the order will not be immediate.
“There will be no insurance coverage, it will still be considered unapproved and non-covered care,” said Tom Feegel of Beond Ibogaine, which operates a clinic in Cancun, Mexico. “But what it does mean is that ibogaine shifts from being fringe and underground to being federally acknowledged.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
