White house mocked after Gavin Newsom trolling backfires with bizarre meme

The White House has tried to shrug off California governor Gavin Newsom’s online trolling by insisting Donald Trump “never thinks” about him, only to send out a meme that did exactly the opposite.

Newsom’s press team has been shaking up its approach in recent weeks, ditching the usual polished messaging for all-caps memes and AI-generated parody posts aimed squarely at Trump and his administration. The strategy appears to be working, with Trump’s staff clearly rattled.

Communications director Steven Cheung has lashed out about the account, while deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson dismissed the posts as “very weird and not at all funny.” But her attempt to brush off the trolling ended up making things worse. When Politico’s Playbook asked for comment, Jackson replied with a meme featuring Trump himself.

The image borrowed from the TV show Mad Men, where Don Draper tells Michael Ginsberg, “I don’t think about you at all.” In the White House’s version, Draper’s face was swapped for a smug-looking Trump, while Ginsberg was replaced with Newsom’s press account. The message was clear: “We don’t think about Gavin Newsom.” The problem was that they had just made a meme about him.

By Wednesday morning, Newsom’s press team had gleefully fired back on X, writing: “The White House: ‘We don’t think about Gavin Newsom.’ Also the White House: sends Politico (REAL NEWS!) a MEME about Gavin Newsom. Triggered. Weak. SAD!”

Right-wing commentator Gunther Eagleman tried to defend Trump’s team by calling it “trolling” and boasting that Newsom was living “rent free” in their heads. Newsom’s office quickly clapped back: “Says the guy in our comments lol.”

When asked by The Daily Beast to explain the White House’s bizarre meme strategy, Jackson doubled down by sending another one. This time it was an image of a crying man with a bicycle stuck to his head, captioned with “ding ding” from a handlebar bell. She followed it up with the mocking line: “dOeS ThE MeME mAkE sEnSe????????”

The spectacle has drawn commentary from both sides of the political spectrum. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon claimed Newsom was trying to “mimic” Trump’s aggressive online persona for political gain. “He’s no Trump, but he looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organising a fight they feel they can win,” Bannon told Playbook.

Newsom himself told Fox News that he has “changed” his approach. “The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change,” he said. Digital strategist Stefan Smith, who worked on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign, said the new approach has revived Newsom’s image. “The man was political roadkill a few months ago, but with a shift in strategy, he’s become a cause célèbre of the Resistance 2.0. No doubt the rest of the 2028 shadow primary entrants are taking notes,” he said.

The Trump camp is no stranger to internet theatrics, having posted everything from AI-generated memes of Trump dressed as a Jedi to an ASMR-style video of ICE agents preparing a deportation flight. The president and his team have also taken to calling the California governor “Newscum” online and on television. Newsom recently said he hoped the juvenile jabs would serve as a “wake-up call for the president of the United States.”

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… https://t.co/yKBO6VPA3t

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 16, 2025