Bulwark Takes - Gavin Newsom is Going HARD Against Trump. Will It Work?

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

JVL and Hannah Yoest discuss Gavin Newsom’s new “dark woke” shitposting style as it overly upsets MAGA, divides Democrats, and boosts his national profile as he seems to continue to be eyeing a future presidential run.

Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my bulwark colleague, Hannah Yost. And Hannah, we got you writing today about Gavin Newsom's new Twitter style. He has gone full shit poster. And in what people are calling the dark woke, it's kind of exciting and thrilling. And it sends a tickle up my spine. So Hannah, it seems like it was just yesterday. that Gavin Newsom was standing up a podcast to do outreach to people like Charlie Kirk. And he was getting crapped on by the left for selling out trans kids. And he seems to have abandoned all that. And he has taken on a new vector of attack.

Tell me all about it. Well, it's funny you mentioned the podcast because you and Tim had mentioned that, how he is this master of trying different things. and I think it's funny that the left, they're like, we need a sociopath of our own. And then they get mad when he does sociopath things. Like, they want their own Joe Rogan. So he goes out and he tries the Manosphere thing and it doesn't work. So then he's back to the drawing board.

And that has looked like just mimicking Trump. And a lot of people like, they like it at first. They like, oh my God, wow, energy. He's trying something new. and he's like really, really needling the MAGA. The MAGA are like, no, that's not cool. He's got Fox News calling him childish. They're freaking out because like this is not how a leader is supposed to behave.

For the last week, Gavin Newsom, and why am I giving him advice? You have to stop it with the Twitter thing. I don't know where his wife is. If I were his wife, I would say, you are making a fool of yourself. Stop it. Do not let your staff tweet. And if you're doing it yourself, put the phone away. Yeah, they're like, it's like, okay, so you don't see the joke here?

You don't see like that is the point. So what he's doing, he's coming out in all caps. He's doing the full Trumpian nicknames. Thank you for your attention to this matter. He posted AI generated memes of him on Mount Rushmore. There's one of him being preyed over. who it's Tucker and Angel Hulk Hogan. Yeah, just sort of, you know, laying hands on him.

And again, he's just doing a Trump impression. Are you surprised that the Magas are upset about this? They seem to be like myopic that they can't understand that this is, this is what it sounds like. This is what it looks like to the rest of the world. It's the, um, the asymmetry. Like, we hold, we hold Democrats to a. much higher standard than we hold Trump. And we expect Democrats to play on like this like level, clean, not punching low field, whereas Trump can do whatever he wants, carte blanche.

They like, they will excuse any bad behavior he does. So last night, the clip of Trump going, oh, I just want to get into heaven over the Russia stuff. All of them were like just talking about him as if he was a toddler, talking about him as if he's a child. like he has this childlike spirit. Well, it's really all about getting into heaven. And I think he's kidding, but he's also partially serious. And that's why we love him because he has this childlike spirit. And like they forgive him.

They forgive him for all of his sins. But the Democrats are damned for it. They like, if they even go an inch over the line, it is not okay with them. So I think part of it is that Trump is taken as a force of nature. Like, he's a hurricane or he's gravity. Like, it just is. And so everybody, both the magas and, like, the straight media and even Democrats to a large extent are just like, well, that's what he does. You know, this is like being mad at a fish for swimming.

And yet, everybody else is expected to, like, you know, be treated like a normal human being. And an adult who has choices and is capable of not acting like an insane person. Is that scan about right to you? Absolutely. And the Democrats have this weird thing where they police their own language to way harder than they attack the right. Like they care way more about purity tests and like keeping everyone in line. In a lot of ways, this experiment harkens back to walls hitting a nerve by calling Vance weird. Yeah.

