California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has turned his satirical sights on White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as his relentless campaign of ridicule against Donald Trump’s administration continues.
“KAROLYIN’ LEAVITT says Happy Labor Day!,” the GovPressOffice X account posted on Monday, casting Leavitt as Effie Trinket, a character from the dystopian Hunger Games franchise.
Trinket is a craven underling of the dictatorial President Coriolanus Snow in Suzanne Collins’ futuristic young adult novels, which were adapted into a hugely popular series of blockbuster movies starring Jennifer Lawrence beginning in 2012. Trinket is played by Elizabeth Banks in the first four films in the sequence.
Newsom also sent up White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, known for his uncompromising anti-immigration stance, with a meme likening him to Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter to extend the same well-wishes to his followers.
There was also a spoof of Trump’s characteristic public holiday messaging style, for which Newsom wrote in all-caps: “HAPPY LABOR DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT IS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY WITH A SICK WARPED RADICAL MIND, KILLING SMALL BUSINESSES WITH CRAZY TARIFFS, TAKING HEALTH CARE FROM CHILDREN, PARDONING J6 THUGS, SENDING THE ‘PRIVATE ARMY’ TO ARREST GRANDMA, WRECKING OUR BEAUTIFUL ENVIRONMENT, DEFUNDING OUR SCHOOLS, AND DESTABILIZING LONG-STANDING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS.
“HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL. BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS IN RECENT WEEKS, AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! AGAIN, HAPPY LABOR DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA! – GCN.”
None of the three has yet responded to Newsom through their own accounts.
The governor has been mimicking Trump’s social media style for the last month, primarily via his press office account to bluster about his own greatness and dish out infantile slurs with which to attack hostile conservative media personalities – just as the president himself has done to his enemies on the left for years – aggravating a number of Fox News hosts in the process.
Over the weekend, the governor took his mockery to Instagram by posting a montage of Trump’s many public gaffes and flubs set to the song “I’m a Survivor” by Reba McEntire with the patronising tagline: “He’s trying.”
The president managed to resist rising to the bait and lashing out at Newsom for several weeks, before finally cracking on August 20 and posting on Truth Social: “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California.”
Newsom has since revealed that Trump’s team have also been retaliating by sending him red “Trump 2028” baseball caps, with the governor returning fire by issuing his own “Newsom 2026” mugs and “Newsom was right about everything!” hats.
