DONALD TRUMP IS known for his attention-grabbing, clickbait communication style on social media – brash statements and sweeping assertions often delivered with excessive capital letters and exclamation marks. 

A well-known Democrat has started to parody him, and Republicans are deeply unimpressed. 

“DONALD (TINY HANDS), HAS WRITTEN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY THIS MORNING — UNFORTUNATELY (LOW IQ) HE SPELLED IT WRONG — ‘BETA’.”

That was a recent post by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s trying to push back against certain policies and practices being implemented by Trump and his party.

His new tactic has been to highlight the ludicrousness of some of Trump’s political messaging by adopting the style for himself via his press office’s social media.

Newsom and his press office have been trolling and parodying Trump, Republicans, and right-wing media over the last several days, lobbing insults in the take-down approach usually utilised by his opponents.

His posts are making a splash: many of them have received tens of thousands of likes on social media. 

DONALD (TINY HANDS), HAS WRITTEN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY THIS MORNING — UNFORTUNATELY (LOW IQ) HE SPELLED IT WRONG — “BETA.” SOON YOU WILL BE A “FIRED” BETA BECAUSE OF MY PERFECT, “BEAUTIFUL MAPS.” THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GCN pic.twitter.com/KF44tc4ra2

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 17, 2025

The ‘beautiful maps’ Newsom is referring to are his plans to hold a referendum in California in November on whether to redraw district maps to win more seats for Democrats as a retaliatory measure against gerrymandering by Republicans in the state of Texas to take seats for themselves.

The redrawing of district maps in Texas has caused major concerns about the state of democracy in the US.

Electoral area maps are highly politicised in the US but rarely redrawn in the middle of an election cycle, which is what has made Texas Republicans’ latest move so controversial; the country is staring down the barrel of mid-term elections for Congress and the Senate next year that will influence the shape of the rest of Trump’s term.

Newsom – already seen by Trump as an enemy – said he would ask Californians to vote in a referendum on whether it should also redraw its district maps to counteract the effect of Texas’s tweaks.

During Trump’s first term, Democrats tended to lean towards the ‘when they go low, we go high’ approach touted by former First Lady Michelle Obama.

But in more recent years, the party view is starting to shift towards realising that approach has not been working on the ground as Trump has continued to amass loyal supporters despite pushing the boundaries of his presidential authorities.

“MAGA HATES ME BECAUSE THEY HATE YOU,” Newsom wrote in one of his dispatches this week.

“THEY HATE THAT CALIFORNIA IS THE 4TH BIGGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD. THEY HATE THAT CRIME IS DOWN, THAT WE’RE #1 IN FARMING (I LOVE THE FARMERS!),” he said.

“THEY HATE THAT DEMOCRATS ARE WINNING. FOX & MAGA HAVE NEWSOM DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!!! THEY SHOULD CRY HARDER! SAD!!! — GCN.”

WOW! FOX NEWS CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT ME (GAVIN C. NEWSOM), AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR!!! TONIGHT THEIR ENTIRE PRIMETIME LINEUP WAS ABOUT ME! JESSE WATTERS KEPT CALLING ME “DADDY” (VERY WEIRD, NOT INTERESTED, BUT THANK YOU!). SEAN HANNITY (VERY NICE GUY) NEARLY CRIED BECAUSE I…

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 21, 2025

“Trump is GUTTING classrooms, SLASHING school funding, and KILLING public education. THANK YOU to California’s educators for rising up to fight fire with fire and defend our democracy!” he wrote in one post.

Responding to a post by a podcaster claiming that businesses are “fleeing” California “in droves”, Newsom wrote, “try again troll!”, going on to say it’s the number one state for Fortune 500 companies. 

And in a hit on Trump’s tariffs, Newsom shared a post about Sony raising the cost of Playstation 5s by $50 (€43) and said: “In Trump’s America, costs keep going up, up, up!”

There was also this swing against Trump’s immigration policies and his patchy tan:

Forget the southern border, the strongest wall Trump’s ever built is his bronzer line. https://t.co/5Rd32YE4rp pic.twitter.com/I9vYhS7Z6H

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 19, 2025

US Vice President JD Vance took umbrage with Newsom’s attempts to mimic Trump, saying: “Don’t be a crazy person, be authentic.”

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Texas Republicans push through gerrymandered map to win them more seats

Newsom quipped back: “He almost got it.”

He almost got it. https://t.co/mMAHuSn98q

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 20, 2025

In an interview with Fox published yesterday, Newsom traced his decision to take this approach back to Trump’s reaction to devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Newsom said Trump was “completely misrepresenting the facts” amid the wildfires and that he was spreading “misinformation and disinformation… Elon Musk was piling on as well.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it – in the middle of an emergency, all the lies,” Newsom said.

“It was a big wake-up call. We got back on our feet. We got back on the offence”.

Newsom also described Trump’s deployment of the National Guard as a concerning test of what he can get away with. 

"Yes, I've changed. The facts have changed we need to change."@GavinNewsom told me he decided to change his social media strategy & take on @realDonaldTrump more directly during the L.A. fires.

"I've never seen anything like it. In the middle of an emergency, so many lies.… pic.twitter.com/WpchZUbz7C

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) August 20, 2025

He said the Democratic party “needs to change” in response to Trump’s tactics.

“We need to stand up to this authoritarian. We need to stand up at this moment. It’s foundational. It’s not about Republican or Democrat – this guy [Trump] is an invasive species.

“He’s completely different. I respect the Republican party [but] he is something altogether different. He is unmoored. There are no constraints.

“So yes, we’re [California] going to punch back with the full weight of the four largest economy in the world and with the consent of the people.”