Like I didn't realize that the campaign had told him to drop it. Like ahead of, yeah, ahead of the VP debate, everyone was. I was really excited because they thought that we were going to get this confrontation between Vance and Walls, Vance being called weird on the national stage. And he just didn't. They were like, back off. We're going to, we're going to get the, we're going to get the centrists on board. And it's going to be okay. We don't have to play dirty. But have they been up and watching American politics? Yeah. And like, yeah, their self-policing of language and arbitrary rules of engagement is just really, really hurting them. And so what Newsom is doing, it's kind of, It's invigorated a lot of people on the left, but it's also like it's kind of devolving away from his intent. Like his intent is to show people this is this is nonsense. This is deranged.

Like we should expect better of our leaders. And you do expect better of democratic leaders. I feel like the shit posting is kind of useful. I mean, John Federman basically shitposted his way into the Senate. I don't know if you remember, but like his entire Senate campaign was basically his. Twitter account being run kind of like the Arby's Twitter account, you know, it's like totally wheels off knowing fourth wall breaking thing. And people just loved it.

Do people love this with Newsom or not? That's what I can't quite tell. Like, I can't quite tell the disposition of forces array against it. You know, like what percentage of people are like into it and what percentage of people are not into it. Yeah, it's hard to tell. Like, a lot of the lives. like in the middle, they're like, oh, this is, this is fun. He's having fun. And it's like,

they get it. And then like the leftists are like, come on, we're better than this. And then you have the MAGA who obviously are willfully, like missing the point and refusing to go along with it. But the problem with it too, though, is that there are people like in the middle and who are on his side who also like they get it, but not quite really. And they're taking it a little further. And one of the interesting things is that it's kind of shifted to being just like pure attacks on Vance. Like Vance is like they're not even strays. They're like he's in the public eye. So like he's going to get heat. But it's it's. I feel like that's great. Yeah. Isn't that the picture of them in high school right? There's that tweet with the pictures of super cool high school

quarterback Gavin Newsom his senior year. And then like, you know, chubby loser Appalachia J.D. Vance is in your year put next to each other. It is really, I mean, you know, for one side, which praises manliness as the most important thing in the world, that's kind of funny. I don't know. I'm, I'm into it. Is it wrong than I'm into Dark Woke? No, I think, I think having any kind of positive energy on the left where they're like, we can, we can fight back as good and healthy and necessary. One of the, the great ironies of watching people on the right try to be like, try to fight back against this and like kind of like not being on solid footing is that you have based Mike Lee trying to hit them on like, oh no, Vance is way more masculine because he was in the military. And it's like, okay.

And then Lee himself is doing the comparison photos. And it's like, aesthetically, you're losing that fight. Oh, yeah. Has anybody done the Gavin Newsom as Patrick Bateman thing yet? Because that's the other funny thing is, I mean, there is an, mostly it's the hairstyle. Yeah. But the Gavin Newsom. Yeah.

He looks a little, right. He does look a little bit like American Psycho, like the middle-aged version of American Psycho. Well, that's, that's also part of the problem is that, like, he's hot. And, like, I don't think, like, the Democrats should be afraid to say that. There is, there is, like, I've been. thinking about the trip, Alice of the Weekly Standard, she and I drove out to Detroit for the Women's Conference. And I've been thinking about like, what happened to all of those women who were like, we're going to win, we're going to be the resistance, we're going to get

together through community engagement. We're going to be in office and we're going to turn this ship around. That was close to a decade ago. And now the result of that like activation and their eventual downfall from corruption is that the Democrats' best hope now is like two white guys. Yeah. It's Gavin Newsom and it's Pete. Well, let me propose a thought experiment to you that the biggest weakness for Gavin Newsom as a potential Democratic presidential campaign was like, oh, he's just a California liberal. And so his primary identity was going to be like, well, he was the governor of California. California is a liberal state. it's outside of the mainstream, like, he's just another one of those.

