Rogan rips Newsom's refusal to acknowledge California's decline as LA loses its film industry

Joe Rogan used his podcast this week to deliver a blunt assessment of California's trajectory, and of the governor who keeps insisting everything is fine. Sitting down with California-based comedian Tim Dillon, the former California resident compared Los Angeles to Detroit, called the city's nonprofit sector a "giant scam," and accused Gavin Newsom of responding to real problems with little more than cheerleading and bluster.

Newsom's office, rather than engaging a single point of substance, fired back with an all-caps taunt calling Rogan a "little guy" and daring him to come on the governor's turf. The exchange, reported by Fox News Digital, captures something deeper than a celebrity spat. It captures a governor who has made dismissiveness into a governing style, and a state whose problems keep piling up while its leader rattles off talking points.

The case Rogan laid out

Rogan didn't rely on charts or white papers. He drew on what he and millions of former Californians saw with their own eyes before they left. He told Dillon that people are "moving for the first time ever more than they're coming here" and that California is "losing all these giant corporations that are leaving." Those are broad claims, and Rogan offered them as a former resident's observation rather than a statistical brief. But they track with years of headlines about companies and families decamping for Texas, Tennessee, and Florida.

Dillon, who still lives in California, reinforced the point from the ground level. He described Los Angeles as a place that feels frozen in amber.

"Whatever it is, it's not what it was. And every place seems a little bit like a museum or like it was cool 20 years ago or 15 years ago."

That line carries weight because Dillon isn't a political operative. He's a comedian who lives there and sees the city every day. His description of LA as a museum, a place people visit to remember what it used to be, is the kind of thing that stings precisely because it rings true.

Film production and the self-inflicted wound

The conversation turned to the entertainment industry, the economic engine that once made Los Angeles unlike any other city on Earth. Dillon was direct about what happened to it.

"They overtaxed and overregulated their biggest industry to other states and other countries."

He said the number of major films being made in LA had "dropped dramatically," though he did not cite a specific figure. The broader pattern is well documented: Georgia, New Mexico, the United Kingdom, and other jurisdictions have lured production away from Hollywood with competitive tax incentives and lighter regulatory burdens. California's response has been to layer on costs and then act surprised when studios take their money elsewhere.

Rogan agreed, calling the shift "a giant difference" for a city that built its identity around the entertainment business. When your signature industry starts treating your city as optional, something has gone seriously wrong with the business climate. That isn't a partisan talking point. It's an observable economic fact that Sacramento has failed to reverse.

Newsom's office has a pattern of responding to criticism with mockery rather than substance, a habit that has drawn its own share of ridicule in the past.

Newsom's response tells its own story

When Fox News Digital reached Newsom's office for comment, the governor's team did not dispute a single claim Rogan made. They did not cite job numbers, population data, or film production statistics. They did not defend a policy or point to a legislative achievement. Instead, they issued this:

"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. ALL TALK, NO ACTION. I'M READY WHEN YOU ARE, 'LITTLE GUY.' OR KEEP HIDING!!!!"

Fox News Digital described the statement as parodying President Donald Trump's rhetorical style. Whatever the intent, the effect is a governor's office that chose playground posturing over governance. Rogan raised population loss, corporate flight, and the collapse of a signature industry. The official response from Sacramento addressed none of it.

That pattern, deflect, mock, change the subject, is exactly what Rogan was criticizing. He described Newsom's public posture this way:

"He starts rattling off all these wonderful statistics and this is like instead of acknowledging, 'Yeah we've got [f---ing] real problems. People are moving for the first time ever more than they're coming here. We're losing all these giant corporations that are leaving.'"

Rogan then mimicked the governor's tone: "We're the s---, I'm very big on California, I'm bullish on California, it's always gonna be amazing here." It was a characterization, not a direct quote, but anyone who has watched Newsom at a press conference would recognize the cadence. The governor treats legitimate concern as disloyalty and answers hard questions with branding slogans.

Newsom has leaned into this combative communications approach on multiple fronts, including issuing parody documents in response to political rivals.

The 'empathy industry' and LA's structural rot

Rogan saved his sharpest criticism for what he called the "empathy industry", the sprawling network of nonprofits and social-service organizations that, in his telling, have turned homelessness and poverty into a permanent revenue stream rather than a problem to solve.

"Something has to happen. Something big has to happen. I mean, there has to be something that completely shifts the way LA looks at itself. You know, it has to look at itself as like a functioning business instead of a giant scam for nonprofits. A big part of LA's problem is there's a bunch of people that are in the empathy industry."

That phrase, "empathy industry", deserves attention. It names a dynamic that taxpayers across California have watched unfold for years: billions spent on homelessness with no measurable reduction in the homeless population. Programs that employ armies of administrators while encampments grow. A system where the incentive is to manage misery, not end it.

Dillon offered his own grim comparison. He recalled a conversation with a casino owner in Atlantic City, New Jersey, who described the consequences of high population density combined with heavy social programs, crime, vandalism, and disorder. The implication was clear: LA is heading down the same path as cities that once thrived and then hollowed out.

When Rogan quoted an unnamed person as saying "LA is slowly becoming Detroit," Dillon didn't push back. He raised the stakes. As the New York Post also reported, Dillon's response to Rogan's Detroit comparison was a line that landed harder than any statistic could.

"Well, it's what every empire said until they fell, right?"

What the governor won't say

Rogan noted the "beautiful estates in Pasadena that recall another era of American life", a reminder that California's wealth hasn't vanished. It has concentrated. The state still has billionaires, stunning coastline, and world-class universities. What it increasingly lacks is a functioning middle class, affordable housing, safe streets in working neighborhoods, and a political leadership willing to admit that something has gone wrong.

The California gubernatorial race is already drawing candidates with sharply different visions for the state's future. Some contenders want to double down on the same progressive framework that produced these results. Others see an opening to challenge it.

Newsom's office had a chance to engage with specific, widely discussed criticisms of the state's direction. It chose instead to call a podcaster "little guy" in all caps. That response tells you everything about how seriously Sacramento takes the concerns of the people who are leaving, and the ones still stuck there paying the bills.

Rogan and Dillon are comedians, not policy analysts. Their observations are anecdotal, their language is rough, and their prescriptions are vague. But the fact that a governor's office couldn't muster a single substantive rebuttal suggests the comedians are closer to the truth than the man in the mansion.

When the only answer to "your state is failing" is a schoolyard dare, the state is failing.