The Los Angeles protests have prompted a number of highly unusual developments — from the president sending in the Marines and National Guard troops for a domestic law enforcement mission over California’s objections, to the White House flirting with invoking the Insurrection Act — but few have been stranger than the meme war underway between California and the Trump administration.
In recent days, both sides have posted a flurry of memes on X mocking the other, in parallel with more serious clashes like California suing the administration over the National Guard deployment.
For his part, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has shared posts mocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s love of wearing law-enforcement tactical gear, as well as memes comparing Donald Trump and White House deputy Stephen Miller to villains from the Star Wars franchise, and brushing off a critical video from Trump ally and actor Jon Voight using a common meme from The Simpsons, featuring an image of a newspaper with the headline, ‘Old Man Yells At Cloud.’
The Trump administration, which regularly bashes critics online from government accounts, has used similar tactics.
In one post, the Department of Homeland Security borrowed a GIF featuring high-tech magnifying sunglasses from the Spy Kids movies to insinuate they would try to deport a popular fashion writer who has criticized the administration’s position towards undocumented migrants.
In another, in a response to a Star Wars-themed meme from Newsom, DHS drew from The Simpsons using a common meme format with the caption, ‘Don’t make me tap the sign,’ in this case pointing to an X post that read, “Liberals don’t know things. They don’t read history, they don’t obsess over stats, the few data points they do see they forget.”
The online jousting is part of a more serious and alarming divide between state and federal Republican officials over the direction of the crisis.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell have described being shut out of regular communications around federal troop movements in response to the protests, while Newsom’s office is suing over the Guard deployment.
Newsom, when he’s not trolling, has alternated between grave warnings that two branches of government have been “lost to Trumpism“ and dares to “tough guy” federal officials to arrest him, after White House border czar Tom Homan said anyone who impedes immigration enforcement could end up behind bars.
On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said Newsom should be “tarred and feathered” over his handling of the protests and accused Newsom of being more interested in appearances than maintaining law and order. The California governor is widely thought to be interested in a 2028 presidential campaign.
Inside the White House, administration officials are reportedly thrilled with how the standoff has played out before the nation, believing images from the protests reinforce their claims that migrants are dangerous and Democrats are weak on law and order issues.
“We couldn’t have scripted this better,” a senior White House aide told The Atlantic of the dynamic inside the Oval Office. “It’s like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.”
Trump has raised the temperature in other ways, including giving a fiery partisan speech about the crisis before cheering active-duty soldiers at Fort Bragg, which critics said broke with longstanding norms separating the military from politics.
The mocking clashes, while highly unusual for taking place during a national crisis, likely grow from both sides’ increasing attempts to win over the media landscape as a means of dominating the political one.
Donald Trump has long used social media as his main mouthpiece — he owns his own platform, after all — and his administration has embraced memes and AI throughout its second term, including hopping on the Studio Ghibli-style AI cartoon trend to mock a Dominican woman it was deporting.
Newsom, perhaps the most prominent Democrat outside of Washington, also has long used media to position himself as a key face squaring off against Trump and other top Republicans, whether it was debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Fox News on Fox News, or launching a podcast this year where he has sparred with influential conservative voices.
Whatever the rationale behind the strategy, it seems protests over the administration’s immigration policies are here to stay.
They’ve spread to at least 35 cities across the U.S. and have resulted in hundreds of arrests.
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