California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been on a social media frenzy over the past several days trolling President Donald Trump by evoking his writing style in several posts, and while the strategy has been mocked by some conservative critics, even some MAGA heavyweights are admitting the social media blitz is starting to sting.
“He’s no Trump, but if you look at the Democratic Party, he's at least getting up there, and he's trying to imitate a Trumpian vision of fighting,” said Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff under Trump and host of the alt-right podcast War Room, speaking with Politico Wednesday.
“He looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win. People in the MAGA movement and the America First movement should start paying attention to this, because it’s not going to go away, they’re only going to get more intense.”
Newsom’s posts have been varied, but generally target Trump and his administration, and in a manner mirroring Trump’s syntax and capitalization style. Among Newsom’s most viral recent posts include the reposting of an image depicting him on Mount Rushmore, and the posting of an image generated with generative artificial intelligence depicting him praying while surrounded by pro-Trump figures Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and the late Hulk Hogan.
One particularly viral post of Newsom’s saw the governor mock Trump for a social media blunder in which he shared a one-word social media post that read “bela.”
“DONALD (TINY HANDS), HAS WRITTEN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY THIS MORNING – UNFORTUNATELY (LOW IQ) HE SPELLED IT WRONG – ‘BETA,’ Newsom’s account posted. “SOON YOU WILL BE A ‘FIRED’ BETA BECAUSE OF MY PERFECT, ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS.’ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! – GCN.”
The White House even fired back at Newsom Wednesday in a response to Politico, a response that included only a single image, an original meme referencing a scene from the AMC series Mad Men depicting Trump disregarding a person representing Newsom’s X account.