Politics

How Gavin Newsom trolled his way to the top of social media

Published

10 months ago

August 20, 2025

With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.

There’s Newsom on Mount Rushmore. There’s Newsom getting prayed over by Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and an angelic, winged Hulk Hogan. There’s Newsom posting in all caps, saying his mid-cycle redistricting proposal has led “MANY” people to call him “GAVIN CHRISTOPHER ‘COLUMBUS’ NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

If this genre of social media post provokes deja vu, there’s a good reason for that.

“He’s trying to mimic President Trump,” MAGA vanguard Steve Bannon tells Blue Light News. “He’s no Trump, but if you look at the Democratic Party, he’s at least getting up there, and he’s trying to imitate a Trumpian vision of fighting, right? He looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win.”

For a decade, President Donald Trump has blazed trails online. And now, Newsom has found that by replicating Trump’s posts to the point of outright parody and trolling, he’s effectively gamed social media algorithms and colonized X’s typically right-coded “for you” tab.

In doing so, Newsom is not only getting on Republicans’ nerves, but also potentially redefining how Democrats function as the opposition party in the age of Trump.

Michelle Obama famously advised Democrats to live by a dictum: “When they go low, we go high.” Newsom has approached it a bit differently: When they go low, we go low, and — backed by lots of AI-generated slop — end up high in the algorithm.

“I’ve changed,” Newsom told Fox LA when asked about his new media approach in an interview that posted overnight. “The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change.”

Newsom’s MAGA-flavored posts have birthed an organic outburst of user-generated memes — not dissimilar to the dynamic Trump has inspired (and from which he has drawn over the years in posts on his @realDonaldTrump accounts). There’s Newsom riding a raptor into battle, a tattered Old Glory rippling in the wind behind him. There’s Newsom riding a different dinosaur while shirtless and sporting an eight-pack of abs, raising pistols in the air. (Newsom’s office tells Blue Light News they don’t use AI to generate written content, though lean on it to create visuals.)

Newsom “isn’t just trolling MAGA; he’s proving to Democrats that stepping off your digital high horse and entering the fray is both messy and worth it,” says Stefan Smith, a digital strategist who was online engagement director on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign. “The man was political roadkill a few months ago but, with a shift in strategy, he’s become a cause célèbre of the Resistance 2.0. No doubt the rest of the 2028 shadow primary entrants are taking notes.”

In some ways, it’s like peering into the near future of what a post-literate presidential campaign might look like. (In case you have trouble imagining who might occupy such a race, look no further than the side-by-side post of Newsom and fellow meme lord Vice President JD Vance, which has been seen on X at least 54 million times.)

“Newsom has entered the digital dojo, and he’s performing the sort of memetic jujitsu that’s scaring Republican white belts unused to actual competition,” Smith tells Blue Light News. “For too long, Democrats have been posted up in the parking lot, too afraid of getting it wrong to throw a jab. This should energize folks to get into the octagon.”

Voices on the right are noticing, too. “If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself,” Fox News’ Dana Perino said, speaking of Newsom’s antics on X. “He’s got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little more serious.”

In private, staffers in Newsom’s press office smiled. Perino said nothing about the leader of the free world’s own social posting — the very thing Newsom is emulating.

“ALMOST A WEEK IN AND THEY STILL DON’T GET IT,” the account responded. The next morning, “Governor Newsom Press Office” again flickered to life. “FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!!”

Newsom’s press office says that Trump has used all-caps less in his own posts of late. White House communications director Steven Cheung is posting about the account, and recently said that Newsom is a “coward and Beta Cuck” for not fielding questions at a press conference. (He was, in fact, as a livestreamed video showed.) Newsom’s press office shot back: “Steven Cheung (incompetent Trump staffer) doesn’t know how to use his computer. SAD!” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson called Newsom’s posts “weird and not at all funny.”

Newsom’s staff count these critiques as wins. In their minds, the Trump aides are, in an indirect way, critiquing their own boss when attacking Newsom’s tactics.

“I hope it’s a wake-up call for the president of the United States,” the California governor said recently, breaking character when asked about his X posts. “I’m sort of following his example. If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president. … I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years, to go without similar scrutiny and notice?”

Asked for a comment, the White House sent Blue Light News an original meme, referencing a famous scene from the show “Mad Men.” (It is, to our knowledge, the first official White House press statement delivered exclusively in meme form.)

Added Abigail Jackson: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The “Governor Newsom Press Office” account has humble origins. The handle, @GovPressOffice, was created by aides to Jerry Brown — a man more given to Zen Buddhism than the fever swamps of the internet — and belongs to the California governor’s office. Because of that, just as Brown’s aides passed it off to Newsom in January 2019, Newsom will hand it off to his successor in January 2027; he won’t be able to take what he built with him when his term ends.

And what his team has built is substantial. As of this writing, the “Governor Newsom Press Office” account has 408,000 followers on X. Since the beginning of August, it has gained more than 250,000 followers and earned more than 225 million impressions, according to Newsom’s office.

Though some online observers speculated that Newsom digital director Camille Zapata primarily steers the effort, Blue Light News has learned that the account is helmed by a team of four or five people — a sort of “brain rot” trust that includes Newsom communications director Izzy Gardon and rapid response director Brandon Richards. Newsom’s office declined to describe the governor’s level of involvement, but told Blue Light News that he leads the effort.

No other prospective 2028 candidate — Democrat or Republican — is breaking through in the online attention economy like Newsom. And it’s not just his press office’s account: His campaign X account tops 2.4 million followers. On his campaign accounts alone, since 2025 began, Newsom has gained 2.96 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, X and Substack. All of that has earned him a billion-plus views and impressions, his team tells Blue Light News.

