Transcription
Gavin Newsom has triggered Donald Trump so strongly and so powerfully that Donald Trump has been relegated to complaining about the California governor and to posting AI-generated videos of Gavin Newsom to Truth Social.
Now, what I really want to get to is how Newsom has really figured out a way to do something that no other Democrat in recent history really has, which is to get positive attention by showing you are here for the fight. You're up for the fight. You're not going to uh uh shy away.
But before we do that, check out the level of pathetic posting that the president has stooped to. Trump posting last night to Truth Social an AI video of Gavin Newsom wearing a Trump 2028 hat. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that I received in the mail a Trump 2028 hat from one of his biggest supporters. These guys are not screwing around. There he is wearing the 2028 hat. Of course, AI generated. And then another video in which Newsom is sort of, I I want to describe this accurately. It's Newsom punching a punching bag that has an image of Trump on it. Obviously, the image of Trump makes Trump look like a fit boxer rather than an obese 79-year-old. And Newsom, his arms are sort of flailing in a way that I think attempts to feminize him. [Applause] Yeah.
So that is what Donald Trump is doing. And as pathetic and childish and humiliating as it is for a president of the United States to be posting this crap to the internet, it's not hard to see why Donald Trump is lashing out. Newsom is doing number one, something the left has been desperate for, which is step into the void and take Trump on head-on. And number two, he's getting at Trump's biggest insecurities.
I mean, listen, uh, you can agree or disagree with Newsom on policy. You can say he's too far left, as some Republicans do. You can say he's too far right, as the purity test left likes to say. Fine, we that's a policy discussion. That's healthy. That's good. But Gavin Newsom, I mean, this is it's so silly, but right, but the the sort superficially Newsom is so many of the things Trump wants to be. Newsom is actually 6'3 or however tall, right? You when they met on when they met on the tarmac, you saw that although Trump claims to be 6'3, Newsom is notably taller. Newsom is not obese. Newsom is better looking than Trump. Newsom is more athletic than Donald Trump. Newsom can actually speak without a teleprompter eloquently the way Donald Trump wishes and begs that he could. And so I understand if you are a special snowflake triggered egoogmaniac like Donald Trump who says all the things that he thinks makes him look like an alpha but he's actually by their own standards very beta, not terms I use. These are the ways they evaluate uh masculinity. Uh, it makes sense that Donald Trump is triggered.
Now, in terms of what Newsom is doing within the Democratic Party since the November election, the Democratic Party has basically been rudderless. It's been leaderless. No one has been able to fill the void of a sort of happy warrior. I know it's a cringy term, but the way that Gavin Newsom has been able to do, Newsom throws punches while smiling. I think that that's a good thing, and we need more people. I don't want it to be just Newsom. This is not about Newsom's the guy. This is about let's get more people doing it. Uh I want to see Josh Shapiro doing it. I want to see, you know, it's a full list of people. AOC and Bernie, all of them.
And what is interesting about Newsom's approach is that this has gone way beyond just California Democrats paying attention right now because you um pay attention to the conversations that are happening at donor meetings even outside political circles. Gavin Newsom is the topic. I have friends who don't really follow politics. They do vote in presidential elections but they don't really follow politics. They're aware of what Gavin Newsom is up to. Um, donors have been privately saying, like they said to the Hill in an article that we will link to, we're obsessed with Newsom because there's no one else. Strategists are saying a lot of the people that are being drawn to Newsom aren't even asking about policy. They're asking, "Can Newsom win?"
Now, there's there's a positive and a negative element to that, right? The positive of saying can Newsom win is that it sounds results-oriented. The negative about not asking about policy is we still want someone with good policy. We want someone who can win with good policy. And and I'm sure that debate will be had. And by the way, I'm speaking like Gavin Newsom is running for president. That is certainly not something that he has announced. But what Democrats need to figure out is who can beat MAGA. It's not going to be Trump running in 2028, but who can beat MAGA? And there are aspects of this that suggest it could be Newsom. The fact that he is triggering Trump so strongly points in that direction. He's matching Trump's style in a mocking way. He's leading the fight on redistricting. He's blasting Trump on immigration and it's working. His approval rating is up from 38 to 56. He has taken a lead in 2028 polling. He's ahead of Kamala Harris, who I don't think should run at all. I mean, just bad idea. uh he's ahead of Pete Buttigieg and the numbers are extremely impressive.
Now, is this enough to carry him to a victory in 2028? It is so early to say that Democratic governor from California, not something you would typically think of as this is who can defeat Republicans after, you know, eight years among 12 of Republican rule. Uh but for now, he is the one getting the attention. And the real story here is Trump cannot stand the guy because he has charisma and he's willing to fight Trump. That's the real story. Trump fears looking weak. Trump fears looking rattled. Trump fears being on the defensive. And that's what's happening.
On the other side, this is a brutal indictment of the Democratic party's messaging uh uh uh problem. The fact that donors and Democrats and casual observers of politics are obsessing over Newsom because he's just willing to fight tells you, damn, being willing to fight must be pretty rare in the Democratic party right now. So, we have an obvious subtext. The subtext is what's going to happen in 2028. We're seeing the polling jumps. We're seeing the whispers. Newsom's building a national profile. The more Trump engages with him, the more Trump allows himself to be triggered and goaded and baited into responding, his rage posts make him look even more pathetic. And uh we are I'm very curious to see where this goes in the next couple of months.
Donald Trump has already packed his second-term cabinet with loyalists. He's threatened deportation as political punishment. He's expanded executive authority in ways we have not seen in modern history. These are real changes that are happening right now. And what's even more alarming is that a lot of the media is either glossing over the worst of it or they're reframing it so it all sounds a little more palatable. And that is why I use Ground News. This is a news comparison tool. Doesn't just feed you headlines. It shows you here's how different outlets, left, right, center, are covering the same story. And this is one of the few tools I know of that can really help you detect the political spin, the bias, catch stories that your usual sources might downplay or not cover at all on everything from immigration policy to economic shifts. If you want to get a bigger picture, a broader picture of what's being reported, Ground News is an invaluable source to keep you informed. And Ground News is offering my audience 40% off their top-tier Vantage plan. You'll only pay five bucks a month. Go to ground.news/pacman or enter the code pacman in the app to get started. The link is in the description.