Gavin Newsom spent Wednesday trolling Donald Trump after the president called the California governor “incompetent” — and threatened to send the National Guard back to California.
The Golden State governor and Trump have been going after one another on social media — and in public statements — all summer. During comments made Tuesday, Trump threatened to unleash troops upon California once again — despite a federal judge ruling the same day that the deployment was illegal.
By Wednesday, the president had a new fight to pick, telling reporters that the governor was “incompetent” and claimed, without evidence, that Newsom was responsible for California’s water management policies that allowed the Pacific Palisades fires to rip through Los Angeles in January.
The very public spat began after Trump deployed approximately 4,000 National Guard members and several hundred U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in June following a wave of protests against ICE raids.
Trump has since railed against Newsom’s handling of the protests, most recently telling reporters this week that the governor “didn’t want us there” but would need help again soon, claiming “it’s starting to form again.”
Newsom was quick to fire back, writing on X, “So you can have them sleep on the floor again? We’re good.” Along with the retort, Newsom shared a photo showing several dozen troops sleeping huddled up on the floor during their deployment.
Trump had federalized the normally state-authorized National Guard, going above Newsom, who vehemently opposed the action. Newsom then sued the administration, teeing up a legal battle between the Democratic governor and an administration that has since deployed the National Guard into the streets of Washington, D.C., and is gearing up to enter other Democratic cities such as Chicago and New York.
Newsom, a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028, has been relentless in his efforts to make fun of Trump ever since, including by making light of the president’s potential health concerns.
Meanwhile, Trump deemed Newsom “incompetent” on Wednesday morning, repeating a false claim that the governor didn’t allow emergency water supplies to be opened during the Pacific Palisades fires.
“I demanded that to be open. If that were open, you wouldn’t have had the fire because all the sprinklers would’ve worked in the houses,” Trump said, rehashing a narrative that Newsom has repeatedly called a “crazy conspiracy.”
In response to Trump’s rant, Newsom shared a post asking the question, “Do people with dementia repeat the same falsehoods and crazy conspiracies over and over again?”
Underneath the question, the post noted that people with Dementia “often repeat the same statements, questions, and sometimes false or mistaken beliefs, primarily because of memory loss and impaired reasoning.”
Newsom continued to troll Trump, seeming to respond to comments he made about his hands by sharing a montage set to “I’m a Survivor” by Reba McEntire that featured some of Trump’s most embarrassing gaffes, including tripping up the steps to Air Force One and sporting his mysterious hand bruise.
The California governor has been mimicking Trump’s social media style for the last month, typing in all-caps to boast his greatness and inventing infantile slurs with which to attack hostile conservative media personalities, just as Trump himself has done to his enemies on the left for years.
In a recent post, Newsom tauntingly responded to Trump posting “GOOD NIGHT!!!” with: “Night night grandpa!”
Trump managed to ignore Newsom’s weeks-long pestering up until August 20, when he wrote on Truth Social, “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California.”
Trump’s team continued to take swings, apparently sending Newsom red “Trump 2028” baseball caps, to which Newsom responded by sending his own “Newsom 2026” mugs and “Newsom was right about everything!” hats.
