California’s 40th governor, Gavin Newsom, first elected in 2019, started off the new year doing what he does best, trolling President Donald Trump online. Newsom started this digital campaign against Trump back in June of 2025, and continues to ramp up the intensity.
Camellia Zapata, his digital director, leads a small team of about three people who are in charge of creating social media content for this campaign, typically in meme-like style.
Many citizens online already knew Newsom for being an online troll, like his viral ad targeting Florida’s “don’t say gay” law.
Since Trump’s re-election, Newsom and his team began posting brash, absurd statements in all caps, mocking Trump’s style on Truth Social, and reacting to his online posts, claims, and actions.
Some of his more recent mockings of Trump involve reacting to photos of Trump after he claims to be in “perfect health”. In response, Newsom shared two photos of Trump, one showing Trump’s badly bruised right hand and the other of him falling asleep during an Oval Office press conference.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Mike Madrid, a GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump political action committee known as the Lincoln Project, said, “Newsom’s mirroring can’t go too far when it’s simply showing what the president is doing himself. Madrid called Newsom’s approach “fantastic.”
Another time, Newsom presented a state–run website that tracks Trump’s questionable crimes and crime pardons, along with other significant figures and their crimes. The site includes AI–generated mug shots of the criminals it tracks.
Many of Newsom’s posts on Trump come after a controversial statement or move by Trump. For example, when Trump told a reporter, “Be quiet, piggy,” Newsom responded with a picture of a photoshopped pig’s head over Donald Trump’s.
Similarly, when Trump demolished the east wing of the White House to build a ballroom, Newsom replied with, “Ripping apart the White House just like he’s ripping apart the Constitution.”
Honoring Trump’s full year in office, Newsom awarded him the “California Peace Prize” as he failed to secure the Nobel Peace Prize and posted it with an AI–generated photo of himself playing with a babified Trump.
According to “The Hill,” Newsom himself even said, “It’s time to get serious. And stop being complicit. It’s time to stand tall and firm and have a backbone. You know, I’ve seen this in the United States, supine Congress, playing both sides. You know, say one thing on a text or a tweet, another publicly.” Newsom later added that the world leaders’ interactions with President Trump have been “pathetic.”
This campaign has helped boost Newsom’s political standing and make more people question Trump. Newsom says he is considering running in the 2028 presidential election.
In the past, when Newsom was approached on the subject of running for president, he claimed he had “sub-zero” interest. But recently, he confirmed he would consider running for president in the 2028 election, saying, “I’m not thinking about running, but it’s a path that I could see unfold.”