Ever since Joe Rogan revealed Volodymyr Zelenskyy wanted to come on his podcast, the internet has been abuzz with speculation. The same thing happened with President-elect Donald Trump before the election; after maintaining he would not help the Republican candidate in any way, Rogan dropped the conversation with Trump a few days before the election. Will we see a repeat of the same with Zelenskyy? Not likely.

On the latest ‘Protect Our Parks’ segment of the Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan revealed that he had declined the request. And in a repeat of the Trump situation, his rival podcaster Lex Fridman has booked an interview with Zelenskyy instead. To make matters more interesting for the UFC commentator, one of his closest friends, Elon Musk, has now shown his support to Rogan’s competitor.

On Saturday, Fridman wrote on X that he would like to record a 3-hour podcast with Zelenskyy and is even ready to come to Kyiv for this. ” “I would love to do a 3 hour podcast with @ZelenskyyUa.” But little did he know that his wish would get fulfilled. “We agree. See you in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote in response. Sharing the breakthrough with the world, Elon Musk then shared a screenshot of the exchange on his X with the caption, “True.” A really heart-shattering moment for Rogan, as his decision not to bring Zelenskyy has now hyped up the podcast of his rival even more, that too with the support of his billionaire friend.

For the unaware, Fridman is an American scholar and interviewer of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, born in Tajikistan and raised in Moscow. He is also the biggest competition to Joe Rogan since his podcast has featured, among others, US President-elect Donald Trump, businessman Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Fridman also visited Ukraine in the summer of 2022, when the Ukraine-Russia conflict was at its peak. But if bringing in Zelenskyy was such a big deal, why did Joe Rogan decide not to bring him on his podcast?

Why Joe Rogan denied Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s JRE request

Well, prior to getting Donald Trump on his podcast (and subsequently endorsing him), Joe Rogan took a hard stance about not getting himself involved in anything related to the presidential elections. The JRE host wanted to stay away from directly linking himself with politicians, and it was a decision that led him to deny the request made by the Ukrainian president.

While in a conversation with fellow comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand, and Ari Shaffir on his show, the UFC commentator made the stunning revelation that the President of Ukraine wanted to be on his show. He said, “Zelenskyy tried to come on. Yeah, they tried to get Zelenskyy on. I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’” However, he further revealed that he denied the request because of his aforementioned motive of staying away from presidential elections. “I wanted to stay out of the presidential election s–t.”

Besides, Rogan does not do his podcast chats outside the studio. This was the major reason behind Kamala Harris not appearing on JRE. Her team wanted to do a one-hour chat in a different location since she had a packed election campaign schedule. And for Rogan, it was his Austin, Texas studio or bust. It might be the same case for Zelenskyy. As for Rogan being open to changing his mind and interviewing the Ukrainian president, we’ll have to see how the Fridman interview turns out.

But seeing that he did end up getting dragged into the election and even invited and endorsed Donald Trump, Rogan surely must be disappointed at his decision to refuse Zelenskyy’s request. With his rival getting the major entity on his show now, would it be safe to say that Rogan’s throne at the top of the podcasting realm is in jeopardy? Will Fridman be able to dethrone the number one podcaster through his Zelenskyy episode? Let us know in the comments.