And look at him, he's a pretty boy who, you know, feels like a kind of a used car salesman. But if he goes dark, woke and, like, he's just this ruthless SOB, that's a different brand. Yeah. And maybe a more palatable brand. Yeah, it's the Trump playbook. But, like, do we do they want the lefty Trump? because I do like Lauren and I have been talking about they do what do you think what do you think Lauren I've been talking about where it's like he it was always going to hurt him being from

California like that is like that's just not going to fly with the rest of the country so I do think moving away from that to being a more national online figure helps but I mean he's been really smart about the way he's been marketing himself is like California has the fourth largest economy in like the world and talking about like how no he's there they're not even on the list of top jerrymandered uh states in the country but the problem is like people don't really care about the facts anymore like we are in that kind of post-fact world where it's like it doesn't really matter like how good california actually is it's just the perception so i think in the game of perception Gavin does have a pretty solid playbook here of he's it's not like he tried the

reaching across the aisle to talk to Bannon and talk to Kirk and sit down with them. And it's just like his, he was pushing away more people than he was gaining. Yeah. Yeah, that's the, I mean, I guess that's a, what he's trying to do is create a different liability for himself and to create a liability, which is a strength, right? Because while he's just the liberal governor of California, then the liability is, well, he's a liberal governor of California. But with this, the liability is he's too tough and too mean.

Mm-hmm. And that's not really a lot. This is like, you know, tell me your greatest fault. It's like, oh, I work too hard and I care too much, right? Like, oh, well, look at this guy. He's so mean and so aggressive. Well, that's not really a liability anymore in American politics, right? And I, that's just a question.

Like, are the Democrats going to decide, yeah, we got to get her on Trump? And also, it's like the visibility problem is that other, like, the rest of the country doesn't really know him. Part of why Trump won is because everyone, one in America, knew who he was, and they liked his personality. And that was like, that was true in 2015 when he was running, is that, like, he had a major, like he had started on third base while everyone else was had to campaign. Trump didn't have to campaign. So, like, what Gavin is doing is closing the gap of becoming a household name and trying to be like, it is better to be known for

absolutely anything. Like, he's really leaning into there is no such thing as bad press. Lauren sent this to me, too. If you look at the other podcasts that politicians have, it is Ted Cruz with 1.5 million monthly downloads. And then there's Gavin with half a million downloads, and then it just falls off cliff. Like most politicians who have a podcast, they only have a few hundred followers or a few hundred listeners.

So he is like he's really working to push his visibility and get his name out there in a way that like, what other Dems are doing that besides Pete? Yeah. I mean, Newsom is trying. This is the other thing. I mean, traditionally in politics, like, it looks kind of gross to see politicians trying super hard, right?

They look like try hards. But also voters do kind of respond to that historically. Like, voters want somebody who looks like he or she is trying to get their vote. You know, they don't want somebody who looks like a gentleman jockey. Poor Jeb. Yeah, you know, and like, Gavin is super thirsty. He is. And this guy has been thirsty his whole adult life, right?

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, look, maybe this becomes like the Michael Avanotti boomlet. And people look back on it and like, eh, I don't know. Right. Like, that's the danger is like, will he flame out? And it's when you mentioned the liabilities, there's another in the midst of all of the flurry of tweets. There was one guy pointing out that they thought the photo of him with Donald Jr.'s ex, Kimberly Gelfoy.

So the photo of them, they're splayed out on the rug. It's very. Yeah. Oh, it's the worst. Yeah, it's indulgent and decadent, excuse me. And he was like, I really thought that this would haunt him. And now I'm thinking, no, all of these like young Gen Z years are going to look at this and be like, well, he pulled bitches. That's like, well, that's one. That's true.

So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that she's who she is. It is funny to see that, I mean, so, I mean, there are really, I guess, like three different approaches happening in the democratic space right now. One of them is Gavin, who is doing all the things, right? I mean, and he is in full. It actually reminds me of FDR after he was first elected when FDR was like, you know, we're just going to do ruthless experimentation and we're going to try everything. And, you know, like, this doesn't work. We'll stop doing it.

We'll try that. And, you know, anything to get us out of the Depression. And that's what Newsom is doing. Like, you know, whatever's there, he's going to try it because he wants to be present. Then you have Pete who's just doing the super cerebral like, hey, maybe I can just talk America into being normal again. Because I am the best talker and I have the best words. Yeah. And, you know, like he is a tremendously good talker.

