California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new political technique drew outrage from each flanks following a dig at South Carolina consultant Rep. Nancy Mace on X. The transient tweet, which appeared to attract comparisons between the looks of Mace and homosexual right-wing activist Scott Presler, led conservative commentator Tomi Lahren to recommend that Newsom was being homophobic. Newsom’s account responded by calling her “woke.”

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The dizzying position reversal, which began with Newsom’s on-line imitation of President Donald Trump, appears to be complicated the best, delighting liberals, and digging the governor into a fair deeper gap with leftists.

Gavin Newsom copies Trump’s posting playbook on-line

Gavin Newsom marketing campaign X account @GovPressOffice riled everybody up on Sunday with a easy reply to a Presler submit about an try and flip Pennsylvania pink, writing “thank you, Nancy Mace.” People largely interpreted it as an assault on Presler, a homosexual man who wears his hair lengthy, and/or Mace, who gained a status as Congress’s most transphobic legislator—a extremely aggressive title among the many GOP.

Mace has spent her tenure attacking trans individuals and posting about bogs. She’s repeatedly focused the primary trans U.S. consultant, Democrat Sarah McBride, in stunts {that a} former aide known as “a ploy for media attention.”

Newsom appears to be in the course of his personal ploy as he attracts consideration by emulating Trump and numerous right-wing trolls. He actually grabbed the discover of Lahren, an avid far-right pundit, together with his current tweet.

“You’re kidding me right?” she replied. “Your state and your bullsh*t Governor rant and rave on a daily basis about protecting gay people, and you’re really going to use your official press office account to troll a gay conservative and call him a woman?”

Lahren is appropriate in that the left usually condemns tweets like Newsom’s as homophobic and transphobic. The joke was, in fact, that Presler seems to be too female and/or that Mace seems to be too masculine. McBride’s tweets are continually inundated with conservative trolls telling her she’s actually a person.

Newsom’s marketing campaign was unfazed, nevertheless, responding with “you sound woke.”

Imitating Trump as a political technique

According to the governor himself, that is all very a lot the plan. This X account has been emulating the President since not less than August 12, when it posted a extremely Trump-coded tweet.

“DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!! (THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!),” it yelled. “STAND DOWN NOW OR CALIFORNIA WILL COUNTER-STRIKE (LEGALLY!) TO DESTROY YOUR ILLEGAL CROOKED MAPS IN RED STATES. PRESS CONFERENCE COMING — HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM.”

Hours later, the account adopted up with a equally all-caps tweet calling the President “DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP.”

It has continued to pen posts like this in between regular ones into this week. On Aug 14, Newsom himself defined the technique when prompted by a reporter.

“I hope it’s a wake up call for the President of the United States,” he stated. “I’m following his example. 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.”

“The deeper question is, how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets and Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years to go without similar scrutiny?”

Trump doesn’t usually reply with transphobic jabs to different individuals’s posts, however his followers actually do.

“Outflanking the Trumpists from the right”

The normal consensus amongst pundits, skilled and beginner alike, is that Newsom is gearing up for a 2028 presidential run. This assumption predates the beginning of the Trump-like tweets, and people posts aren’t the primary stunts that drew comparisons between the Democratic governor and the Republican occasion.

Back in February, he launched the podcast “This is Gavin Newsom” and began inviting MAGA stars for interviews. This angered leftists, who really feel that platforming these varieties is what bought us President Trump within the first place. Continuing to emulate the best by imitating Trump’s posting type isn’t serving to, nor did the Nancy Mace dig.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this transphobic behavior from Governor Newsom & Joel Cardwell disguised as attempts at humor to make fun of Nancy Mace, a Republican woman?” requested Bluesky person @kosherart.bsky.social‬.

“Outflanking the Trumpists from the right and the liberals are lapping it up like rabid dogs with a puddle of antifreeze,” wrote @danifroom.bsky.social‬.

Liberals are certainly lapping it up on X, the place they’ve been pledging their votes to Newsom in response to the press account’s antics.

“This post alone secured my vote. Newsom 2028!” stated @yandurathedoll.

The tough half for Newsom is the rising divide between liberals and leftists. The latter camp is past bored with what they see as Democrats sliding ever additional to the best, emulating Republicans whether or not or not they’re trying to troll.

“Race-to-the-bottom politics is a darn shame,” stated @ReedHowardVA. “America deserves better than this. I want real leadership.”

“This is just f*cking sad,” wrote X person @Bw96969696. “Newsom’s the democrats best candidate and he’s diet Trump posting.”

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