Letters from an American - August 14, 2025

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

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August 14th, 2025, today, flanked by California's Democratic elected officials and union leaders, California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Trump's attempt to strong-arm the Texas legislature into redistricting the state to give Trump the five additional congressional representatives to which he feels entitled. Newsom announced that California will hold a special election on November 4th for voters to consider redistricting their state temporarily if Texas redistricts, so that California can neutralize Trump's rigging of the state of Texas. The plan would only go into effect if Texas, or any of the other states pressured by Trump to redistrict to get more votes, launches its mid-decade redistricting that is transparently designed to help resurrect the Republican's process. for 2026 and 2028. After years of criticism that Democrats have not fought hard enough

against Republicans' manipulation of the system to amass power, the California plan, along with Newsom's announcement of it, flips the script. The plan leverages Democrats' control of the most populous state in the Union to warn Republicans to back away from their attempt to rig the 2026 election. At the same time, the plan's authors protected against claims that they were themselves trying to rig the game. The plan goes into effect only if Republicans push through their new maps, and it declares that the state still supports the use of fair, non-partisan redistricting commissions nationwide,

a system Republicans oppose. Newsom's announcement of the plan continue to shift in Democratic rhetoric from defense to offense. After years of Trump and Republicans attacking California, Newsom celebrated his state and the principles it reflects. We are in Los Angeles, the most diverse city in the most diverse county, in the most diverse state, in the world's most diverse democracy, he said. And I've long believed that the world looks to us to see it's possible to live together and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable and imaginable difference. What makes L.A. great, what makes California great, and what makes the United States of America great,

is that we don't tolerate our diversity. We celebrate our diversity. And it's a point of pride because we're all in this together, he said. California has the population of 21 smaller states combined, he pointed out, and the fourth largest economy in the world. Pushing back on the trope that says, don't mess with Texas, Newsom warned, don't mess with the great golden state. In a reference to the 1846 California Republic, also known as the bear flag republic, a history captured by the California grizzly bear on the state's flag, Newsom echoed the words of Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat of California, when he added, Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back.

Newsom emphasized that democracy is under siege by Trump and his MAGA loyalists, a point illustrated by the fact that officials had sent more than a dozen masked and armed border patrol agents to the Japanese-American National Museum in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Newsom was speaking. Some of the agents were carrying rifles. A border patrol chief, Gregory Bovino, made it clear the agents were there to intimidate state officials, saying, we're making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don't have politicians who can do that. We do that ourselves. Trump doesn't play by a different set of rules, Newsom said. He doesn't believe in the rules. And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. We have

got to meet fire with fire. So that's what this is about. It's not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, find me five seats. We can't sit back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across this country. We need to be firm in our resolve. We need to push back. He called this moment a break the glass moment

for our democracy, for our nation. Newsom called for Americans to wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health,

his war against the American people. This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize sitting there and bending his knee to Mr. Putin. We do have agency, Newsom reminded his audience. We're not bystanders in this world. We can shape the future. Noting that this time require us to act anew, not just think anew, Newsom nodded to President Abraham Lincoln's famous call from 1862. The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must

disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country. Newsom's team has been garnering attention lately by trolling Trump on social media, taunting the president with grandiose, jerky, all caps posts that mimic Trump's own. Today, Trump continued that taunting by pointing out that Trump wants to rig the district maps because he knows his party is going to lose the midterms. Newsom called Trump a failed president and pointed to Trump's dispatch of the border patrol to intimidate the people in attendance at the event as proof Trump is weak, broken, someone whose weakness is masquerading as his strength, the most unpopular president in modern history. On a day in which a new report this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed flashing

red lights over inflation caused by Trump's tariffs, Newsom trolled Trump by echoing the president's triumphant promise that April 2nd, when he announced those tariffs, was Liberation Day. Newsom called today's announcement Liberation Day in the state of California. When a reporter asked Newsom whether his mimicry of Trump's social media posts is a strategy, he replied, I hope it's a wake-up call. 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. 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

and notice. In a press release about the event, Newsom's office emphasized that Democratic leaders from across the country have been launching similar broadsides against Trump's push for redistricting, quoting Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin, New York Governor Kathy Hokel, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. After the events, Newsom's office posted on social media, Donald is finished. He is no longer hot. First, the hands, so tiny, and now me, Gavin C. Newsom, have taken away his step. Many are saying he can't even do the big stairs on Air Force One anymore, uses the little baby stares now. Sad. Tomorrow he's got his meeting with Putin in Russia. Nobody cares.

All the television cameras are on me, America's favorite governor. Even low ratings Laura Ingram, edits the tapes, can't stop talking about my beautiful maps. You're welcome for Liberation Day America. Donnie J. missed the deadline. Whoops! And now I run the show. Thank you for your attention this matter, G.C.N. The office followed up that post with one that recalled Trump's February 2025 reference to himself as a king, a reference that likely referred to a decades-old puff piece that called Trump the King of New York. After a popular outcry at Trump's apparent claim to a throne, the White House followed up with an AI-generated image of the cover of what appeared to be Time magazine showing Trump wearing a crown in front of the New York City skyline with the legend

long live the king. Newsom's version replaced Trump's image with his own, symbolically taking over turf that at the height of his popularity, Trump considered his own. It declared a successful liberation day. Thank you. was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.