Gavin Newsom is winning. By any measure — the attention economy, donations or algorithmic reach — the Democratic California governor’s response to President Donald Trump’s Texas power grab is accomplishing its mission. Trump and his sycophants at Fox News are clearly triggered by the Democrat’s incessant trolling.
In 48 hours this week, Newsom raised $6.2 million from more than 200,000 donors. His retaliatory push for California to create five new Democratic seats in response to Texas Republicans gerrymandering their state to try and net five additional House seats in next year’s midterm elections — at Trump’s behest — overcame its first major hurdle on Thursday. California voters will be asked on Nov. 4 to simultaneously approve the new Democratic drawn congressional maps and support nationwide independent redistricting. A new statewide poll out this week found that 55% of voters support the initiative — as Newsom’s popularity is rising in the Golden State.
“The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change,” Newsom, who will almost certainly run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, said in an interview this week to explain his pivot away from flirting with right-wing podcast bros shortly after Trump took office in January.
“The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change,” Newsom, who will almost certainly run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, said in an interview this week to explain his pivot away from flirting with right-wing podcast bros shortly after Trump took office in January.
Last week, the governor’s social media team launched a snippy troll campaign against the White House and its supporters in MAGA media, including Fox News’ Dana Perino and Tomi Lahren, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, mimicking Trump’s style of capital letters and nicknames. White House communications director Steven Cheung cried that Newsom is a “coward and Beta Cuck.” Fox News stars clutched their pearls over Newsom’s ribbing.
“You have to stop it with the Twitter thing,” Perino said on “The Five” this week. “He’s got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little more serious.”
“ALMOST A WEEK IN AND THEY STILL DON’T GET IT,” Newsom’s account, which is operated under the direction of Newsom communications director Izzy Gardon and rapid response director Brandon Richards, responded. “FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!!”
Perino responded on Wednesday: “If you’re doing this and it’s not authentic and you’re trying to do somebody else who you say is Hitler and you think that we don’t get the joke, oh no, we get the joke, it’s just not funny.”
It’s the same strange defense deployed by Vice President J.D. Vance during his Wednesday interview with Fox News. “I think [Newsom’s strategy] the fundamental genius of President Trump’s political success, which is that he’s authentic,” Vance said Wednesday night on “The Ingraham Angle.”
It’s fascinating to see them all pretend not to get the joke so they don’t anger Trump. The president’s defenders have to frame Newsom’s mimicry as though he means to emulate Trump rather than mock him. But their over-the-top whining belies their true understanding. Newsom is throwing red meat to the resistance while baiting the right. He’s learned from Trump, as well as his years engaging with Fox News, that being an internet troll can consolidate media attention without falling into the “fact-check” trap that has beguiled Democrats for the entirety of the Trump era. And enraged Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity, who acknowledged that “maybe it wins you points with the looney radical base in your party,” and Greg Gutfeld, who spent the week trolling that Newsom’s antics are somehow doomed to fail, understand that’s why the trolling is funny. Newsom is like the court jester pointing out how stupidly the king is acting. The inability of Trumpists to see it makes it even funnier.
Invariably, by holding up the mirror to Trump, as POLITICO described it, Newsom has caused others beyond MAGA media to reflexively flinch. The medicine dispensed by the governor tastes especially bitter to those who suffer from a lack of self-awareness.
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“You are not running against Donald Trump,” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said of Newsom’s new approach. “Instead of trying to school Donald Trump, talk into the camera about affordability. Talk about making groceries more affordable. Talk about what you are going to do for housing. Talk about what you are going to do for energy prices.”
Democrats fundamentally didn’t appreciate the rage of their base in response to other Democrats allowing themselves to get trolled by Libs of TikTok. The line of civil discourse on social media has already been crossed. MAGA isn’t going to do anything but whine about Newsom’s snide quips about the failure of Bed, Bath and Beyond or a swipe at misgendering Nancy Mace. Funnily enough, their cries will help further amplify Newsom’s Trump-coded message.
With much of the media still sanewashing Trump’s daily rants, the governor’s antics have helped to refocus attention on Trump’s ravings, which have been long relegated to Truth Social following his de-platforming across social media platforms in response to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump’s “jokes,” suggestions and proclamations about changing the rules of future federal elections need to be amplified by any means necessary. His chaotic daily White House press briefing room appearances during COVID undoubtedly helped highlight the crisis of his leadership ahead of the 2020 election. Scarborough’s suggestion, meanwhile, is akin to the same misguided urge that shelved former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s relatable “weird” hit against the Trump-Vance campaign last fall.
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The idea that a politician just has to only talk about wonky policy should have been thoroughly debunked after the last election. Newsom’s trolling of Trump is the first bit of positive political news for Democrats since the election that Fox News has not managed to demagogue. The stunning victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, for example, has been held up by the network since June as evidence of a socialist takeover of the Democratic Party. Everything from a denim ad campaign to a chain restaurant rebrand has seemingly been spun by the network and others in the business of right-wing outrage into an albatross around the neck of elected Democrats.
In an effort to cope with the troll campaign, Fox News has highlighted polling that shows most Democrats don’t currently support Newsom’s presidential ambitions. Their viewers, then, may well understand that many Democrats are simply supporting his antics to trigger them. It’s an added burn.
Ultimately, winning for Newsom must mean real movement on redistricting before the 2026 midterm elections. Texas Democrats’ stunts drew national media attention, but they were impotent in the end precisely because the party holds no power in the Lone Star State. Newsom’s leadership in California on this issue should put pressure on other blue state Democrats to act with the same urgency. To be sure, gerrymandering is a race to the bottom and is inarguably bad for our country. But taking back control of one or both chambers of Congress is the first step toward even thinking of effectively stopping it.
More immediately, Newsom’s trolling campaign is turning MAGA media’s attention away from obfuscating about Trump’s blatant attempt to rig the elections. “Right now, with all due respect, we’re walking down a damn different path,” Newsom recently explained. “We’re fighting fire with fire. And we’re gonna punch these sons of b***hes in the mouth.”
