Taking on President Donald Trump isn’t new for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, but imitating the president on social media is.
Newsom’s trolling the last few weeks has been extra spicy, timed around the launch of the campaign for an issue that’s the opposite of spicy: redistricting.
“Gavin Newsom has decided, ‘Somebody said something brash and reckless. I’m going to say the same thing,'” said Karen North, a professor of digital social media at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The use of all caps, MAGA phrases, and threats, combined with personal praise, is classic Trump.
Referring to redistricting, Newsom’s press office posed on X: “Final warning Donald Trump – maybe the most important warning in history! Stop cheating or California will redraw the maps. And guess who will announce it this week? Gavin Newsom (many say the most loved & handsome governor) and a very powerful team. Don’t make us do it!!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
His team also posted, “Make the maps great again! Big beautiful rally today. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In terms of engagement, it’s working. Newsom’s office X account has seen an increase of 250,000 followers since Aug. 1, an engagement rate of more than 50% and more than 1.5 million profile visits.
“Not only has Newsom become much more aggressive in his criticism of Trump, but by imitating him, he is reminding the political community that this type of behavior from an elected official is out of the ordinary,” said Dan Schnur, a political communications lecturer at USC and UC Berkeley.
“How do you get the attention of people who don’t care about Gavin Newsom? To become entertaining and engaging like this, brash and shocking is a great way to get attention, and it’s clearly working in that regard,” said North.
The new strategy has caught the attention of Trump, who posted on his social media platform, 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. I will save California!!! President DJT.”
So will engagement on social media translate to votes for redistricting?
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the LA Times found 46% of registered voters believe redistricting is a good idea. Thirty-six percent say it’s a bad idea, and 18% had no opinion. As far as Newsom’s approach to Trump — which is only going to ramp up ahead of the Nov. 4 special election — 59% said Newsom should continue the behavior and 29% said he should take a more cooperative stance.
“I hope it’s a wake-up call to the president of the United States following his example,” said Newsom. “If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president. To the extent it’s gotten attention, I’m pleased. The deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years to go without similar scrutiny and notice?”
Supporters of Trump say they find his brash tone on social media to be authentic, which has boosted his popularity. It seems to be working for Newsom so far, but whether it drives voters to the polls in two and a half months remains to be seen.
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