He does have, in fact, all of the best words. You know, if anybody can talk America out of decline, it'll be Pete. You have Wes Moore who is basically just like, oh, it's too soon. right you know i'm gonna sit back and govern i'm gonna just keep governing and there's no reason to jump start these things too soon which i mean is exactly the feeling that like ronda santas had like i mean i just think that is old politics but maybe not maybe it's right maybe westmore will have many powerful things to bring to the table but we do have with these archetypes right yeah i do think i do think that it is more important just to get your name out there ahead of time so that people are

talking about you. And that's just like marketing at the end of the day. Like people don't really care how you're governing. Like it doesn't matter. Like they don't, they don't want politicians. And there is like an aspect of Gavin where it's like he's like what Trump was what voters think of when they think of a businessman. Whereas Gavin is kind of like what voters think of when they think of a politician. But he's not really. He's more of the used car salesman. And, like, he's like, he has the same aspirational wealth that Republicans, like, pretend to be like, oh, we're the common man. We're the party of, like, the working class. But they, they want that new wealth style.

And Gavin has the old wealth style. Like, the foot, again, the photo of him with Kimberly Gilfoy, splato. On the rug. Yeah, it's the rug, right? The rug is really the star of that photo in a weird way. The color, the texture. It's very, it's very. rich and that that is what they they want that he Gavin has the image in a way that like you can't

fake so I think that I think that helps him a lot versus Westmore has has other things going for him like he has like the masculinity that they want if you could like get the two of them together that would be great yeah yeah I would say the other thing about Newsom is that come 27, he's not going to have a job. And so he will be a full-time presidential candidate. He's running like rent is too. Yeah. Right. You know, and so he'll be a full-time presidential candidate. I mean, this, the shitposted, once he knows or has an actual job, his ship posting could go to an entirely new level, you know, a level which we really haven't even seen. And thinking about the images, it's kind of like people don't really remember where they,

where something came from. They just remember like the impact of it. So I think, yeah, him putting out these images where it's like he's just, it's like the Trump images where he's just jacked and like he's got the gun and the flag and the eagle and it's all just coming together. And it looks like iconography. And I think that that really, really is working for him and will work. I am looking forward to someday somebody, and maybe it'll be you for all I know, writing the treatise on the effect of AI slop, like iconography.

if you can call it that in a like American politics circa 2020 you know where it's part of the paranoid style it's it's right in there it the the maga the right has commandeered it is like the fascist style of our time absolutely yeah i would like to write that well i'm excited to see what dark woke comes up with as they do are their own take on this sort of thing because i'm sure it'll be great and not at all vaguely terrifying, you know, maybe we'll get two authoritarian parties instead of just one. Yay. There was one other thing I wanted to talk about. Yeah, the gerrymandering. It's like, that's the, like, it's weird for me having grown up in a conservative household where they had this healthy skepticism of like the government. And Reagan's like

the lot worse thing in the world is like the government saying I'm here. I'm from the government. I'm here to help but like Texas redrawing the map again ran like in the middle to consult that's not something you do when you're winning that's not something you do when like things are going well and you think that like you're going to hold on to power and control like no they're they're like am I allowed to say that they're rigging it like because that's that's what they're doing yeah they're trying to ahead of them the terms so yeah and new some again do some saying trying to say okay well I guess nobody else is is going to have the stones to stand up.

So, sure. You guys do that. We'll rig California. It's interesting, right? And this is not, again, it's not the Pete response. It's sure not the Westmore response, right? Westmore's like, oh, we got to make sure we take care of all of our rural counties in Maryland. And, you know, be good to our MAGA Marylanders because we're all the same.

Maryland is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Fun fact. Fun fact. Yeah. Wisconsin is the most. I learned a lot of writing. Yeah. All right.

Well, I hope you will keep your eyes peeled on dark, woke, Gavin Newsom. I love the art cooked up for your piece today. People should go to the bulwark.com and subscribe to the Morningshots Newsletter and see what Hannah's got cooking today. Because laser eyes, Gavin Newsome is amazing. And I think I think I want more of it. I think he's going to give you more. All right, guys. Good luck, America.