California Gov. Gavin Newsom has raked in millions in online donations for his push to overhaul California’s districts as he relentlessly trolls President Donald Trump online.
According to fundraising data released by his campaign and reported by The New York Times, Newsom raised $6.2 million in the week following the launch of his ballot-measure effort to redraw California’s congressional map. The contributions came from roughly 200,000 online donors.
The massive sum comes as Newsom has ridiculed the president online. The California governor has been mimicking Trump’s signature all-caps rants and mocking his persona across social media. The campaign has boosted Newsom’s profile and gained wide traction across social media platforms.
On a press call with the Daily Beast and other reporters on Wednesday, Newsom defended his trolling strategy, saying, “If nothing else, we’ve called out the absurdity of the normalization of Donald Trump.”
Newsom’s proposal to overhaul California’s districts would redraw the state’s congressional map to add up to five left-leaning seats in his heavily blue state and protect vulnerable incumbents. It must pass the state legislature this fall to override the state’s Constitution. The effort is widely viewed as a response to Texas, where Trump called on Republicans to change their congressional maps to add as many as five GOP seats.
One of Newsom’s most prominent ads for his ballot-measure committee shows him with Trump on an airport tarmac, finger pointed at the president’s chest.
Newsom’s campaign spent nearly $450,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads between August 12 and 18, according to company records cited by the Times. This aggressive outreach, paired with his trolling strategy, appears aimed at expanding potential donors ahead of a possible 2028 presidential bid.
It comes “at a time when he has emerged in many ways as the face of opposition to President Trump,” the paper reported.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
On Wednesday, Newsom vowed to push ahead with redistricting in his state as he warned that the U.S. was on the brink of authoritarianism and that “nothing about this is normal.”
“It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore—it’s about how we play hardball,” he said of the president. “We are going to fight back and we’re going to punch this bully in the mouth.”
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