Trump has an unlikely new ally hitting back at troll-obsessed Newsom — and he’s a California Democrat

California Governor Gavin Newsom has gone all out with a new political one-two punch to counter the Trump administration using lawsuits and bills to challenge the White House over controversial moves.

He’s challenged the push to add more Republican seats in Congress and the sending of the National Guard to Los Angeles while copying and mocking the president’s bombastic, meme-heavy social media style online.

The approach has won Newsom, a long-rumored 2028 presidential candidate, new buzz in the polls, while at the same time angering colleagues in the state’s Democratic party, none more prominent than San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

Mahan, a former tech executive elected on a moderate platform in 2022, has often been scathing in his disapproval.

In an August op-ed, Mahan blasted Newsom’s “blind leap into meme land,” casting it as a cheap, short-term strategy that would do little to solve the state’s perennial challenges with crime, homelessness, and high costs of living.

That same month, Mahan also took issue with Trump-style comments from Newsom when the governor accused the troubled Bed, Bath & Beyond franchise of a desperate bid to become “relevant again” when the brand spoke out against the California business climate.

The San Jose leader has voiced anger over some of Newsom’s signature policy moves, too, including Proposition 50, a ballot initiative asking voters to begin an unusual mid-decade redistricting process that could add up to five new Democratic seats in Congress. Newsom has argued the push is necessary to counter a Trump-led drive in Texas to cement more GOP seats.

“I will hold my nose and vote for Prop 50 but I don’t believe it’s something we should be proud of,” Mahan told San José Spotlight last week. “It’s not good governance to allow politicians to pick their constituents.”

The governor’s office has insisted there’s no ill will between the two Democrats.

“We’re not at war with the mayor, no matter how hard he tries,” Newsom spokesperson Bob Salladay said last week. “We’re all in this together.”

And it has defended Newsom’s larger approach, arguing in September that “there is no tension between good policy and effective communications strategies, including social media that speaks to the moment.”

In some cases, Mahan has praised Newsom, including for defending California against the Trump administration at key moments, such as Newsom’s forceful denunciation of the president’s attempt to extract a $1 billion settlement from University of California Los Angeles over antisemitism investigations.

Still, a split has been brewing since even before Newsom’s Trump-style anti-Trump tactics began.

The San Jose mayor’s homelessness agenda, including a proposal to charge and arrest people who repeatedly refuse shelter, has angered some in the party’s progressive wing.

Last year, Mahan backed Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure giving prosecutors the ability to order behavioral health treatment for repeat drug offenders, while Newsom opposed it.

Newsom, for his part, snubbed Mahan and didn’t invite him for a bill signing in San Jose on a package of anti-theft laws that year.

There’s also the matter of the largely blue state’s notoriously complicated intra-party politics. If Newsom seeks the White House, that could mean an opening for Mahan in the governor’s mansion, and he hasn’t ruled out a 2026 run.