"Game On": Gavin Newsom Strikes Back in the Meme War

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has found himself in the center of the internet’s spotlight after squaring off with President Donald Trump on social media over the deployment of military troops to counter protesters in Los Angeles.

While police deployed tear gas and shot at protesters in Los Angeles with rubber bullets on Monday, Newsom shared a screenshot on TikTok of a Washington Post headline reporting that California would sue Trump over the National Guard’s presence, paired with a trending sound sampled from the movie “Mean Girls.” The video was captioned “We will not stand while Donald Trump illegally federalizes the National Guard” and was liked more than 255,000 times.

In another video, posted Friday to X, Newsom talks right into a phone camera with the attached message: “Let’s do a simple Econ 101 lesson for @realDonaldTrump .” That post grabbed 1.7 million views.

Newsom’s clapbacks catapulted to meme status as posters on the left and the right devoured each new beat in the Newsom-Trump showdown. During the back-and-forth, Newsom grew his TikTok following by almost 50 percent, to 897,000 as of Tuesday, and gained 60,000 new followers on X.

While Newsom didn’t ask for the military response in L.A. that ignited tension with the president over the weekend, he responded to the sudden attention with internet-savvy posts that borrow strategies from professional creators, such as speaking straight to camera, shooting vertically and using trending sounds on TikTok to reach more viewers. Audiences responded with Newsom-related memes of their own, introducing his political persona to throngs of young people online.

In a political economy that’s increasingly beholden to the incentives and payoffs of social media, political experts say Newsom’s online strategy could rally support for his position on the L.A. protests and bolster his profile among younger, more online voters.

“This sort of meme-posting with clever comments back and forth probably isn’t helpful with swing voters, but it could be effective at making him more popular among Democrats,” said Jon Ladd, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University.

Before police clashed with protesters during anti-ICE demonstrations on Saturday, Newsom was already taking aim at Trump on social media over the president’s alleged plans to cancel federal funding to California.

But the tone between Newsom and Trump grew more aggressive as the president deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the weekend. Newsom took to his official gubernatorial TikTok account to announce that he would sue the Trump administration over the deployment, which he called “illegal” and chaotic.

The post, which has been viewed more than 8 million times, was set to the hip-hop song “Sticky” by Tyler, the Creator and included a meme with the words “f--- around” and “find out.” Comments on the post expressed shock and delight that the governor, known as a moderate Democrat, would share something so tongue-in-cheek and antagonistic.

After Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said in an interview with NBC on Sunday that he wouldn’t rule out arresting elected officials, including Newsom, if they “harbor … illegal aliens” or defy law enforcement, Newsom again shot back on TikTok : “Come and get me, tough guy. I don’t give a damn,” his personal account shared, alongside a clip of the governor speaking about Homan’s comments.

Meanwhile, Trump and his allies attacked Newsom on Truth Social and other platforms. “The very incompetent ‘Governor,’ Gavin Newscum, and ‘Mayor,’ Karen Bass, should be saying, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR,’” Trump wrote Monday in a Truth Social post that has received 53,000 likes. Right-wing media networks boosted the clash, with Valuetainment Media owner Patrick Bet-David using his popular YouTube channel to criticize Newsom — and promote his company’s branded flip-flop sandals, “for Newsom, who’s flip-flopping.”

Newsom could benefit from the attention generated by a public feud with Trump even if it puts him and his constituents in the administration’s crosshairs, said Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California.

Newsom’s approval ratings are already surging among potential voters in California, from 44 percent in October to 52 percent in March, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California. Feuds, meanwhile, are known to funnel attention toward online influencers , whether YouTube gossipmongers or internet-era celebrities such as the Kardashians. The same holds true for politicians, North said, who increasingly style themselves after popular online creators in hopes of building a brand that resonates with voters.

“Newsom’s approach to this extremely contentious situation creates an opportunity for him to lock horns with Donald Trump, but he’s not doing it in the standard manner of having a hard, flat negotiation, rather in a way that plays to the shareability of social media,” she said.

Thanks to algorithmic feeds that prize outrageous material and must-share content, memes travel faster than messaging, North said. To win elections or even solve serious political conflicts such as the Los Angeles showdown, politicians such as Newsom now drum up support by feeding into trending narratives online, she added.

They also rely more on new media channels such as podcasts and video talk shows that share clips on social media — which Trump’s digital strategists leveraged successfully in the 2024 election. Beyond the news media, there’s a second ecosystem of online takes and commentary that’s often more powerful than traditional channels for communicating with constituents, North said, and political figures are eager to break in.

“The strategy hasn’t changed — California is front and center because we’re under attack,” said Brandon Richards, Newsom’s spokesman. “The public deserves straight talk, not spin, and that’s exactly what we deliver.”

“Gavin Newsom continues to humiliate himself while his city burns by cosplaying as an online influencer for violent rioters,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. “Newsom can get all the TikTok likes he wants, but that doesn’t change the truth: he turned a blind eye while American law enforcement were brutally attacked in defense of criminal illegal aliens.”

Newsom addressed Trump publicly Tuesday night in a video streamed live to multiple social platforms. The governor wore a suit, stood in front of the U.S. and California flags and delivered a traditional address to a camera.

“What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before,” he said during the two-minute clip, which had 1.1 million views on X. He described a Saturday-morning ICE raid at a Home Depot in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, as well as federal agents separating families and arresting a pregnant woman. “This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation,” he said.

Even the most fervent online meme-ing doesn’t always translate to political success. In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, spectators awed at the popularity of Kamala Harris memes on TikTok, which is known for its younger audience. At the polls, however, the coconut memes and “‘Brat’ summer” edits didn’t tip the scales in her favor.

Jeremy B. Merrill contributed to this report.