California Gov. Gavin Newsom defended his relentless social media trolling of President Donald Trump while refusing to take “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s bait to definitively say he will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2028.
During Friday night’s “Real Time” show, Newsom made his case for his occasionally garish, Trump-mocking social media presence after Maher accused him of copying Trump by suing Fox News for defamation.
“You are the one who kind of imitates his style with the trolling. You’re suing Fox now, I understand.” Maher said. “That sounds exactly like what he does.”
“Fox better look to settle right now or apologize for defamation,” Newsom replied, adding that he isn’t imitating Trump, but simply putting a “mirror” up to him.
“The deviation of normalcy is off the chart. This is a guy cosplaying as the pope, dressing up as Jesus, this guy is putting his face on Mount Rushmore, doing it in all caps. None of this is normal,” Newsom said.
“And you may recall when I first started doing this, the folks on Fox said, ‘This is so unbecoming of the governor of California, he should wash out his mouth with soap and water.’ With no situational awareness that their dear leader has been doing this for years and years and years, he’s a man-child. I think it’s important to call that out,” he continued.
Throughout the interview, Maher tried to prod Newsom about his prospects for the presidency, only for the governor to pivot away from the issue.
“Well, they will pick out things like that in the campaign and use them against you,” Maher said, “I know I’m just saying.”
“What campaign do you keep referring to?” Newsom said.
“You are officially the frontrunner, I mean, they do polling, and you are the frontrunner for the Democratic Party. That’s just a fact. “ Maher said.
Watch an excerpt from Maher’s interview with Newsom here:
