From MAGA Lapdog to Trump's Worst Enemy

Summary: This is an information war. Only one side was fighting. Now Gavin Newsom has gone full meme warfare—but is that enough to save American democracy?

Until recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom was chasing clout as a right-wing political influencer.

He lavished praise on odious figures like Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and Kellyanne Conway. He sided with Republicans on transgender issues. He launched a podcast that mostly interviewed right-wing extremists—and excluded women. And before Trump started sending troops into Democratic cities, Newsom one-upped him by deploying the National Guard to San Francisco in a failed drug crackdown.

Apparently, California’s governor saw catering to far-right politics as his only path to the presidency.

The Pivot That Failed

Polls quickly showed nobody was buying it. The Democratic base was horrified. MAGA voters saw Newsom as a fraud.

Newsom made a classic mistake: moving right to chase the “middle.” But there is no real political base in the so-called center—“moderate” means different things to different people. The result: sinking polls and a shrinking audience.

Then Donald Trump came to his rescue. The president escalated his assault on California, sending masked gunmen to raid farms and kidnap workers, deploying Marines to Los Angeles, and seizing control of the National Guard. Newsom’s naive dream of making peace with MAGA collapsed.

But Trump’s attacks gave him an exit ramp from a failing strategy. Newsom turned away from his right-wing influencer persona and reinvented himself as the loudest establishment Democrat opposing Trump—who has threatened him with arrest and even sent masked gunmen to a recent Newsom press conference.

Terrifying stuff…and a major political gift to Newsom.

The Resistance Memelord

Now, Newsom and his team are trolling Trump all day long—mocking him, imitating him, getting under his skin. It’s working. The press and social media are lapping it up. Newsom has become the new face of opposition to Trump’s fascist takeover.

While Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have drawn large crowds by opposing Trump, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett has proven masterful at undermining the MAGA message, most of the Democratic Party establishment appears to be hiding under a rock.

But Newsom is using his position as governor—and as a top Trump target—to put on quite a show. He clearly plans to run for president in 2028, and he’s giving us a glimpse of his strategy.

Trolling Isn't Governing

Still, it will take more than spicy memes to beat Trump. Mimicking his online aggression risks turning Newsom into another Strict Father troll. The ALL CAPS Trump imitation and AI-generated memes will quickly become cloying. The strategy has an expiration date.

If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that Democrats can’t just be against Trump. They must stand for something.

Given Newsom’s recent flirtation with ugly right-wing politics, some find it hard to trust him. His latest pivot seems like naked opportunism more than anything else. As a longtime Newsom critic, I see these as valid criticisms. Newsom is far from perfect. Still, in these dire times, it is worth examining his novel approach.

Newsom is hacking the conversation, breaking rules, and commanding attention. This is an important development because Newsom and his team are acknowledging the fact that we are at a new stage of the crisis.

All-Out Information War

Trump and his supporters are engaged in an all-out Information War to shape public perception. They are easily manipulating the media and controlling the narrative. Nothing stands in their way, and they seem hellbent on destroying freedom, democracy, truth and the future of the entire planet. The usual Democratic talking points and sternly-worded press releases won’t suffice.

So, Newsom has gone full Trumpy apeshit. He is riding the algorithm of viral ridiculousness to political success, drilling a hole in Trump’s seemingly impenetrable armor. A few weeks ago, Newsom was a termed-out governor with a failing podcast. Now he has everyone’s attention.

The question is: what will he do with it?

Mocking Trump is a good first phase. But you don’t beat a strongman by becoming his mirror image. You beat him by undermining his power while offering something better. Newsom has proven he can troll. Now comes the real test: can he channel that attention into leadership that gives Americans not just catharsis, but a path forward?

Beyond Memes

Viral moments fade. Movements endure. Newsom’s trolling has energized Democrats, but energy without direction becomes exhaustion. The next phase requires translating social-media hits into something bigger than one man’s ambition. It requires vision.

This is where framing becomes critical. Democrats must remind Americans of our deepest moral values. They must appeal to freedom, empathy and care, showing how those values are under attack. 

They must lay out a vision of what is being lost and inspire Americans to protect freedom, democracy, rule of law, and life on earth. But inspiring moral urgency and positive action is a lot harder than winning guffaws on Twitter.

Newsom has begun moving toward substance. He has a new ballot measure designed to counter a plot by Texas Republicans to rig the next election with corrupt gerrymandering.

More is needed, but Newsom’s escalation also sends an important message to other establishment Democrats: collaborating with MAGA won’t save us (after all, he tried that!). Defeating this authoritarian takeover requires leaders who don’t cower during the most consequential moment in American history. This is a time for courage—and creativity.

Newsom has mastered Trump’s Twitter playbook. Funny. But it will take more than memes to save the nation. It will take innovation rather than imitation, and it will take moral warfare in addition to information warfare.

Gil Duran, co-founder of FrameLab, is a San Francisco-based journalist and political communications expert. He also writes The Nerd Reich newsletter, which focuses on tech fascism and Silicon Valley extremist politics. His forthcoming book, “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy,” will be published by Avid Reader Press. Connect with him on BlueSky or Facebook.

Guardian Interview

I share my thoughts on Gavin Newsom toward the end of this interview with Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian newspaper. The interview focuses on how a group of tech billionaires—most with California roots—are working with Trump to kill democracy.

For some reason, Newsom and other establishment Democrats have been awfully silent on the subject. That will need to change!

The ‘Nerd Reich’: how tech billionaires infiltrated the White House – podcast

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the journalist Gil Duran about his upcoming book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Global Democracy

The GuardianJonathan Freedland