After getting absolutely torched on The Joe Rogan Experience, Gavin Newsom decided the best response wasn’t to defend his record — but to puff up his chest and call Joe Rogan a “chicken.”
The dust-up kicked off when Rogan — who famously fled California for Texas during the COVID-era crackdown — unloaded on Newsom in a blistering rant that sounded less like political critique and more like a character indictment.
“Nobody wants President Newsom either. Nobody believes in that guy. That guy’s a f**king con man,” Rogan said. “I mean, 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. It’s just, 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.”
“Whether you like Trump or not, whether you think he’s corrupt or not, that’s a human being. You know what that guy is. Same thing with [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]. Whether you believe that he’s correct about vaccines or whether you believe his policies would be effective, you know that’s a human being. With Newsom, you get like this construct, this cardboard cutout of a person.”
Instead of shrugging it off — or, say, addressing the substance — Newsom jumped onto X with a response that looked like it was ripped straight out of a late-night rage tweet.
In full caps, no less.
“JOE ‘LITTLE GUY’ ROGAN IS TOO CHICKEN TO HAVE ME ON HIS FAILING PODCAST BECAUSE HE KNOW I’D CRUSH HIM, SO HE TAKES CHEAP SHOTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY AS HE GETS RELEGATED TO IRRELEVANCY,” Newsom blasted. “ALL TALK, NO ACTION. I’M READY WHEN YOU ARE, ‘LITTLE GUY.’ OR KEEP HIDING!!!!”
Subtle, governor. Very subtle. The irony? Rogan’s show remains one of the most listened-to podcasts in the country — hardly “irrelevant,” unless millions of listeners suddenly vanished overnight. This isn’t just another celebrity spat. It’s a snapshot of a bigger problem for Newsom: critics don’t see authenticity — they see a polished product. Rogan, love him or hate him, tapped into that perception with surgical precision.
And Newsom’s response? Instead of proving he’s “a real human,” he went full keyboard warrior. If the governor truly wants to change minds, he might consider trading the ALL-CAPS bravado for something rarer in Sacramento these days: accountability.
