California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his communications team have started using President Donald Trump's social media tactics against him.
The governor shook up his communications staff recently, and his social media accounts have targeted his GOP opponents with online trolling, TikTok mockery and insults, and he's even taken the Trump-like step of suing Fox News over misleading reporting as he heads into a potential 2028 run for the White House, reported Axios.
"In the aftermath of Trump's attacks on Newsom's handling of the fires in Los Angeles this year, the governor retooled his rapid-response operation in ways that resemble that of Trump," the website reported. "Over the weekend, Newsom's office called Trump Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a 'fascist cuck' — a term Trump's team often uses to attack its opponents — after Miller criticized a judge's ruling and called the judge a 'communist.'"
"'Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen,' Newsom's office wrote on social media. 'Cry harder.'"
Newsom's team has engaged in memes to highlight Trump's relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, among other tactics to needle the president, and his newly aggressive approach has earned him millions of new followers on social media – where his engagement dwarfs other potential Democratic presidential contenders.
"Newsom also has been trying to shed what his team feels is the unfair caricature of a San Francisco liberal — which is what Trump's campaign attacked Kamala Harris as in 2024," Axios reported. "Newsom launched his own podcast this year and has had calm interviews with prominent conservatives such as Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich."
However, the governor has run into resistance trying to book conservatives on his show, because some aren't willing to help him politically.
"I've said I'm against conservatives going on his podcast because I think it's helping him train for 2028, and I don't think we should help him," conservative broadcaster Megyn Kelly told Tucker Carlson, who said he'd declined an invitation for the same reason.
