California Governor Gavin Newsom’s fight with President Donald Trump has been fueling a “rising tide of support” among voters in the Golden State, according to a data expert for CNN.
For the past several days, Newsom’s social media has been working overtime to troll Trump as their feud has heated up, and Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, said during a Friday broadcast, “I absolutely think it’s showing signs of working.”
Enten referred to recent polling showing 75 percent of California Democrats want Newsom, or are excited for Newsom, to run for president in 2028, up from just 35 percent in 2023. The governor has not officially announced a bid for president.
“That’s a 40-point climb, my goodness gracious! A rising tide of support for Gavin Newsom,” Enten said. “Remember, back in 2023, the majority of Democrats did not want Joe Biden to run for another term; but California Democrats in Gavin Newsom’s home state did not want him to run, either.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
Tensions between the California governor and the president rose amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country.
In June, Californians took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest against Trump and his ICE raids, leading the president to deploy hundreds of Marines and thousands of National Guard troops to quell demonstrators. Newsom sued the Trump administration for what he called an “unlawful” move.
Newsom’s criticism of Trump has evolved into full-on mockery as he imitates the president’s social media mannerisms while promoting his new push to redraw congressional maps so that California Democrats could gain five more seats before the midterm elections. The move is in response to a Texas Republican effort to pick up five more seats, which Trump told CNBC they are “entitled to.”
“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,” Newsom’s press office wrote on X Saturday, mimicking Trump’s use of capital letters in posts.
“HE WILL FAIL, AS HE ALWAYS DOES (SAD!) AND I, THE PEACETIME GOVERNOR — OUR NATION’S FAVORITE — WILL SAVE AMERICA ONCE AGAIN. MANY ARE NOW CALLING ME GAVIN CHRISTOPHER ‘COLUMBUS’ NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. — GCN.”
Newsom also went after Trump on TikTok, where the White House recently made an account. In a video posted Wednesday and captioned, “coming for his neck,” the governor mocked Trump with clips of him stumbling up stairs of Air Force One and getting scared by a Bald Eagle during a 2015 photoshoot.
For his part, Trump bashed Newsom as “the man who is destroying the once Great State of California,” in a Truth Social post Wednesday night.
“Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls,” the president said.
In a new Politico/Citrin Center poll, California Democrats said they prefer Newsom over Trump’s 2024 opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, 25 to 19 percent, in a 2028 presidential primary.
Enten explained the importance of home state polling for presidential candidates during Friday’s broadcast.
“If they can’t win the primary in their home state, they ain’t going to win anywhere,” the data guru said.
