With Democrats in the House and Senate largely missing in action in the Trump 2.0 era, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has enjoyed his day in the sun as the blue foil to all things red hat. As is now well-documented, it was Newsom who was first to step up in the face of Texas doing Trump’s bidding in essentially erasing five Democratic House seats for the coming 2026 election (To be discussed more below), though Newsom is doing it through a vote of the people of California – as opposed to simply ramming it through a special legislative session as Texas will surely do at some point. But Newsom has refused to limit himself to “just” matching Trump seat for seat in the House. No, the governor is now spreading his wings, becoming increasingly irreverent in his “Trump-like” posts to social media, never hitting closer to home than today. It has to drive Trump insane.
Newsom must have a specialty shop now set up in his office because it takes real skill to perfectly match the tone and self-importance that Trump imbues into every tweet. And yet Newsom did it perfectly.
NEW: Gavin Newsom announces a "HISTORIC" event this Thursday
Have you ever audio-recorded your voice and been shocked by how stupid you sound? I have many times. It is interesting to ponder whether Trump will read this tweet and have a similar experience, very suddenly realizing that it all doesn’t sound so powerful, indeed, awfully pathetic, when he actually reads it coming from someone else. And, we can all agree, that takes real talent, having to match the weird syncopation and aggrandization in Trump’s probably-patented tweets. It is possible that Newsom has some highly accomplished writers on staff; this kind of thing isn’t as easy as it looks.
Alas, it is likely that California can only “match” Texas with respect to five seats and not more. Perhaps, if needed, New York can gin up a few additional ones. But the GOP’s hopes in Texas are glossing over one very problematic – for them – assumption. For their redistricting efforts to work to capture five seats, Hispanic voters have to vote exactly as they did during the 2024 election, when Trump did surprisingly well among Hispanics. That vote is certainly not locked in now with Trump’s mobilization of ICE against any brown-skinned or Spanish-accented American. Moreover, Team Red never does as well when Trump is not at the top of the ticket. It is very possible that two or more of those new districts that are supposed to be almost automatic Republican actually end up going to the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Newsom has done a surprisingly good job rising to the surface as one of the national leaders that Democrats need most. We will set aside trashing all the weak-kneed Dems in Congress for now, only to note that it has been refreshing to see some real pushback from the likes of Govs. Newsom, Pritzker, and Hochul. But Newsom is the one who seems to really be enjoying it and doing it best.
Time to end this very important column, THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
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That’s good Jason!
When the going gets weird…the weird turn pro.
Hunter S Thompson