In the most sincere form of political flattery, Governor Gavin Newsom has bestowed Vice President JD Vance a new nickname as part of his ongoing mission to out-troll President Donald Trump and friends on social media.
It all went down last Saturday when Newsom’s office responded to gerrymandering efforts by Republicans in states like Texas and Indiana to gain more congressional seats for the 2026 midterms.
In a counterattack last week, Newsom unveiled the “Election Rigging Response Act,” a California ballot measure designed to counter Republican gerrymandering efforts in states like Texas and Indiana ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The plan? Give Californians a chance to redraw their own congressional map as a defensive maneuver if red states start slicing districts to guarantee extra seats. If the California Assembly signs off, voters will get to weigh in this November.
Calling on California lawmakers, Newsom told the crowd:
“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're doing it in reaction to that act. We're doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels…”
But what really lit the internet on fire wasn’t the legislation—it was Newsom’s Twitter fingers.
When Politico ran a story about Trump allies leaning on Indiana to redraw its maps, Newsom’s press office went all-CAPS in reply:
“NOT EVEN JD “JUST DANCE” VANCE CAN SAVE TRUMP FROM THE DISASTROUS MAPS “WAR” HE HAS STARTED. NOT EVEN HIS EYELINER LINES LOOK AS PRETTY AS CALIFORNIA “MAP” LINES. HE WILL FAIL, AS HE ALWAYS DOES (SAD!) AND I, THE PEACETIME GOVERNOR — OUR NATION’S FAVORITE — WILL SAVE AMERICA ONCE AGAIN. MANY ARE NOW CALLING ME GAVIN CHRISTOPHER “COLUMBUS” NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. — GCN”
Oh man, that CAPS lock button must be hurting from all that shade.
The “GCN” crew is clearly borrowing from Trump’s own playbook—trading in all-caps tantrums, meme-worthy parodies, and enough name-calling to make a middle school recess monitor quit. And before anyone clutches their pearls about them mocking the Vice President, let’s not forget Trump’s social media machine has been calling Newsom “Newscum” for ages.
Not to be outdone, the Governor fired back by calling the President “tiny hands.”
And Newsom is well aware of the optics of playing the President’s game:
“I hope it’s a wake-up call for the President of the United States. I’m sort of 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. To the extent, it's got some attention, I'm pleased.”
And with over 3.7 million views on the first JD Vance post, Newsom and his team are getting that attention, both good and from the White House.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson had this to say about the Governor’s tweets:
“The all caps tweets from Newsom’s team are very weird and not at all funny but I know some dweeb is sitting in they/thems office cackling to themselves thinking they’re a world class comedian.”
But the team didn’t stop there with the JD “Just Dance” moniker when MAGA propagandist Nick Sortor posted about “a showdown” between the Vice President and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Sortor, of course, is referencing the infamous February 28th Oval Office meeting when JD Vance criticized Zelenskyy for not being gracious enough and even had the eyeliner-wearing audacity to chuckle when Zelenskyy was questioned about not wearing a suit.
Flash forward to yesterday, when Zelenskyy, in a show of multilateral unity, not only visited the White House in a suit but also brought NATO allies to meet with Trump regarding the ongoing escalation from Putin in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The stakes were sky-high, the tension thick, but somehow the punchlines still managed to sneak in.
Sortor posted his excitement:
And excited in his own way, the Governor posted the following video of JD Vance, ahem, running:
While Newsom’s team put their Photoshop skills to work with this magnificent post that currently has 1.8 million views:
So much snark, it warms my little heart!
And for those who don’t recall, the original photo is of Australian “breakdancer” Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, who competed in that green tracksuit for the women’s B-Girls competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Spoiler alert: She’s now disgraced and didn’t even earn points for her awkwardly slow headstand spin that would make Britney Spears say, “Oops, don’t do that again.”
The White House has yet to respond to the latest social media attack, but social media certainly had a field day:
Although Tiny Hands, I mean President Trump expressed optimism after Zelenskyy and friends’ White House visit, there were no firm commitments to security guarantees or steps toward peace talks.
European leaders, thankful that Zelenskyy hadn’t been abandoned, did praise the discussions as “very good.” Zelenskyy himself shared this positive outlook, though hope seemed to outweigh tangible results.
Trump’s Truth Social account pontificated “future arrangements” with Putin and Zelenskyy, but for now, Ukraine remains without formal security guarantees.
In the meantime, Newsom is taking his Constitutional Amendment campaign on the road and explaining how the ballot measure acts as a trigger if the red states proceed with gerrymandering.
In an interview with Pod Save America, the Governor defended California’s right to fight back:
Today, the legislature is introducing a Constitutional Amendment that incudes new maps to fight back against Trump’s power grab! pic.twitter.com/fJk6hDMWGk
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 18, 2025
So far, Newsom’s social media campaign is creating buzz for the 2028 Presidential Election. Whether it produces results against Trump? That’s the bigger gamble—but at the very least, we’re all still watching.