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Summary

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom has learned to fight fire with fire – or rather, tweets with all-caps tweets – when it comes to dealing with Donald Trump. His recent social media antics mimic Trump’s infamous style, turning the MAGA playbook against its author. theguardian.com

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The California Troll-in-Chief vs. Trump

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Gavin Newsom has spent the past few weeks mercilessly trolling former President Donald Trump on social media by flipping the script theguardian.com. Newsom’s press team transformed his official X (Twitter) account into a parody of Trump’s own feed, complete with unhinged all-caps posts, bizarre punctuation, and absurd self-promotion theguardian.com. In one instance, Trump posted a smug “GOOD NIGHT!!!”, only for Newsom’s team to clap back, “Night night grandpa!” the-independent.com. The California governor’s account now regularly blasts out long, rambling posts depicting Newsom as a muscular Adonis savior (think Mount Rushmore cameo or Time Magazine cover with a crown) – a direct satire of Trump’s over-the-top self-aggrandisement theguardian.com. He even invents infantile nicknames for conservative media foes, just as Trump does to his enemies on the left the-independent.com. It’s a political roast in real-time, and Newsom is serving Trump a dose of his own bitter medicine.

Trump, a man not known for his thick skin, has been clearly triggered by Newsom’s mockerytheguardian.com. After weeks of stewing, Trump finally cracked on 20 August, furiously blasting “Gavin Newscum” on Truth Social and ranting that Newsom was “destroying the once Great State of California” the-independent.com. (Yes, Trump resorted to his old elementary school nickname, “Newscum.” Very classy.) Newsom’s response? A cheeky post of just three snowflake emojis, implying Trump was being a fragile snowflake theguardian.com. The trolling is not only getting under Trump’s orange tinted skin, it’s downright annoying him into gaffe territory. At one point, Trump even mused that Newsom “should be arrested” for his antics theguardian.com. When Fox News’s Sean Hannity whined about Newsom’s “performative confrontational style,” Newsom’s team answered with a Trumpian all-caps rant: “FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR (‘RATINGS KING’)… WHILE TRUMP CAN’T EVEN CONQUER THE ‘BIG’ STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE!!!” theguardian.com. In other words, poor Donald isn’t enjoying being on the receiving end of the mockery he pioneered – and it shows.

Newsom’s trolling campaign hasn’t just entertained the internet; it’s also winning nods from unlikely corners. Former President Barack Obama gave a half-smile of approval, praising the “smart, measured, responsible” policy side of what Newsom is doing (like countering GOP gerrymanders with a pro-Democrat redistricting move in California)theguardian.com. Even Steve Bannon, of all people, begrudgingly acknowledged Newsom’s fight, saying, “He’s no Trump but… at least he’s getting up there” as “the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight they feel they can win.”theguardian.com When you’ve got Trump’s own former strategist half-complimenting you, you know you’re onto something. Naturally, Fox News hosts clutch their pearls at Newsom’s tactics – apparently forgetting how they cheered on Trump’s Twitter insults for years. The hypocrisy is rich, and Newsom’s social media team isn’t letting it slide. By beating Trump at his own game of insults and memes, Gavin Newsom has proven that when “they go low,” going even lower (with wit) can energize Democrats who are tired of playing nicetheguardian.com. It’s brutal, it’s effective, and it’s pretty damn funny to watch.

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John Fetterman: Memes, Zingers, and Hoodie Politics

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Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has embraced internet humor as a political weapon – from trolling conspiracy theorists with merch to dunking on Republican adversaries with one-liners, all while rocking his notorious hoodie-and-shorts ensemble.teenvogue.comteenvogue.com

Gavin Newsom isn’t the only Democrat turning right-wing nonsense into punchlines. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has become a legend for his meme-able, no-crap-given social media presence. Fetterman famously trolled his 2022 Senate opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz into oblivion with viral memes (remember the crudité vs. veggie tray saga?)currentaffairs.org. Now in office, he’s continuing the onslaught against “right-wing liars” with humor and a heavy dose of sarcasm. When Republicans threw a fit over Senate dress code changes (a not-so-thinly veiled jab at Fetterman’s casual attire), Fetterman had a field day. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis scolded that the Senate was being “dumbed down” by relaxed dress standards – to which Fetterman quipped, “I dress like he campaigns.”teenvogue.com (Ouch, that’s a meme-worthy burn on DeSantis’s struggling presidential bidteenvogue.com.)

When Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – never one to skip a conspiracy theory – called the new dress code “disgraceful” and whined that it was done just to appease Fetterman, he gleefully quote-tweeted her with a scathing reference to her own recent antics. “Thankfully, the nation’s lower chamber lives by a higher code of conduct: displaying ding-a-ling pics in public hearings,” Fetterman jokedteenvogue.com, alluding to Greene’s stunt of brandishing Hunter Biden’s nude photos in a hearingteenvogue.com. And when Lauren Boebert faced scandal for vaping and ahem groping her date in a theater, Fox News still had the nerve to accuse Fetterman of “lowering the bar” for wearing a hoodie. Fetterman’s deadpan response dripped with satire: “I figure if I take up vaping and grabbing the hog during a live musical, they’ll make me a folk hero.”teenvogue.com The senator even turned conspiracy theorists’ attacks into merch: after right-wing rumor mills claimed he had a body double, Fetterman launched t-shirts emblazoned with jokes about his “clone.”teenvogue.com You can’t beat that for trolling – he literally monetized the meme. By embracing internet humor and rapid-fire clapbacks, John Fetterman turns Republican attacks into self-owns, making the far-right look like the butt of the joke (because, well, they are).

