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Unhinged tweets and absurd self-promotion? Two can play at that game | Margaret Sullivan

Just when you thought Donald Trump was parody-proof, Gavin Newsom comes along to prove you wrong.

Unhinged all-caps tweets with nonsensical punctuation? Insulting nicknames for political enemies? Self-promotional merchandise for sale?

This will all sound familiar unless you have been living in a bubble for the past decade. But if the description conjures an orange-toned Republican in a golf cart – a wannabe dictator in a red tie down to his hefty thighs – your system needs an update.

Because it turns out that Trump is not the only one who can play that game.

The California governor has spent the last few weeks mercilessly trolling Trump and his Maga followers by flipping the script. His press office is blasting out long, illogical social media posts, depicting Newsom as a muscular Adonis ready to save the world and suggesting his image should be carved in stone on Mount Rushmore or grace the cover of Time magazine wearing a crown and a grin.

It’s been a master class in flipping the script – and maybe in political gamesmanship, too. With his social media profile soaring and political coffers filling up, these moves could even help Newsom gain access to the very White House that Trump has tackily transformed into a miniature Mar-a-Lago.

Newsom’s counterpunching has earned the approval of everyone from the former president Barack Obama to Steve Bannon, the disreputable architect of some of Trump’s worst moves.

“He’s no Trump but … he’s at least getting up there,” Bannon told Politico. “He looks like the only person in the Democratic party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win.”

Obama endorsed the more serious side of what Newsom is up to – praising as “smart, measured, responsible” the governor’s plan to counter the recent Republican gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts with a redistricting measure in California to benefit Democrats.

But Newsom’s newfound prominence isn’t pleasing everyone. The pro-Trump commenters on Fox News are disapproving, as if they haven’t spent a decade cheering the same techniques. Sean Hannity, the network’s chief Trump whisperer, trashed the trolling as a “performative confrontational style” that only works with “the loony radical base”.

If that sounds familiar, so did the all-caps response from Newsom’s press office: “FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR (‘RATINGS KING’) SAVING AMERICA – WHILE TRUMP CAN’T EVEN CONQUER THE ‘BIG’ STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANY MORE!!! … FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

And Trump himself is clearly triggered. Weeks ago, he suggested Newsom should be arrested. More recently he dusted off an old nickname: “Newscum”.

But here, too, Newsom’s team punched back, posting a simple diss – three snowflake emojis.

The script-switching is clever, and often downright funny; the humor is effective partly because Newsom’s real-life persona stands in stark contrast to Trump’s.

Newsom is the California pretty boy – he looks like he eats only kale and quinoa, with an occasional helping of asparagus. His politics are progressive, if not sharply defined, and he is married to a woman of career accomplishment, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She’s a documentary film-maker and actor, who (cover your ears, woke-fearing Magaworld!) has updated the role of first lady with a more gender neutral title: “First Partner.”

The Democrats’ old aspiration, expressed by Michelle Obama, was “when they go low, we go high”. Too often that has translated into passivity and ineptitude. But since the low-high approach has failed – the Democrats are powerless on the national level – Newsom’s moves are energizing.

It’s too bad, of course, that insults and absurd memes have become the American way. But at least Newsom, and his social media team, are awfully good at it.

As for where it all leads, maybe the answer is nowhere. Newsom’s counterpunch may be just another distraction as the nation falls into authoritarianism right before our eyes.

The historian and author Garrett Graff wrote this week in his Doomsday Scenario newsletter that we’re already there: “The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism … faster than I imagined possible.”

Can strong leadership and a decisive, blue-wave vote in 2026’s midterms and 2028’s presidential election yank America back up?

If so, radical change is necessary. Newsom’s approach – if combined with a strong, clear message of economic populism – could be a part of that.

It could end up being not just funny but crucially important.

Given where things stand, it’s worth a try.