Trump nemesis Gavin Newsom twisted the knife as the president suffered a humiliating night, compounded by California voting to allow redraw congressional lines to push back against the GOP.
After a bruising night for Republicans, Newsom celebrated California’s passage of Proposition 50, a measure that gives Democrats control of congressional redistricting and could net them up to five new House seats.
The ballot win was the biggest boost yet for House Democrats in the nationwide map war that began after Trump’s push to reshape redistricting in Texas in his favor.
The governor’s press office responded, not with a statement, but with a full-blown meme offensive. A series of AI-generated images showed Trump as a bawling baby in various compromising positions. In one, Newsom pushed a stroller carrying a pouting Trump.
In another, he fed the mini-president some spaghetti. “Live look at Trump this morning, whining about California,” read one caption, featuring a cartoon Trump crying in front of the White House.
“Now that’s what we call a takedown,” California Gov. Newsom, 58, posted from his personal account, attaching a WWE-style video in which Barack Obama delivers a smackdown to Trump. He also shared an AI-generated clip of a wailing Trump and trolled the White House account after it posted, “Make America Great Again.” Newsom’s reply: “We just did.”
Then came the victory lap. “Donald Trump poked the bear. And the bear roared back,” Newsom posted shortly after Prop 50’s success was announced. “Tonight, California sent a powerful message to Donald Trump. We will fight for our democracy. And we will win.”
The message landed on a night when Democrats were already riding high. Former Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill both flipped their states’ governorships blue, while New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as its new mayor—a trifecta that left Trump’s camp reeling.
Democrats didn’t just win—they steamrolled. They won in the Virginia House of Delegates, locked down all three seats on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, and snuffed out a GOP push to gut absentee voting in Maine. In Trump country Georgia, they cleaned up in local races by double digits. Even Virginia’s scandal-singed attorney general candidate Jay Jones, dogged for weeks over that text message fiasco, pulled off a win.
