California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed that Donald Trump supporters are bombarding him with merchandise all emblazoned with the same message.
Long before his recent jab at the president’s mental acuity this week, Newsom emerged as the Trump administration’s chief troll.
Along with countering misinformation emanating from the White House and firing back insults from the president in his own sharp style, Newsom had set up an online “Patriot Shop” selling red “REAL PATRIOT” caps and “TRUMP IS NOT HOT” tank tops.
MAGA is now getting its own back. The Democrat revealed on Wednesday at Politico’s Sacramento summit that he received a stack of merchandise seemingly purchased from the Trump Store.
“I have two dozen Trump 2028 hats his folks keep sending me,” Newsom, who is himself viewed as a top contender in the 2028 presidential race, said on stage to host Christopher Cadelago.
Newsom stood firm that he believes Trump would attempt to run for a constitutionally barred third term, claiming that the “guy doesn’t believe in free, fair elections.”
“You think he’s joking about 2028?,” the governor asked the audience, along with highlighting Trump’s plans to build a gilded, 90,000 square foot state ballroom off the East Wing of the White House.
“Who spends $200m on a ballroom at their home and then leaves the house?,” he continued to chuckles from the audience, before urging the seriousness of the situation. “This guy doesn’t believe in free and fair elections. He tried to wreck this country… He tried to light democracy on fire.”
Newsom has previously cautioned that the president wouldn’t relinquish the Oval Office, pointing to the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol, where a MAGA mob tried to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory after Trump decried election interference.
On stage in California on Wednesday, Newsom pointed to fresh evidence: a February White House meeting, during which he pressed the administration for federal disaster aid after the Los Angeles wildfires.
In the meeting, which the governor said lasted 90 minutes, Trump allegedly pointed to a portrait of Franklin D Roosevelt, the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms in office.
“I said, ‘I know exactly what you mean,’” Newsom said. “And then he went on and on about the third term.”
Trump teased finding “methods” to run for a third term earlier this year and began hawking his infamous Trump 2028 hats from his store, before he eventually conceded that he would “probably not” buck constitutional guardrails.
Newsom’s popularity has grown among Democratic voters since his viral Trump trolling, according to a Morning Consult poll published Tuesday.
The governor’s support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has increased by 8 points, going from 11 percent in June to 19 percent in late August.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump at the ballot box in November, still topped the list at 29 percent support.
