Donald Trump has hit back at Gavin Newsom after the MAGA-trolling Governor vowed to take him on as a bully who ought to be punched “in the mouth.”
In his midnight tirade, the president accused the California Democrat of tanking in the polls, when figures show Newsom’s approval ratings and social media status have been rising.
“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” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
❄️❄️❄️ https://t.co/7nj92lopvp
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 21, 2025
The overnight attack was Trump’s first post since Newsom’s @GovPressOffice started to actively troll him on social media by mimicking his trademark all-caps rants and tendency to compliment himself.
In response, Newsom’s office reposted the message with three snowflake emojis.
The tit-for-tat came hours after Newsom ramped up his rhetoric against the president while doubling down on contentious plans to redraw California’s congressional maps.
The move is designed to counter a Trump-led redistricting push in Texas, which the president demanded in a bid to secure five more GOP seats and stave off a defeat at next year’s midterms.
“We’re going to fight back, and we’re going to punch this bully in the mouth,” Newsom told The Daily Beast and other reporters on a Zoom call on Wednesday. “It’s just the beginning.”
But it’s Newsom’s relentless mocking of Trump online, which has elevated the profile of the potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, that has irked MAGA the most in recent weeks.
Vice President J.D. Vance also weighed in on Wednesday, telling Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” that Newsom’s online messaging misses Trump’s “fundamental genius.”
“This idea that Gavin Newsom is somehow going to mimic Donald Trump’s style—I think that ignores the fundamental genius of President Trump’s political success, which is that he’s authentic,” Vance said.
According to CNN analyst Harry Enten, Newsom’s @GovPressoffice account on X has increased its followers by 450 percent since mid-June, while his official TikTok and Instagram accounts have gained 1 million followers since January.
Google searches for “Gavin Newsom” have also gone “up like a rocket” since the trolling campaign began, Enten said, surging 1,300 percent on June 1 and another 500 percent on Aug. 1.
And while Trump says the Governor’s poll numbers are “way down” and that the president is the one who can “save California,” the latest UCI-OC poll shows Newsom’s standing has improved since he clashed with Trump over immigration raids this year.
According to the study, Newsom had a 59 per cent disapproval rating in May-June, but this shifted to 56 per cent of people rating him as “somewhat favourable” or “strongly favorable” last month.
This week, a Politico-Citrin Centre Possibility Lab poll also found that among California Democrats and left-leaning independents, Newsom leads Kamala Harris as preferred presidential candidate: 25 per cent to 19 per cent.
Additionally, 75 per cent of respondents said they were “excited” at the prospect of him running for the party’s presidential nomination compared with Harris at 67 per cent.
The post Trump Bites Back at Newsom Trolling With Fake Polls Claim appeared first on The Daily Beast.
