Joe Rogan Says Podcasters Have No Business at Trump Press Conferences

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan has flatly rejected the idea that podcasters should be treated as seriously as journalists and take part in White House press briefings. Speaking on Friday, he said podcasters are not press people, they are people who talk and give opinions.

Rogan was speaking with comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand, and Ari Shaffir. The conversation turned to the chaotic atmosphere of President Donald Trump's recent press gaggles and the nature of that format.

In Rogan's words, at these events, just as someone starts asking a question, another person next to them shouts a completely different question even louder. In his view, that turns the whole event into a bad podcast.

He said a person with a good question should be allowed to finish asking it. Yelling a different question over someone else's is annoying, he said.

Rogan brought up David Sacks, chairman of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sacks had complained that the administration had lost the podcasters with recent policies and ought to have given them a front-row seat at news conferences.

Rogan responded that instead of seating podcasters in the front row, real journalists should be there. Podcasters are not going to press conferences to sit in the front row and ask questions to press secretary Karoline Leavitt, he said, because they are not press people.

Rogan said it is a sickness of society that people take podcasters' opinions so importantly. It should not be that significant, he said, though unfortunately it is, and it works.

Podcasters played a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election. Rogan himself interviewed Trump and later endorsed him. As candidates sought to reach voters through podcasts and other alternative media, the campaign became known as the 'podcast election.'

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was credited with opening up the briefing room to alternative media outlets during her tenure by creating a 'new media seat.' It is against that backdrop that the debate over podcasters at briefings has resurfaced.