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J.B. Pritzker Takes a Satirical Swing

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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has found that a bit of satire can go a long way in combatting Trump – seen here speaking in Washington, D.C., Pritzker recently used a tongue-in-cheek “executive order” video to mock Trump’s grandiosity.cbsnews.comcbsnews.com

Another Democratic governor, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, has joined the fun – proving that satire isn’t just for late-night TV, it works in statehouses too. Pritzker went positively Monty Python on Trump this year with a spoof video announcement that one-upped the former president’s latest absurd proclamation. When Trump declared by executive order that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America,” Governor Pritzker decided two could play that gamefox32chicago.comfox32chicago.com. In a straight-faced video (tongue planted firmly in cheek), Pritzker pronounces that Lake Michigan shall henceforth be known as “Lake Illinois,” because “a Great Lake deserves to be named after a great state”cbsnews.com. He even claimed he’d forwarded the paperwork to Google Maps to ensure this momentous change shows up on everyone’s appscbsnews.comcbsnews.com. Not stopping there, Pritzker took a satirical victory lap by “annexing” the city of Green Bay from Wisconsin – parodying Trump’s wackier ideas about buying Greenland. Illinois will now be annexing Green Bay to protect itself against enemies, foreign and domestic, he declared with mock gravitascbsnews.comcbsnews.com. He hinted that an “important announcement” about the Mississippi River was coming next, keeping the gag goingcbsnews.com.

This stunt was comedy gold with a political edge. It highlighted the ridiculousness of Trump’s renaming obsessions and heavy-handed edicts by turning them into a skit. Axios noted that Pritzker is using the “underutilized tactic” of satire to separate himself from the usual Democratic response playbookaxios.comaxios.com. And importantly, Pritzker’s humor came right as Trump’s Justice Department was suing Illinois over immigration sanctuary policies – so he took a serious attack and answered with ridiculecbsnews.com. Of course, Pritzker coupled the mock proclamation with a real-world message: Illinois isn’t afraid of Trump’s bullying. “Donald Trump has no idea what he’s up against when he attacks Illinois,” Pritzker said defiantly in a follow-up pressercbsnews.com. By skewering Trump with a smile, J.B. Pritzker made the former president’s bluster look foolish – and gave Illinois residents a reason to laugh instead of just rage.

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Meme Warfare: When Humor Becomes a Political Weapon

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These Democrats and others are proving that humor, memes, and satire have become potent weapons against the dishonesty and absurdity of the far right. The days of Democrats always taking the high road (think Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high”) are fading; in their place, a new ethos is emerging: when they go low, hit the floor and start digging – but make it funny. Even the typically staid official channels have gotten sassier. The Democratic Party’s social media accounts have dished out snarky memes, rebranding Trump’s slogan “America First” as “Putin First” in posts and calling Elon Musk’s much-hyped Cybertruck an “ugly ass truck”currentaffairs.org. President Biden’s team has ironically embraced the right wing’s attempt to brand him as feeble “Brandon” by morphing it into the “Dark Brandon” meme – complete with Biden sipping from a coffee mug with laser-beam eyes, which became a top-selling piece of campaign merchtheguardian.com. By leaning into meme culture, Democrats are not only clapping back at lies and hypocrisy in real time, they’re also energizing their supporters with shareable zingers.

There’s a method to this meme madness. Satire and ridicule have a way of exposing the truth about political liars that straight facts sometimes miss. Instead of dignifying conspiracy theories or hateful rants with solemn rebuttals, politicians like Newsom, Fetterman, and Pritzker turn those fabrications into punchlines. They understand that a well-aimed joke can pierce an overinflated ego faster than any fact-check. And it’s driving their targets up the wall – exactly as intended. Trump & Co. have been desperate to dish it out for years, but now they can’t stand the heat in the meme kitchen. The result? Donald Trump and his MAGA minions are frequently caught sputtering in outrage, looking every bit the fools these memes paint them to be. As one commentator put it, Newsom’s trolling is a “master class in flipping the script”theguardian.com – turning the right’s own tactics against them to make them look like the clueless “idiots” they often accuse others of being.

Of course, humor in politics isn’t a cure-all. Some critics worry that “owning the cons” on Twitter isn’t a substitute for serious policy. But in an era when lies and hate often spread at light speed online, this new wave of Democratic sass and satire is a refreshing sign of life. It shows that the left isn’t going to sit meekly while right-wing liars spew nonsense; they’re going to laugh at them, loudly and in public. And nothing deflates demagogues faster than laughter. By turning Trumpian tactics back on Trump and co., figures like Gavin Newsom, John Fetterman, and J.B. Pritzker have proven that sometimes the best way to defeat a bully is to point and laugh – and invite the whole country to join in. It’s funny, it’s brutal, and most importantly, it’s truth wrapped in humor – a combo that’s driving the bad guys crazy and delighting everyone else.

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