The never-ending saga continues in Game of Trolls, where Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest move is a threat to exile Kid Rock from California. It began when the governor posted an AI-generated meme of the musician, who is an outspoken Trump supporter, dressed like Uncle Sam with the caption “Kid Rock Wants YOU to Support Gavin Newsom.”
Kid Rock—true to form—snapped back with:
“The only support Gavin Newscum will ever get out of me is from DEEZ NUTZ.”
Four score and seven brain cells ago, our forefathers did not see this coming.
Newsom upped the ante:
“I HATE KID ROCK !!!”
…and followed with:
“HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT SINCE I SAID ‘I HATE KID ROCK’ HE’S NO LONGER ‘HOT?’”
Not content with just trolling online, Newsom rolled out merch featuring Kid Rock, a falsely angelic Hulk Hogan, and Tucker Carlson praying for the governor. The $32 T-shirt is now available on his campaign site—because of course it is.
And then came the pièce de résistance:
“BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT KID ROCK IS NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF OUR GREAT STATE, I AM GIVING SERIOUS CONSIDERATION TO TAKING AWAY HIS RESIDENCY. HE IS A THREAT TO CALIFORNIA'S EARDRUMS, AND SHOULD REMAIN IN THE WONDERFUL STATE OF MICHIGAN, IF THEY WANT HIM. GOD BLESS AMERICA! — GCN.”
You can view the shady post below:
Unfortunately for Kid Rock, it doesn’t seem Michigan wants anything to do with him:
If Newsom’s tactics feel familiar, it’s because it’s ripped straight from Trump’s playbook of overly dramatic social-media vendettas. Kid Rock’s political idol recently threatened to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship—a plot twist in a feud that’s been dragging on since 2006, when O’Donnell torched Trump on The View.
She mocked him for parading as “a moral authority” while rattling off his bankruptcies and failed marriages, then finished with the immortal closer:
“Sit and spin, my friend!”
Nearly two decades later, Trump’s still dizzy from it.
Needless to say, Trump never forgave her, and their feud escalated until, in 2025, he suggested she should lose her citizenship entirely—something he couldn’t actually do, but said anyway, because trolling doesn’t require fact-checking.
Taylor Swift has also found herself in Trump’s crosshairs.
After she endorsed Democrats like Kamala Harris, Trump fumed online:
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Thoughts and prayers to the president and the Californian governor's CAPS lock keys.
The president—who apparently has plenty of free time these days—declared Swift was “no longer hot,” the same middle-school burn Newsom later lobbed at Kid Rock. Then, in a whiplash-inducing twist, Trump pivoted to actually congratulating Swift and fiancé Travis Kelce, calling her “a terrific person” and him “a great player.”
Genuine growth or just another PR spin cycle? In the never-ending Game of Trolls, this was Trump suddenly trying on the “nice guy” role—but it fit about as well as Kid Rock in a Lincoln costume.
And for Newsom, the PR success isn’t a question.
His Kid Rock trolling spree turned into an online victory lap, with supporters cheering his meme game and critics begrudgingly admitting it was funnier than most political ads.
But Newsom isn’t limiting himself to social media wars. He also notched an actual legal win this week when a federal judge blocked President Trump’s attempt to deploy the National Guard in California, citing an “ongoing risk” that the president would act unlawfully. Translation: Trump can scream in all caps online, but in court, he still has to read the fine print.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer reminded everyone that Congress had already settled this issue in 1878 with the Posse Comitatus Act, which flatly bans the use of U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. In other words: no, you can’t send troops to babysit protesters because you’re cranky, Mr. President.
You can view the governor’s reaction to the win below:
The decision came after Trump tried to parachute the National Guard into Los Angeles in June during protests against federal immigration enforcement—deployments that Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called completely unjustified. And they weren’t alone; legal experts pointed out that Trump’s use of the Guard looked more like political theater than public safety.
The ruling also casts a long shadow over Trump’s broader strategy of militarized posturing. He separately mobilized the Guard in Washington, D.C., and even threatened to send troops into Chicago, because nothing says “winning hearts and minds” like putting soldiers on Michigan Avenue.
While Trump’s authority in the capital is unique, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wasted no time calling the threatened move what it was:
“Tyranny.”
So yes, while Trump was busy cosplaying “Law & Order” by siccing the military on citizens, Newsom walked away with a federal judge essentially telling the president, “Nice try, but even your troll game has limits.”
