Newsom on trolling Trump: 'I put a mirror up to that madness'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he's aiming to "put up a mirror" to what he called President Trump's "madness" with his trolling mimicking the president on social media.
Newsom, who is looking at running for president in 2028, was pressed on his all-caps, meme-fueled social media posts by NBC News’s Kristen Welker, who asked in an interview that aired Sunday if he risks "normalizing" Trump's behavior.
“Quite the contrary, the whole expression was to not allow it to be normalized. It was becoming normalized," Newsom responded in the interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"All this, he — the normalization of deviancy across this spectrum of issues, but his communication — he's dressing up as the Pope, as Superman,” Newsom continued.
“He's — hold on — he's putting his face on Mount Rushmore. He's saying ‘Thank you’. ... it's madness, and so I put a mirror up to that madness,” the Democratic governor added.
Newsom has closely mimicked Trump’s online playbook in recent months, drawing widespread attention with social media posts echoing his online attacks and brash social media style.
Just last week, Newsom’s press office posted an image of the governor that appeared to be generated by artificial intelligence where the California Democrat is muscle-bound in a Star Wars-themed outfit. The image is similar to one posted by the White House in May of Trump.
“HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL — EXCLUDING THE RADICAL RIGHT EMPIRE WHO WANTS TO RIP AWAY FOOD, HEALTH CARE, AND HOPE FROM EVERY CORNER OF THE GALAXY!” the press office post reads.
Newsom recently warned that the upcoming presidential election would be a “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin election” if his party doesn’t “stand up.”
“I’ll tell you what, we won’t have a country. We won’t have an election that’s fair and free if we don’t stand up, we won’t. There will not be a fair and free election — it’ll be a Putin election. Was it 87 percent or is it 87.3 percent?” Newsom told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.