California’s Democratic governor defended his move to mimic President Donald Trump’s signature, bombastic social media style, arguing he must hold up “a mirror to the madness.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) explained why his press office is parodying the president’s social strategy when pressed during an NBC News interview published Sunday on concerns his imitation “runs the risk of normalizing” Trump’s style.
“Quite the contrary,” the governor, who is known as a leading Trump critic, told NBC host Kirsten Welker. “The whole expression was to not allow it to be normalized. It was becoming normalized. He’s dressing up as the pope! As Superman. It’s madness. And so I put a mirror up to that madness.”
“And the wonderful thing about it is folks in different networks — they were appalled,” Newsom continued in remarks echoing comments he made in September on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “‘The young man, the governor out there should wash his mouth out with soap. His wife needs to intervene.’ Well, where the hell have you been about the president of the United States, who’s acting like a child? So exactly the opposite. The reason I’m doing that is to put this mirror up.”
When pressed on whether Democrats should continue to consider former first lady Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high” philosophy, Newsom said, “I would love to go back to that, but politics has changed. The world has changed. The rules of the game have changed.”
“We want to go back to some semblance of normalcy, but you have to deal with the crisis at hand,” the governor said. “It has been just 10 to 11 months of this presidency. We have three more years’ time to batten down the hatches, and it’s time for us to change if we want things to change. And that’s why our communication strategy has shifted. That’s why Prop. 50 has shifted the conversation here in California. And I think we’ll shift the debate going into 2026 as a consequence of our success, and I think we, as a party, have become more unified, and I think more aligned on what’s at stake.”
The governor also addressed Tuesday’s elections during the interview.
The country is watching key races in Virginia and New Jersey that will determine whether the states continue a trend to the right. And in California, Newsom is “deeply confident” voters will pass Proposition 50, which will allow the state to move forward with partisan redistricting designed to boost Democrats’ power in the House. The governor led the redistricting charge in the Golden State after accusing Trump of “rigging” elections by backing similar efforts in the red states such as Texas.
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“I feel like we’re on the precipice of a remarkable moment on Nov. 4,” Newsom said. “And we’ve got leaders now that have a united front and a message that’s breaking through on healthcare … that give me real confidence that the Democratic Party is on its ascendancy.”
“Four months ago … I would have been struggling to find positive signs of the party,” he added. “[Now], I feel it’s a completely different moment.”
