President Donald Trump bashed Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on Friday while speaking with reporters at the Oval Office, calling him “incompetent.”
Newsom has attempted to position himself as a resistance leader during the second Trump administration after enjoying abnormally warm relations during the first. But Trump made known his disdain for the California governor while lamenting the state’s condition.
“The governor’s incompetent,” Trump said. “I know Gavin very well, he’s an incompetent guy. With a good line of bulls***. And he doesn’t get the job done.”
Trump went on to criticize Newsom’s handling of the reconstruction efforts after the deadly wildfires that scorched Los Angeles earlier this year.
Newsom responded with his new strategy of Trump-style mockery in a post on X.
“Such low energy. SAD!” he said.
Newsom’s press team has been aggressively criticizing Trump on social media, adopting the president’s unique writing and abrasive style.
Newsom’s new social media strategy has proven polarizing. Some Democrats have praised the posts as humorous and a necessary counterattack, while many Republicans have criticized them as cringy, unfunny, and inauthentic. Newsom said the strategy was to call attention to the “normalization” of Trump’s rhetoric.
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“I’m sort of following his example. If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president. … I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years, to go without similar scrutiny and notice?” he said.
Trump has ignored the social media taunts, but redoubled his attacks on Newsom, whom he has dubbed “Newscum.” In a Wednesday Truth Social post, Trump accused the governor of “destroying” California.