California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has continued his trolling campaign against Donald Trump, this time posting a video on Instagram making light of the president’s health complaints.
The montage, set to the 2001 song “I’m a Survivor” by country music star Reba McEntire, pulls together some of Trump’s most embarrassing gaffes in the public eye, from tripping on the steps to Air Force One to recoiling in horror from a squawking eagle and being bumped in the chin by a rogue reporter’s microphone.
“He’s trying,” the post is captioned.
Drawing an ironic contrast between the president’s opulent lifestyle and the song’s lyrics about a “single mom who works two jobs,” the clip also pays particular attention to the bruises spotted on Trump’s hands in recent months.
The commander-in-chief was recently diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency but speculation about his wellbeing raged well before that and has not abated since the condition was revealed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously attempted to brush aside the welts on his hand as the consequence of too much diplomatic handshaking and aspirin consumption, noting Trump “meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history.”
His former physician and now-Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson insisted last week that Trump is “the healthiest president this nation has ever seen” as concern about his absence from the national spotlight led to fresh speculation that was only allayed when he appeared on the golf course in Virginia on Saturday morning.
Trump is no stranger to highlighting health issues amongst his rivals, having attacked Joe Biden’s performance before he dropped out of the race for the White House last summer.
Newsom has been mimicking Trump’s social media style for the last month, primarily using his GovPressOffice X account to bluster about his own greatness in all-caps and inventing infantile slurs with which to attack hostile conservative media personalities, just as Trump himself has done to his enemies on the left for years.
In one of his latest posts, he responded to Trump posting “GOOD NIGHT!!!” with the response: “Night night grandpa!”
The president managed to resist rising to the bait and lashing out at Newsom for several weeks, before finally cracking on August 20 and posting on Truth Social: “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California.”
Newsom has since revealed that Trump’s team have also been retaliating by sending him red “Trump 2028” baseball caps, with the governor returning fire by issuing his own “Newsom 2026” mugs and “Newsom was right about everything!” hats.
