Podcaster Joe Rogan has questioned President Donald Trump’s decision to add partisan plaques to the Presidential Walk of Fame, saying that there is “nothing nuttier” than that.
“He needs, like, a right-hand man who goes, ‘Sir,’” he said in the December 23 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, raising his eyebrows.
“He’s also losing it too, you can tell,” comedian Tom Segura, who was a guest on the podcast episode, responded.
“I think everybody does when you get to a certain age,” Rogan added, alluding to recent concerns over Trump’s health. The president is now 79. When he made his comeback to the White House in January he became the oldest person to be inaugurated president.
Why It Matters
Joe Rogan has a massive influence on hundreds of thousands of American voters, especially young men. The comedian boasts 20.6 million subscribers on his YouTube channels, and his podcast ranks number one among the most popular on Spotify.
According to last year’s data, a majority of the show’s audience (56 percent) were young adults aged 18 to 34, and 80 percent were men—the same demographics that voted for Trump last year, when Rogan invited him on the show.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics, 55 percent of men voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while 43 percent voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
While his audience is politically diverse, with 32 percent of listeners identifying as Republicans and 27 percent as Democrats, 54 percent of weekly listeners leaned toward Trump in last year’s presidential election in a late October poll cited by EMarketer; only 26 percent favored Harris.
Rogan also invited Harris to be a guest on his show in the lead-up to the election last year, but then refused her conditions of a one-hour sit-down interview, whereas he wanted a three-hour long one.
What To Know
On the eve of the 2024 presidential election, Rogan threw his support behind Trump, saying that he was convinced to do so in one of his interviews with billionaire Elon Musk, then a close Trump ally.
Trump swiftly played the endorsement as a win, and much was said about the weight that Rogan’s backing would have had on his listeners, especially young men. At the time, Trump said the podcaster’s support was “great” news.
But like the Tesla CEO, Rogan proved to be a bit of a flimsy friend for the president, repeatedly criticizing him and his actions since the beginning of the year.
One of the sticking points has been Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration crackdown and his mass deportations in the U.S.—including some who had no criminal records in the country.
“I did not ever anticipate seeing that on TV on a regular basis,” Rogan said in a podcast episode in October talking about footage of immigration enforcement officers “ripping parents out of their communities.”
“I really thought they were just going to go after the criminals,” he said. “If you have been here for 25 years, you have a family, your kids go to school here, you speak the language…you’re just illegal, but you’re a contributing member to the community that up until now has been protected,” he added. “This is crazy.”
He also criticized the Trump administration for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension earlier this year from ABC after comments on the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and what he called restrictions on freedom of speech in universities.
In his December 23 podcast episode, Rogan attacked Trump for his decision to update all the plaques in the Presidential Walk of Fame with highly subjective new ones.
Biden is currently the only president who does not have a portrait, having a photo of an autopen signature instead—a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that the former president was not fit for office by the end of his term.
“There’s nothing nuttier than the plaques under the presidents’ names…How is this real? How are you allowed to do that?” Rogan said. “The autopen photo of Joe Biden? Crazy,” he added.
Rogan said that clearly every president was allowed to do that, but had not used this authority before.
What People Are Saying
Activist and author Amy Siskind commented on the podcast episode, writing on X: “When you’ve lost the Joe Rogan show.”
Journalist Gretchen Carlson wrote on X, commenting on the conversation between Rogan and Segura: “Uh, you guys made it real!”
The Daily Beast wrote on X: “Joe Rogan has come to terms with the fact that the man he endorsed for president in 2024 is not all there one year later.”
Tom Segura said in the December 23 podcast: “This presidency, though, does feel like a parody of a real thing. Like, it doesn’t even feel real.”
Joe Rogan responded: “There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t feel real.”
What Happens Next
The new bronze plaques Trump installed in the White House’s Presidential Walk of Fame are likely to remain until the end of his second mandate.
In the December 23 episode, Rogan suggested they should stay as a museum. “It should be the facts of his presidency; what happened during his term,” he said. “They should have the Trump wing. This is what happened when he was president.”
