Gavin Newsom Is Posting Like Donald Trump in an Effort to Troll the President

As Democrats continue to jockey for position ahead of a primary in 2028, California Governor Gavin Newsom is earning brownie points for using some of the most unusual tactics. Newsom, who governs the largest state in the country, has started posting like Donald Trump in an effort to troll the current president and to point out all the ways we have simply accepted Trump's eccentricities.

As he continues to post in a Trump-ish manner, many want to know whether he's explained why he's doing that. Here's what we know.

As California has been pulled into a national redistricting fight, Newsom's online social media feeds have slowly started to look more and more like the president's. In practice, that means they contain more memes, more things in all caps, and a grammatical style that is unmistakably modeled after the president. Newsom didn't explicitly explain the posting for some time, but it seems designed to both mock the president and call out the ways that we've accepted his unusual behavior.

"DONALD (TINY HANDS), HAS WRITTEN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY THIS MORNING — UNFORTUNATELY (LOW IQ) HE SPELLED IT WRONG — 'BETA.' SOON YOU WILL BE A 'FIRED' BETA BECAUSE OF MY PERFECT, 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS.' THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GCN," reads one of Newsom's most recent posts referencing a Trump post in which he wrote the word "bela" for reasons that are still unclear.

Newsom's posting style has garnered national attention, and plenty have enjoyed watching him make fun of the president so explicitly. What's less clear, though, is whether this posting style will have any broader ramifications. Newsom is one of the people who is expected to run for president in 2028, and it seems like this move could be designed to position him as a bit like the Trump of the left, at least in the sense that he's willing to try things other people won't.

In a press conference where he also defended California's decision to redistrict in response to Texas's redistricting plan (both moves are designed to win each party more representation in the House), Newsom also defended his more aggressive posting style.

"I don't know — I hope it's a wake-up call," he said. "I'm following the president's example. If you've got issues with what I'm putting out, you should have concerns about what he's putting out as president," he said, per Newsweek.

"The deeper question is how we've allowed the normalization of his tweets and social posts over the last many years to go without similar scrutiny and notice," he added.

Newsom's approach is designed to attract attention, and that's exactly what it's done.

While some people might think this posting style is beneath a governor, especially because of its mocking tone, Newsom's point is that if that's the case, it should also be beneath the president. For now, then, it seems like both men are going to keep posting the way they have been.