California Governor Gavin Newsom has intensified a social-media offensive that mimics President Donald Trump’s signature all-caps style, posting AI-generated memes and taunts that have dominated political conversation this week. Fox News personalities Dana Perino and Sean Hannity condemned the approach as “childish,” while Trump called the Democrat “incompetent” during an Aug. 22 Oval Office press spray. Newsom’s press office volleyed back online with Trump-like jibes, underscoring the governor’s strategy of meeting the president’s rhetoric “fire with fire.” The gambit is paying early dividends. Newsom’s campaign operation says it collected about $6.2 million in small-dollar donations between Aug. 14 and Aug. 21, and an Echelon Insights poll released this week puts him at 13 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters for 2028—second only to former Vice President Kamala Harris. Strategists say the heightened profile could consolidate progressive donors and voters who want a combative counterweight to Trump. Offline, a new roadside billboard in California—reading “I’m Gavin, and I destroyed CA with my bad ideas”—went viral after listing the state’s high gasoline prices and persistent homelessness. Conservative activists seized on the sign as evidence that Newsom’s national ambitions are vulnerable to his record at home. Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled California Legislature approved a Nov. 4 special election that would ask voters to redraw the state’s congressional lines, mirroring GOP-led redistricting pushes in Texas and other states. Newsom, who championed the measure, framed it online as a necessary response to Republican gerrymanders, further stoking partisan debate over how aggressively Democrats should fight Trump’s agenda.