Still, AI slop and dinosaur memes don’t vote in Democratic primaries. But Democrats who are way more offline — and who hail from far beyond the Golden State — are also noticing Newsom.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say how happy they are to see a Democrat fighting back,” says Jim Demers, a former New Hampshire state representative and member of Stand Up New Hampshire, a group organizing town halls in the early primary state. “There’s this feeling that Democrats are not fighting hard enough, and he’s showing the fight people are looking for.”

“People in the MAGA movement and the America First movement should start paying attention to this, because it’s not going to go away,” Bannon tells Blue Light News. “They’re only going to get more intense.”

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Politics

Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.

Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.

Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.

Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.

So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?

Wrong.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.

That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.

The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.

A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”

Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”

But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.

This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.

During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.

One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.

“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.

Politics

World Cup match collides with Florida GOP bash

Published

4 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Colombia and Portugal’s World Cup match in Miami Gardens won’t be the only major draw pulling crowds to South Florida this weekend: Florida’s Republican grassroots are heading to Hollywood for their “Sunshine State Showdown.”

The GOP’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is one of the state party’s biggest of the year. The GOP sold more than 800 tickets, with the party’s most devoted volunteers and many donors coming in from all over the state to get revved up for the midterms, gameplan their messaging and hear directly from top candidates.

The shindig will feature speeches from Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, as well as gubernatorial candidates Rep. Byron Donalds, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. It will also include two congressional debates.

Several “Showdown” attendees said they were thrilled about the convergence of their party’s bash with a World Cup match. South Florida has already seen a huge economic boom in recent years, and the Magic City is poised to become even more prominent given Miami is set to be home to Donald Trump’s future presidential library and will host the G20 in December. “Miami is again at the center of the universe,” observed Miami-Dade County GOP Chair Kevin Cooper.

Several prominent Republicans said they see the international event as an opportunity to showcase the state. State Rep. Dean Black of Jacksonville, who also chairs the Republican Party of Florida’s fundraising committee, said he’d enjoyed seeing fans from abroad show appreciation over social media for American culture. “They have fallen in love with the greatness of America,” Black said. “By being exposed to the Republican Party event, they will learn just how that greatness came to be.”

Collins’ team said that while the lieutenant governor wasn’t attending the game, he was “happy the state of Florida is hosting so many fans from across the world experiencing the beauty of our state.”

Former Fox 35 Orlando anchor Ryan Elijah, a GOP candidate for Congress who’s attending the showdown, said he would be checking his phone regularly for World Cup updates.

“What a night for Florida to see the biggest names in Florida politics and World Cup soccer be just miles apart!” he said in a text. “It’s a dream night for tourism numbers and local businesses!”

But the packed weekend also risks turning into a logistical headache. The Hard Rock Hotel is one of the pickup points offering shuttle services to Miami Stadium. It’s less than 9 miles away from the big game.

Angie Wong, Republican executive committeewoman in Miami-Dade, attended Wednesday’s match between Scotland and Brazil. She said her family paid $200 for parking near the stadium and that it took more than an hour just to get out of the parking lot.

“We were lucky — we actually left before the game ended,” she said.

Yet this year’s “Showdown” is a more scaled-back affair than in the recent past. It won’t, for example, feature a dinner like in previous years. But that’s probably good news for any attendees who don’t want to miss the soccer match — or who are just trying to get back home without getting stuck in traffic. And it doesn’t have any major Trump administration officials attending, in comparison to last year, when the event prominently featured White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and now-former deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is currently running Trump’s political operation for the midterms.

Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — who remains highly popular with the state’s grassroots — won’t be speaking at the “Showdown” this weekend and his office didn’t reply to an inquiry about whether he’d attend Saturday night’s game. The governor was in the Miami area during the last couple of days, including hitting the Brazil-Scotland game on Wednesday night and holding a press conference at the former Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center on Thursday.

Evan Power, chair of the state party, had already arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday night and said he got to watch a Brazilian victory parade happening right outside the restaurant where he was having dinner. He added he hadn’t had any issues getting in and out of the events center and that Republicans sold out their room block, “so I think we were able to get in before the craziness.”

“In our room block, people are happy because they’re not paying the market rate that is out there,” Power said. “Seeing some of the prices — they’re crazy now.”

Politics

A drag queen, a rainbow festival and a game FIFA can’t control

Published

5 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE — FIFA has not endorsed the Seattle host-city committee’s “Pride Match” designation, which will not be part of the official branding when Iran and Egypt meet tonight at Lumen Field.

“I think they’ve always been aware of what we’re doing,” said Louise Chernin, who as chair of the organizing committee’s Pride Match Impact Council began planning for the day nearly a year and a half ago.

Chernin began her match day at Rough & Tumble, a women’s sports bar in Ballard, a historically Scandinavian neighborhood where a crowd had gathered to cheer on Norway against France. The bar was notably free of FIFA’s commercial imprint: The World Cup posters on the walls and the merchandise for sale were all drawn by local artists without any official logos.

It all reflected the extent to which the “Pride Match” has become a gentle challenge not only to FIFA’s record of clamping down on some expressions of LGBTQ+ rights but also the corporate monoculture it creates in host cities through its restrictive sponsorship rules.

“If there’s going to be revenue spent, let us bring it to LGBTQ-owned businesses,” said Chernin, a longtime head of the Greater Seattle Business Association, an LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce.

Just down the street, fans had gathered at a “regnbue” street festival — the word is Danish and Norwegian for “rainbow” — organized by a local Ballard business association. The Norway-France match was being shown on an oversized screen, but when halftime hit attendees did not listen to any of the ads on the Fox broadcast.

Instead DJ SummerSoft took the stage as Sativa the Queen, a local drag performer, vamped through the break.