Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is so obsessed with becoming president that he is trying to manipulate California voters while putting on a sad impression of President Donald Trump.
Newsom’s press office on X is posting incessantly in the style of Trump’s social media postings, which is presumably supposed to be some satire of Trump’s communication style. The problem with leaning this hard into ironic commentary, though, is that you end up adopting the same imagery and sayings as part of your messaging. Newsom’s team has portrayed him as a king, which is supposed to somehow be different than Trump doing the same thing, and Newsom himself has adopted Trump’s “Liberation Day” talking point on tariffs to talk about California redistricting.
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Newsom, who has shown he will do or say almost anything to get ahead in politics, is trying to get his party to embrace him as a fighter and trying to register with disaffected voters who are upset with the status quo of politics. Given that Trump achieved exactly that in 2016 and 2024, Newsom has decided to just copy Trump’s homework and hope to achieve the same result.
Meanwhile, a poll shows that Californians oppose Newsom’s redistricting effort, designed to gerrymander the state even worse than it already is to elect more Democrats. The Politico-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll found 64% support California’s redistricting commission drawing congressional maps, with just 36% supporting giving that power back to Democratic state legislators.
Newsom’s team was quick to point out that the language of the polling question is not the language planned for the ballot proposition, but that point cuts against him, too. The Politico poll language was straightforward, while Newsom and California Democrats want to torture the description of the ballot proposition to mislead California voters into supporting it. Newsom’s language would pay lip service to retaining the commission, but would see Democrats take its redistricting powers (supposedly temporarily) to give to California Democratic legislators through at least 2030.
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This is how California Democrats impose their agenda over statewide ballot propositions. When Californians wanted to repeal the gas tax, Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote the proposition in such a deliberately confusing manner that the repeal failed 43% to 57%. When asked in polls the straightforward question of whether they wanted to repeal the gas tax, Californians supported it 50% to 46%. Newsom hopes to pull a similar trick on California voters with this redistricting proposal.
All of this is in service of Newsom’s yearslong presidential ambitions. Newsom will do anything to get elected, including tricking his own voters so he can get a win to brag about in a Democratic primary and trying to convince disaffected voters that he is just like Trump. Newsom will do anything to get elected, except for running his state with any level of competence.