A billion-plus views and internet impressions in August alone are nothing to sneeze at. Gavin Newsom's digital team is rewriting the playbook both on Democrats' attack on Trump and how they should campaign against him in the future. Ridicule, satire, open disdain and even outright contempt are powerful tools when wielded properly. Gone are the days of Michelle Obama's “When they go low, we go high.” It used to be said that Democrats often brought a knife to a gunfight in dealing with Trump. Newsom seems to be bringing a bazooka to a gunfight with the latest meme onslaught.
Source: Politico Playbook
As of this writing, the “Governor Newsom Press Office” account has more than 409,000 followers on X. Since the beginning of August, it has gained more than 250,000 followers and earned more than 225 million impressions, according to Newsom’s office.
The “brain rot” trust: Though some online observers speculated that Newsom digital director Camille Zapata primarily steers the effort, Playbook has learned that the account is helmed by a team of four or five people — a group that includes Newsom communications director Izzy Gardon and rapid response director Brandon Richards. Newsom’s office declined to describe the governor’s level of involvement, but told Playbook that he leads the effort.
No other prospective 2028 candidate — Democrat or Republican — is breaking through in the online attention economy like Newsom. And it’s not just his press office’s account: his campaign X account tops 2.4 million followers. On his campaign accounts alone, since 2025 began, Newsom has gained 2.96 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, X and Substack. All of that has earned him a billion-plus views and impressions, his team tells Playbook.
The White House's response so far has been either completely unhinged...
White House communications director Steven Cheung is posting about the account, and recently said that Newsom is a “coward and Beta Cuck” for not fielding questions at a press conference. (He was, in fact, as a livestreamed video showed.) Newsom’s press office shot back: “Steven Cheung (incompetent Trump staffer) doesn’t know how to use his computer. SAD!” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson called Newsom’s posts “very weird and not at all funny.”
...or pretending they don't care - by showing care quite a lot. Also ridiculed by Newsom's digital response team. Even boring old Politico got a jab in at the White House's expense: "Asked for a comment, the White House sent Playbook an original meme, referencing a famous scene from the show “Mad Men.” (It is, to our knowledge, the first official White House press statement delivered exclusively in meme form.)"
As is often the case, Trump's useful idiots brigade has tried to attack Newsom's digital team directly. In this case, @EndWokeness blared out to his 3.8 million followers that it was these two, Izzy Gardon (Newsom's Communications Director) and Camille Harper Zapata (his Digital Director), who are purportedly sending out dozens of tweets every day.
Turns out, though, that @EndWokeness is just Jack Probosiec, ostensibly the Senior Editor of Human Events, a conservative magazine with a history going back almost 100 years. Moonlighting as an internet troll seems about right for the conservative movement these days, though.
Zapata and Gordon have made it clear there's an entire team behind the effort. Doxxing them won't stop the memes from coming Trump's way.
And here's what Newsom said last week when asked about all those mean posts on Twitter ("What’s going on with those posts on X that are clearly trolling the president?").
