Gavin Newsom defends Trump-style troll tweeting, saying he does it to 'wake everybody up'
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., addressed his office mimicking President Donald Trump's social media posting style on X on Wednesday despite years of criticizing the president’s rhetoric and behavior.
"I need to wake everybody up," Newsom said at The New York Times DealBook Summit. "This is the normalization of deviancy, and it was becoming socialized, normalized."
"Call someone the R-word or 'piggy' and somehow it's just Trump being Trump," Newsom went on. "There's nothing normal about this. He's a man-child. It's unbecoming of the President of the United States. He's dressed up as the pope. He's acting like he's Superman. This is not normal."
'THE VIEW' CO-HOST SARA HAINES CRITICIZES NEWSOM'S TRUMP-COPYCAT SOCIAL MEDIA APPROACH
He continued "He's putting his face on Mount Rushmore. . . . This is verbatim what he's doing. I'm trying to put a mirror to what the hell is going on in this country. This is not normal behavior."
Earlier this year, Newsom's press office mimicked Trump's habit of writing posts in all capital letters and giving political opponents mocking nicknames.
LIBERAL COMEDIAN HAS HAD ENOUGH OF NEWSOM'S TRUMP-LIKE TWITTER ANTICS
"TINY HANDS IS OUT HERE COPYING ME — BUT WITHOUT THE STAMINA (SAD), AND CERTAINLY WITHOUT THE 'LOOKS.' TOTAL BETA! — GCN," one X post from August read.
Newsom said his team’s approach was intended to "put that mirror up" and "test some theories" about how audiences respond to his posts compared to Trump’s, claiming the strategy is "working" based on the backlash against him.
However, Newsom's strategy has drawn mixed reactions from liberal and progressive commentators.
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"Everybody likes a good laugh, and now he’s about to, I guess, issue his own cup and golden tennis shoes and who knows what else," former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile said on ABC in August. "These are serious times that require serious people to be at the table."
By contrast, "Real Time" host Bill Maher applauded Newsom for "trolling" the president.
"I’ve never seen a Democrat do this," Maher said. "I think it’s very funny."
