Gavin Newsom has branded Donald Trump “patient zero” of a new illness.
The 58-year-old California governor flipped one of the 79-year-old president’s favorite attack lines against him Wednesday, declaring in an X post that Trump suffers from “California Derangement Syndrome.”
“Everyone knows that the President has spread California Derangement Syndrome (CDS) for many years — some say he was even patient zero — but in reality he loves California, @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom, and our world-leading policies!” Newsom’s press office wrote.
Trump routinely diagnoses anyone who criticizes him or his policies with the made-up condition “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The president was condemned by both sides of the aisle last month for saying that Rob Reiner was killed due to the “anger he caused others” through his “affliction” with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Newsom, who has repurposed Trump’s own social media antics to become the president’s biggest online troll, has begun using “California Derangement Syndrome” to hit back at critics who he says irrationally criticize the Golden State.
The likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender argued Wednesday that despite Trump’s supposed affliction with the illness, he “copies our policies on the regular to bring the riches of California to all the American people.”
In subsequent X posts, Newsom pointed to at least nine Trump policies he said were copied from California.
He called DOGE a “cheap imitation” of California’s Office of Data and Innovation, writing, “While Trump and Elon’s DOGE cut essential jobs and services, released loads of fake numbers, and then fizzled out, ODI continues finding real results that build value for Californians rather than making arbitrary, dangerous cuts.”
Newsom also said the “Make America Healthy Again” initiatives led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were actually “born in California,” citing a law he signed in 2024 that banned certain artificial food dyes from K-12 campuses.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Beyond the “patient zero” insult from Newsom, Trump’s health has been in the spotlight for months. He has been repeatedly photographed sporting dark bruises on both of his hands and has suffered from swollen ankles.
He was diagnosed in July with “chronic venous insufficiency,” a common ailment in older people that makes it more difficult for the blood to travel to the heart from the legs through smaller veins.
In a Wall Street Journal interview about his medical treatments earlier this month, Trump said that the large daily dose of aspirin he takes to thin his blood causes his hands to bruise easily.
His doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella said Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin a day—a much larger dose than the usual 81 milligrams—for “cardiac prevention.”
“They’d rather have me take the smaller one,” Trump said. “I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising.”
He explained, “They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
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