() California Gov. Gavin Newsom is punching back at President Trump’s redistricting efforts, and he’s taking a page out of the latter’s playbook.
Since unveiling his “Election Rigging Response Act” last week, Newsom’s media team has become parody central, having turned its social media feed into a stream of all-caps threats, pop culture parodies and AI-edited meme content.
Newsom acknowledged that it was Trump who set the tone, which usually comes off as snarky and combative.
“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,” said Newsom.
“So to the extent it’s gotten some attention, I’m pleased. But I think the deeper question is, how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets through social posts over the course of the last many years to go without similar scrutiny?”
California, Texas battle over redistricting
California and Texas Democrats have brought the fight to Trump, who previously said he wanted to redraw the electoral map in Texas in a way that could send five more GOP members to Congress.
Texas state Democratic representatives left the state to prevent the legislature from attaining a quorum and voting on the maps before returning on Monday for a special session.
“We tried to raise the standards, but these guys are not playing by any set of rules, so this time requires us to act anew,” Newsom said last week.
Democrats from New York, Maryland and Wisconsin, among other states, have supported Newsom’s tactics. David Moon, Maryland’s House majority leader, acknowledged that he will sponsor legislation to trigger redistricting if Texas or any other state holds redistricting ahead of the census. In Wisconsin, two lawsuits were filed after the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the Democrats’ challenge to redistricting directly.
Newsom, Trump battle goes back to months of unrest
Newsom has been at the forefront of battling Trump this summer following protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Los Angeles.
Trump deployed the National Guard to help stop the unrest despite Newsom’s objections. Newsom felt that Trump and his team wanted a spectacle instead of trying to work together more peacefully toward a solution.
Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump over the National Guard deployment, arguing that Trump violated the law and overstepped California’s sovereign authority over the National Guard.
The trial began a few weeks ago.
