California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is earning plaudits for his recent trolling of President Donald Trump by mimicking his social media habits, including all-caps posts.
Newsom, a frequent foil for the president’s social media outbursts, took to X Tuesday night to blast “DONALD ‘TACO’ Trump,” -- a reference to “Trump Always Chickens Out,” coined by a financial columnist over the president’s back-and-forth tariff policies.
Trump has been pushing several red states to gerrymander their congressional maps to give Republicans an upper hand, amid growing fears that the GOP could lose the House in next year’s midterms. The maps are typically redrawn every ten years following the census, and not in the middle of the decade.
Newsom sent Trump a letter Monday calling on him to end the “unprecedented, mid-decade, hyper-partisan gerrymander to rig the upcoming midterm elections.”
“If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states,” he wrote. “But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”
Newsom subsequently posted on X that Trump had 24 hours to respond to the letter.
On Tuesday, as the deadline passed, he wrote: “DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!).”
“BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR ‘MAGA,’” he added. “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”
Sports reporter Emily Bicks wrote on Threads: “Gavin Christopher Newsom keepin the no f***s energy comin.”
Liberal social media commentator, Harry Sisson, wrote: “I absolutely love how Gavin Newsom is treating Donald Trump with the disdain and disrespect that he absolutely deserves.”
Journalist Karly Kingsley added: “I don’t think we’re giving Gavin Newsom enough credit for what he’s doing to defend democracy and to stop a wannabe dictator from consolidating power.”
Attorney and Never Trump-er George Conway joined the presidential mockery, writing in response to Newsom: “Many people, big strong men with tears in their eyes, will soon be saying, ‘Sir, you have the most Amazing State, with the Most Beautiful Maps. No one has ever seen anything like this. Your Excellency, Sir, we are in awe of your Incomparable Gubernatorialicityness’.”
But not all were on board with Newsom’s style change. The Chief Strategy and Public Affairs Officer at Future Caucus, an organization for young lawmakers, Reed Howard, wrote: “Race-to-the-bottom politics is a darn shame. America deserves better than this. I want real leadership.”
Reporter Alex Gault added: “If this becomes a lasting approach to political communications, I will be committing myself to whatever mental hospital still does lobotomies.”
Last month, Trump asked Texas to redraw its maps to hand Republicans another five House seats in the state. Texas Democrats left the state to deny Republicans the ability to move forward with their proposal. Democrats then said they would look to redraw maps in blue states such as Illinois, California, and New York, prompting Republicans to consider taking action in Ohio and Indiana.
California has an independent commission that draws political maps, and if Newsom moves ahead with his threat, he would need passage of a special ballot in November.
