| HELLO AND HAPPY THURSDAY. IT'S ME, ANITA LYNNE CHABRIA, COMING TO YOU IN ALL CAPS — BECAUSE THAT'S NOW HOW POLITICS IS DONE. |
| No, I won't really torment you with shift-lock psychosis. But we will be diving into Gov. Gavin Newsom's wildly successful social media trolling of Donald Trump. Although much has been written about his parody of the president's bombastic style, replete with weird syntax and tongue-in-cheek self-aggrandizement, it turns out it's far more than just entertaining. |
| More than any other Democratic presidential hopeful out there, the social media offensive has raised both his profile and political fortunes — and highlighted some uncomfortable truths about American politics in this moment when the vast majority of voters are getting their information in 20-second snippets on TikTok, YouTube and X: Social media is not the sideshow, it's the main event. |
| But it's about more than GCN (Gavin Christopher Newsom, as he now signs his posts) making it to the Resolute desk. |
| Whether you love Newsom or hate him, California is the epicenter on the resistance to Trump's push to expand presidential powers into authoritarianism. In courts, in the Legislature and on social media, this is the state that has fought back most effectively. |
| Newsom's recent decision to throw caution and subservience to the wind is at the heart of that, a move from frenemy to fighter that is essential to shaping and protecting the future of our democracy. One cheeky post at a time. |
The seed of inspiration |
| How did we wind up here? Although January may seem like eons ago, it was in reality only nine short months since Newsom showed up uninvited on the tarmac in L.A. to greet Trump, even embrace him, as the president came to view the fire damage in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. |
| Newsom was still in that frenemy phase, trying to reason with, flatter and cajole a president who demands praise, but who, like the fable of the scorpion and the frog, will always attack because it's in his nature. California needs fire aid, and as Newsom said at the time, "I hope he comes with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. That's the spirit to which we welcome him." |
| That, however, didn't work out great. Trump not only dillydallied with fire money, threatening conditions, he also sent the National Guard into L.A. for a nonexistent emergency around immigration protests, then strong-armed Texas into redrawing voting maps to help ensure MAGA keeps control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. |
| So now California has Proposition 50, the effort to redraw our own maps to find more Democratic seats, and a hoppin'-mad governor (get that frog reference?) who knows a scorpion when he sees one. |
| What does this have to do with social media, you ask? In mid-August GCN wrote to DJT with one last peace offering: California would stop its push for redistricting if other states stopped as well. No luck, big surprise. |
| But staffers at Newsom's office were in a mood, and thought it would be funny to tweet out the last paragraph of that letter in all caps, Trump-style. The only change? Switching the last line from the statesman-like "And America will be better for it" to the Trump-favored "Thank you for your attention to this matter." |
| And there, in a moment of frustration and gallows humor — no grand strategy intended — the seed of inspiration was planted. |
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The Result |
| That post has received 5 million views so far, and emboldened Newsom to go further. Since then, his trolling has been both prolific, pointed, and extremely popular. |
| The X account where Newsom does most of his smack-posting, @GovPressOffice, gained more than 500,000 followers in recent weeks, and racked up more than 480 million impressions. That's up 450%, according to CNN's Harry Enten. |
| He's been in demand on traditional media as well (and seems to be living rent-free in the brains of right-wing Fox commentators), and has made himself available to digital content creators — who have helped him reach more than 30 million views across various platforms. |
| Newsom's speech about the National Guard coming into L.A. — at nine minutes long, an eternity these days — was viewed more 40 million times in a week. |
| And, as Enten also pointed out, 75% of California Democrats now say they want Newsom to run for president, and betting markets give Newsom a 24% chance of being the Democratic nominee, rating him with the highest potential in the pack. |
| Love-bombed with all that success, Newsom has pushed further into the rage-baiting. The "GCN" sign-off? That came from Newsom himself. But there's a team behind the effort, and they're running 24/7 to keep the big, beautiful bludgeoning going. |
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But what about democracy? |
| Great for Newsom, you say, but how does a meme of him with bulging biceps save democracy? Here's the thing I learned covering the rise not just of Trump, but of the extremist and fringe ideologies such as QAnon that fueled his base: It would not happen without social media. |
| Social media is the sauce that has seasoned this change in our politics, which sounds obvious but is much deeper than most realize. Social media created communities, communities largely without physical or ethical boundaries. Anything goes, and the more intense and crazy, the deeper it tends to go. The more people believe, the more involved they become. |
| Short take: Social media spreads extremism. |
| But can social media also spread resistance? |
| The hardest parts of an autocracy are division and fear. It feels lonely and scary to speak out. Newsom has done two crucial things with his social media barrage. |
| First, he showed us that the Republicans were right all along. For years, the far-right has found Trump's social media hilarious, and all the funnier because Democrats were outraged by its crassness, vulgarity and childishness. Many Democrats found no humor in a president behaving in ways that would get their own teenagers grounded. |
| But as soon as Newsom did it, Democrats were the ones who found it funny, especially the irony-free Republican outrage. And empowering. And awesome. Suddenly, they got the joke. |
| In copying, Newsom was subverting — not just holding up a mirror to the bad behavior, but revealing that Democrats have in fact had a stick somewhere unnecessary and need to admit that low humor tickles the American fancy. He has given Democrats something light and amusing to rally around, creating community that has been sadly lacking. |
| And community is where resistance thrives, same as with extremism. When people feel not alone, they feel stronger. |
| That's the second thing Newsom has brought with his trolling. Democrats, Republicans, democracy-backers of any stripe are relieved to laugh at Trump together — because nothing undermines his power more than a collective chuckle at his expense. |
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What else you should be reading: |
| The must-read: The AI Doomsday Machine Is Closer to Reality Than You Think
The what happened: Trump can't use Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members, court rules
The L.A. Times special: California pushes back on Trump's CDC with West Coast Health Alliance |
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