Axios AM
April 20, 2026
1 big thing: How Trump woos Rogan
We told you yesterday about Joe Rogan's surprise Oval Office appearance for the signing of an executive order on psychedelic drugs. Axios' Alex Isenstadt has the backstory:
President Trump and his aides have been working aggressively behind the scenes to court Joe Rogan, even as the podcast titan torches the president over the Iran war.
- Why it matters: Rogan's backing — and his pull with young male listeners — helped power Trump to a second term. The president knows that keeping him close still matters.
👂 What we're hearing: The White House had been working to build bridges to Rogan for months. Trump is "frequently" in touch with the podcaster, according to a Trump aide.
- Vice President Vance and Rogan met last month during Vance's fundraising stop in Austin, where Rogan is based, according to two people familiar with the sit-down.
- RFK Jr. has also been in touch with Rogan and appeared on his show in February.
- Ditto for Calley Means, a Kennedy adviser and outspoken supporter of psychedelic therapies, who was on the podcast in 2024.
The backdrop: Rogan has been a major proponent of psychedelic therapies.
- The new executive order fast-tracks FDA review for psychedelics, designates $50 million for research into ibogaine, and orders federal agencies to expand research.
Behind the scenes: Two weekends ago, Trump was on his way to a UFC fight night in Miami, where Rogan was announcing, when he reached out to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, about ibogaine. Kennedy and Oz then got going on the executive order.
- Trump greeted Rogan cageside later that night.
- Another Trump aide said the president and Rogan have a "legitimate friendship" fostered by UFC President Dana White, who's close to both men.
- Rogan is expected to be a commentator at the UFC Freedom 250 fight night on the White House South Lawn in June.
🎙️ Friction point: Rogan has been a vocal critic of the Iran war. "You're shooting missiles into towns and blowing things up ... What the f*** are we doing? Like, how is this still going on?" the podcaster said last week.
- Rogan said voters "feel betrayed" by Trump, who "ran on no more wars."
- Trump jabbed Rogan at Saturday's signing, saying the podcaster is "a little bit more liberal than I am."
- Share this story ... More on the executive order.
2. 💥 U.S. seizes Iranian ship
Intel from Barak Ravid: Iran is coy about showing up for a new round of peace talks because officials fear the negotiations are a trap by the U.S. — cover for a sneak attack.
- Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead the U.S. delegation for meetings in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. The ceasefire ends tomorrow night.
On Day 51 of the war, the president said on Truth Social that American forces seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship after it tried to bypass a U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman.
- It's the first time the U.S. Navy fired upon and seized a ship, named the Touska, since the blockade went into effect a week ago, Axios' Rebecca Falconer notes.
Trump wrote: "The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom. Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel."
- U.S. Central Command said the USS Spruance fired "several rounds from the destroyer's 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska's engine room."
Iran's military accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire agreement and of "maritime piracy" and vowed to "soon respond" to the incident.
- 🎥 WATCH: Video from the Pentagon ... Share this story.
3. 👀 Scoop: Cabinet victim
Intel from Jim VandeHei's weekend Axios C-Suite newsletter:
We hear that when President Trump booted former Attorney General Pam Bondi, he asked her if she wanted to replace Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
- Bondi politely declined. But Chavez-DeRemer's days sure look numbered.
- Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation over allegations she had an affair with a member of her security detail, drank on the job and took staff to a strip club. Her husband was banned from the Labor Department building after two female staffers made accusations against him. Three staffers have filed civil rights complaints alleging a hostile workplace.
- She and her husband deny the allegations.
📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Ask to join Jim's new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.
4. 🚀 Mag 7 comeback
The harder they fall, the higher they rise: The so-called Magnificent 7 stocks led the S&P 500 down in March and their rally has supported the index's bounce back up in April.
5. 🇦🇪 UAE wants U.S. lifeline
The United Arab Emirates has opened talks with the U.S. about a financial backstop if the war inflicts further economic damage on the booming global financial hub, The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).
- The UAE Central Bank raised the idea of a currency-swap line with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed officials in Washington last week. If they can't get dollars, the Emiratis said they may turn to the Chinese yuan instead.
Why it matters: The dollar's global supremacy rests in part on the fact oil is bought and sold in dollars, the Journal writes. That allows the U.S. to borrow cheaply, fund its military and enforce sanctions worldwide.
💡 Intel from Jim's weekend CEO newsletter: The Gulf's massive AI buildout — billions from Microsoft, Oracle, Nvidia and others — faces indefinite geopolitical risk after Iranian strikes on AI-related targets across the region.
- China already has the world's second-largest AI compute capacity. It doesn't need Gulf cooperation to scale. Every dollar of Western investment that stalls in the Gulf is a dollar that doesn't build an alternative to Chinese infrastructure.
📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Ask to join Jim's new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.
6. 🍿 The great Hollywood-tech fusing
7. 🔑 Key to the Trump-Pope feud
Escalating tensions between Pope Leo XIV and President Trump may hinge on something unusually simple: The pope doesn't need a translator.
- Leo's native-level English removes a long-standing Vatican buffer — ambiguity in translation — that has historically softened or clarified papal critiques of U.S. leaders, Axios' Russell Contreras notes.
Without that layer, Leo's comments land more directly in the American media ecosystem and to American Catholics, amplifying political impact and backlash.
- The late Pope Francis was famously gaffe-prone. But his provocative statements rarely broke through in the U.S.
8. 🦾 1 for the road: No sweat
Milestone: Robot outraces human.
A 5-foot-5 humanoid robot won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing yesterday, running faster than the human world record, AP reports.
- The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes, 26 seconds. (Human best: 57:20, set last month.)
Between the lines: The performance marked a significant step forward from last year's inaugural race, where the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes.
- The robot was fitted with 36-inch-long legs to mimic elite human runners.
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