After months of escalating attacks against President Donald Trump, California Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to have finally hit a nerve by hijacking his tactics.
Newsom has put California at the center of Democrats’ campaign against a Trump-backed effort in Texas to pad the GOP’s U.S. House majority, countering with a rare, mid-decade redistricting proposal of his own. All the while, he’s flooded social media with a steady stream of all-caps screeds mocking the president’s signature style.
It’s commanded a whirlwind of national attention, from Democrats and Republicans alike, that few in Newsom’s party have been able to manage during Trump’s second term.
This week alone, Newsom was singled out by former President Barack Obama for his “responsible approach” to redrawing California’s congressional maps; by Vice President JD Vance, who slammed him in a Fox News interview for trying to mimic Trump; and at the end of the night by Trump himself on Truth Social.
“Triggered?” Newsom responded to Trump.
For Newsom, who is on the short list of potential 2028 White House hopefuls, it all comes as the Democratic Party’s base above all else is itching for a fighter to take on Trump and the GOP.
“He would like to be the nominee in ‘28. Is he succeeding on getting that kind of attention? Yes, he is,” said Willie Brown, a longtime friend and political mentor to Newsom.
“In this political business, that’s what you live on and live by and hope for. If you want to be effective, the public has got to know about you, and you either do that by paying for your own social media efforts or hiring someone,” Brown continued. “Newsom gets it for free at the moment.”
Beyond the all-caps tactic, memes like that of a shirtless Newsom wearing Calvin Klein underwear with the American flag waving in the background have proliferated on social mediaas have Tiktok Videos of the governor going after Trump. Since the start of August, the governor’s press account on X has added 250,000 followers and racked up more than 225 million impressions, according to Newsom’s team.
Conservatives have teed off on Newsom’s social media assault, arguing that he was embarrassing himselfwasting public resources and wasn’t actually the one posting.
When Fox News host Dana Perino said Newsom was making a fool of himselfthe governor’s staff account offered a Trump-style response.
“DANA ‘DING DONG’ PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!) IS MELTING DOWN BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM! FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA’S MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR (‘RATINGS KING’) SAVING AMERICA — WHILE TRUMP CAN’T EVEN CONQUER THE ‘BIG’ STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE!!! TRUMP HAS ‘LOST HIS STEP’ AND FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. — GCN,” the post read.
The post garnered 5.2 million views.
“If nothing else, we’ve called out the absurdity of the normalization of Donald Trump,” Newsom said Wednesday on a call held by the Democratic National Committee. “You can’t make it up. I mean, when Fox is sitting there, oh so, so concerned about these tweets in all caps, they’ve missed the entire point, haven’t they, of what we’re pushing back and what we’re doing?”
“Maybe they should pay attention (to) what the president of the United States of America is modeling every single day,” Newsom continued. “Nothing about this is normal. And it needs to be called out.”
This week, X added a gray checkmark to Newsom’s @GovPressOffice count to distinguish it as a government organization, a Newsom spokesman said, adding it was not at their request but happened after fake accounts popped up.
Newsom’s aides say since he was mayor of San Francisco, he has put a premium on his staffers taking risks, handing out awards for the biggest failures to celebrate creative gambits. That atmosphere has spawned the latest social media approach from the governor’s team, which they say holds a mirror to Trump.
“It’s working. It’s getting under their skin,” said one Newsom confidant, who was granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk on behalf of the governor. “Whether it’s the (X) account or the memes, no one’s been able to highlight the absurdity and throw it back. He’s been able to do it.”
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, dismissed Newsom’s tactics.
“Nothing about Newscum is authentic — from his rehearsed answers to his flip-flopping policy positions — he goes whatever way the wind blows… so it makes sense that he would try to mimic the President’s wildly successful communication strategy. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Gavin’s behavior is just getting weird at this point,” Jackson said in a statement.
‘Something that no other Democrat has done’
Since January, the battles Newsom has waged against Trump and his allies have been big and small, ranging from a $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News to countering the president’s troop deployment in Los Angeles following immigration raids. Newsom held a nationally televised speech that panned Trump’s actions as akin to a dictator. According to Newsom’s office, the remarks, shared on social media, were viewed more than 40 million times.
In California, Newsom’s favorability ratings have notched up in the polls as he’s more prominently stood up to Trump. It’s unclear how long Newsom can sustain the spotlight, but for now, even some of Trump’s closest allies say he has caught lightning in a bottle.
Steve Bannon, the conservative architect of Trump’s first presidential campaign who was instrumental in shaping his early messaging and policy, offered praise for Newsom’s “brilliant” political gambit.
“This really shows how much Trump has changed modern politics. You have to be on offense, and you have to break through the media white noise, and it’s not as much policy-driven as attitude- and style-driven,” Bannon told NBC News. “He’s done something that no other Democrat has done. He’s energized these guys. He’s trying to instill the fighting spirit in a very dispirited party that has lost 4 million people. You have to put the guidon on a hill, and you have to rally the troops around something.”
Newsom called on California lawmakers last week to set a special election for November where voters would be asked whether the state should redraw its congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The ballot measure, which came in response to Texas’ proposed new map, is necessary in California to circumvent the independent redistricting commission that usually controls the process.
Since Newsom announced the initiative last week, small-dollar donations have flooded in online.
In conversations with donors and supporters, Newsom has made clear that Democrats are embarking on an all-out war with a heavy ad campaign after Labor Day. One Newsom aide expressed confidence in the outcome, saying, “We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t see a path.”
In pursuing the redistricting fight, Newsom has been in regular contact with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., according to three people with knowledge of the conversations.
Pelosi “has been in touch with him from the beginning” on the maps and strategy, one of the sources said, adding that she’s not the “ring leader” of the effort but rather a resource for the delegation who is helping raise funds for the project.
2028 groundwork
Newsom’s ability to drive his message comes as a soul-searching Democratic Party has craved a counterweight to Trump.
“Finally we got a fighter to stand up for our democracy!!!!” prominent Democratic donor Susie Buell wrote in a message to NBC News. Buell, who co-founded the Esprit and North Face clothing brands, said she is “waiting and willing” to invest in the redistricting fight. “Fighting fire with fire is our only way.”
Adam Bozzi, a consultant and liberal activist who fought to pass a nationwide anti-gerrymandering bill during the Biden administration, said he still believes that law would have been “better for voters in Texas and California” and “avoided this political mess.”
But even he backs what Newsom is doing now.
“You cannot expect anything other than this race to the bottom if this is the system that we have,” Bozzi said. “This is the system they created. … Hard to criticize someone for working within the system.”
Aaron Bennett, a Democratic strategist and former top speechwriter for Pelosi, said Newsom’s “fighting attitude” could help him in a 2028 contest.
“That’s the territory the primary’s going to be fought on,” Bennett said. “Those articulating it now are going to be a step ahead. So it’s the twin pieces. It’s showing the grit and willingness to do what it takes to achieve it.”
Not all Democrats are exactly smitten, however.
“Grandstanding phony” was how billionaire Democratic donor John Morgan described Newsom. “Trying to use many Americans’ fears to promote himself. What he doesn’t understand (is) the more we see, the less we like.”
Another longtime California political ally to Newsom was clear-eyed about perceptions of him as he moved into the national stage. A lengthy political résumé alone is not enough to overcome the Golden State’s reputation for lurching too far to the left, the person said.
“The idea of a liberal California guy running for president of the United States, with slicked back hair, a perfect wife and four children, the judgment with the French Laundrygoing anywhere nationwide, I just think the odds are against him,” said the Democratic ally, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He has to find some way to break through and become the hero of the country.”
