California Gov. Gavin Newsom roasted “bargain bin” JD Vance after the vice president complained about Newsom’s trolling of “the king” Donald Trump.
Vance was asked in a Fox News interview about posts from Newsom’s press office on social media imitating Trump’s rambling, all-caps Truth Social rants, one of several political tactics that Newsom has been using to mock the president.
“When I see Gavin Newsom trying to act like Donald Trump, that’s the opposite of authenticity. He’s not trying to be Gavin Newsom—whoever that is,” Vance told host Will Cain on Thursday. “He’s trying to be a fake carbon copy of Donald Trump. And it just doesn’t work. The lesson of President Trump in American politics is you’ve got to be authentic to yourself.”
“You can’t mimic the king,” Vance went on, referring to Trump. “You can’t mimic the master; you ought to just go and be yourself. And I think the people would like that a lot more than a cheap imitation of the president of the United States.”
Newsom quickly responded to Vance’s gripes about mimicking Trump in a post on X, again mimicking Trump.
“J.D. ‘JUST DANCE’ VANCE, WHO NOBODY LIKED UNTIL TRUMP PICKED HIM OUT OF THE ‘BARGAIN BIN’ IN THE WALMART CLEARANCE SECTION, WENT ON FOX TO TRASH ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AMERICA’S MOST POPULAR GOVERNOR,” Newsom’s press office wrote.
The account added that Newsom lived “RENT-FREE” in Vance’s head, which the account called a “VERY TINY SPACE, ALMOST NO ROOM WITH ‘THE COUCH’,” and claimed, “EVERYONE’S LAUGHING AT HIM, BELIEVE ME!”
Newsom also directly attacked Vance in another post from his personal X account. Responding to a report about Vance saying he’s ready to step into the presidency if anything “terrible” happens to Trump, Newsom wrote simply: “No thank you!”
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance for comment.
Vance is viewed by many as Trump’s heir apparent to serve as the GOP presidential nominee in 2028. Newsom’s trolling strategy and aggressive outreach on social media, meanwhile, appear aimed at expanding potential donors ahead of a possible 2028 presidential bid of his own.
The governor’s communications team published viral posts this month that parodied Trump’s style—nicknaming opponents, using all-caps, and signing off with his initials.
One such post read: “WOW! TOMORROW HISTORY WILL BE MADE. KaroLYIN LEAVITT WILL HAVE NO ANSWERS FOR THE SUPPOSED ‘FAKE MEDIA’ ABOUT CALIFORNIA’S BEAUTIFUL MAPS. … DONALD ‘THE FAILURE’ TRUMP BE WARNED, TOMORROW MAY BE THE WORST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. … LIBERATION DAY FOR AMERICA!!! — GCN.”
On a press call with the Daily Beast and other reporters last week, Newsom defended his trolling strategy, saying, “If nothing else, we’ve called out the absurdity of the normalization of Donald Trump.”
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