California Governor Gavin Newsom called Joe Rogan an "a**hole" on his own podcast Monday, the latest salvo in a months-long feud that looks less like a media spat and more like a 2028 audition reel.
Newsom agreed with guest Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C. metro police officer, who had just unloaded on the podcaster during a taping. Fanone told Newsom he didn't need to become "the Joe Rogan of the left" and added, using an expletive, that Rogan is an "a**hole." Newsom's response was immediate: "He is an a**hole. Thank you." The exchange, first reported by the Daily Mail, caps a public campaign by the 58-year-old governor to goad the 59-year-old podcaster into giving him a seat across the table on the Joe Rogan Experience.
Rogan has not taken the bait. And his stated reason is worth noting: Newsom's own behavior.
The feud traces back at least to October, when Newsom fired off a post on X sharing a clip of Rogan and challenging him to an on-air appearance. Newsom wrote that Rogan was "too chicken" to have him on and "expose his listeners to the truth," then rattled off a list of California superlatives, fourth-largest economy in the world, number one in manufacturing, farming, new business starts, tech investment, Fortune 500 headquarters, and public higher education.
Days later, comedian Andrew Schulz, one of the podcasters widely credited with helping Donald Trump reach younger male voters in the 2024 election, raised the idea of having Newsom on. Schulz floated a version where Rogan would "just do it and cook him." Rogan's reply was dismissive. "He'll cook himself," Rogan said. "I mean, that seems to be already happening."
Rogan added that Newsom's social-media strategy had backfired. "I probably would have had him on," he said. "But now I'm like, no, what are you doing?"
That did not slow Newsom down. By April 30, his press team was posting all-caps challenges on X, calling Rogan "Little Guy" and claiming the podcaster was "too chicken" to host the governor "because he know I'd crush him." The post continued: "All talk, no action. I'm ready when you are, 'Little Guy.' Or keep hiding!!!!"
A follow-up post in May kept the same tone. Newsom's team wrote that "'Little Guy' Joe Rogan is too scared to have me on, but he wont stop talking about me." The post also claimed Rogan was "obsessed with my 'good looks.'"
On July 21, Newsom posted again, calling Rogan a "chicken" for refusing the invitation. The pattern is consistent: the governor of the nation's most populous state has spent months demanding airtime from a podcaster, and responding to each rejection with another round of public taunts.
Rogan relocated from California to Austin, Texas in 2020, citing the state's political climate. His criticism of Newsom is not new. In a 2023 clip later resurfaced by Newsom's own team, Rogan called the governor a "f***ing con man" and a "terrible pick for the looming 2024 election."
Rogan did not stop at name-calling. He cited specific policy grievances:
"Everything he did in California, from trying to mandate vaccines for kids when it was totally unnecessary to being caught out in public without a mask and lying about the fact that he was outdoors. All of it."
He concluded: "Nobody believes in the guy. He's just a politician, just a stone-cold, narrative-driven politician, you know, and nobody thinks he's a real human."
Those are harsh words, but they point to a concrete record, pandemic mandates, public mask violations, and a governing style that even some California residents found heavy-handed. Rogan's audience, which dwarfs most cable news programs, heard every word. Newsom's strategy of demanding a spot on that same platform while simultaneously insulting its host raises an obvious question about what, exactly, the governor thinks he is accomplishing.
Neither Newsom nor Vice President JD Vance has declared a run for the White House. But the maneuvering is already visible. Vance, 42, appeared on Rogan's podcast in July. Many political observers have pegged him as the likely Republican nominee. Newsom, for his part, has been building a national media profile, launching his own podcast and picking public fights with figures who command massive right-of-center audiences.
In June, after Vance appeared on Fox News's "The Five," journalist Aaron Rupar joked that the vice president was "auditioning to be a Fox host." Newsom replied on X: "Makes sense. JD is going to need a job in 2028 since he won't be president."
That kind of unprompted swipe at a sitting vice president does not come from a governor focused on Sacramento. It comes from someone measuring the drapes in a different building. Newsom's willingness to insult both Rogan and Vance in public, while simultaneously begging for a platform appearance, suggests a candidate-in-waiting who has not yet figured out whether he wants to be taken seriously or just noticed.
Michael Fanone, the former D.C. metro police officer who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021, gave Newsom the setup on Monday's podcast. Fanone told the governor he didn't need to chase Rogan's model and dismissed the podcaster with profanity. Newsom could have deflected. He chose to pile on.
For a governor who has spent months publicly demanding a conversation with Rogan, calling the man an "a**hole" on a rival podcast is a strange way to secure the invitation. It is also a revealing one. Newsom's team has framed the feud as the governor bravely challenging a media gatekeeper. Rogan's response, that Newsom "will cook himself", suggests the podcaster sees it differently: as a politician generating content from a fight he cannot win.
Donald Trump sat with Rogan days before his 2024 election victory over Kamala Harris. Schulz and other figures in the so-called "man-o-sphere" podcasting world are widely credited with helping Trump reach voters Democrats could not. Newsom appears to have studied that playbook and concluded that the answer is to insult the people who wrote it.
If this is what a 2028 Democratic campaign looks like in its early stages, all-caps posts, playground nicknames, and on-air profanity aimed at a podcaster who won't return your calls, the party's bench is thinner than its boosters want to admit.
