SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Just hours after President Donald Trump said on June 7 that he would send the California National Guard to Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office launched a steady stream of TikTok, X and Instagram memes, videos, fact-checks and GIFs cutting the administration down to size.

The digital barrage has kept up even as the White House has turned its attention in recent days to the Israel-Iran conflict, and marked a turning point in how Newsom’s office responds to the onslaught of personal attacks, policy missives sent via late-night social media posts and viral soundbites coming out of Washington, D.C.

The instant-response approach is an “around the clock” operation, according to Newsom’s disinformation czar.

“Our digital and comms teams are built to move fast, meet people where they are, and cut through the noise with clear, compelling content,” said Brandon Richards, the governor’s deputy rapid response director.

“This is a full team effort, with people working around the clock to protect Californians, including from false and misleading information. And we work for a Governor who believes the public deserves straight talk, not spin — exactly what the team is delivering: tailoring content by platform and audience to ensure people see it, understand it, resonate with it, and then share it within their networks.”

The governor’s main social media accounts — @gavinnewsom, @govpressoffice and @cagovernor — have depicted White House adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of the increased immigration raids, as a gargoyle, Game of Thrones antagonist and Voldemort; derided conservative actor Jon Voigt as Grandpa Simpson yelling at clouds; and posted videos of Trump’s posts read in the voice of a Star Wars villain as well as set to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild.”

He’s also launched a Substack account and done a flurry of interviews with friendly media like liberal podcasters and YouTubers who generate a steady stream of video clips — the TikTok algorithm rewards longform video — that the office then reposts, essentially ensuring the media-savvy governor has a plethora of content to draw from and eyeballs on him at all times. It only takes minutes to cue up a meme or video to post, matching the lightning speed of the Internet cycle.

It’s a far cry from six months ago, when California was hit with a firehose of conspiracies about the origins of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, which the right blamed on everything from DEI to Newsom himself. The governor created a fact-checking website, but it was lost in the cacophony of wildfire falsehoods and attention over his delicate courtship of the White House for a still-unfulfilled request to reimburse the Golden State for $40 billion in cleanup costs.

“Newsom is stepping up to the plate. He’s fighting fire with fire,” said Dan Gottlieb, a senior California strategist who’s advised Democratic candidates in competitive national races. “It’s a hard game to play with a guy like Trump.”

It’s unclear how long this strategy will last or if it will win over voting blocs the Democrats have lost over the years, but “people are fed up, and it’s clear California is being targeted,” Gottlieb said. “Newsom knows how to get eyeballs, he knows how to get a message out there.”

A Morning Consult poll published Tuesday showed that support for Newsom — who politicos believe has aspirations for higher office — running in the 2028 presidential election had doubled in the last three months, though his overall standing among national voters remains low.

The surveys, which polled 1,000 Democratic-leaning voters nationwide between March 14-16 and June 13-15, showed that support for him had gone up from 5% to 11% among people who said they’d be inclined to support him in a Democratic primary. Support for former Vice President Kamala Harris, believed to be the party front-runner, dipped from 36% to 34%. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,who polled at 5% with Newsom in March, saw her support tick up to 7%.

Newsom has backed away from his “open hand” approach in January, and begun antagonizing the administration in interviews and online, drawing praise from pundits who say he’s reinvigorating the Democratic Party’s resistance against the White House.

People have noticed the change, with users posting “explainers” for non-Californians likening Newsom to the offspring of Mean Girls villain Regina George and American Psycho antagonist Patrick Bateman or a “toxic overprotective boyfriend,” and praising him for mirroring the bare-knuckle social media strategy of the right wing. One only needs to search A “Daddy Newsom” search on TikTok will yield hordes of testimony from the chronically online young people who say he’s winning them over.

Trump has said he would welcome Newsom’s arrest for the crime of “incompetence” and “wanting to be governor,” and returned to calling the governor “Newscum,” but did not bring the same fervor to the fight as he did with his former adviser Elon Musk, who ultimately capitulated.

And, after all, Trump has said he appreciates a fighter.

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