Gavin Newsom seems to be predicating his entire presidential campaign on trolling President Donald J. Trump and his administration, assuming the California governor’s ambitions get the better of him and he throws his hat into the 2028 presidential ring.
But the world of satire can be a risky place to set up camp, as seen when Babylon Bee set its sights on the Democrat over a lame meme Newsom directed at Vice President JD Vance.
In a poor attempt to troll Vance — and detract from his efforts to call out Democrats for shutting down the federal government — Newson depicted the Republican veep as a “Despicable Me” minion character.
Kyle Mann, the editor-in-chief of the satirical news site The Babylon Bee, jumped at the opportunity to burn Newsom, posting on X, “Gavin should be thankful we at @TheBabylonBee sued the state of California and got the law he signed to stop people from parodying politicians using A.I. overturned.”
Gavin should be thankful we at @TheBabylonBee sued the state of California and got the law he signed to stop people from parodying politicians using A.I. overturned https://t.co/77uCMTvanA
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) October 1, 2025
The satire website challenged two laws signed by Newsom, one allowing for lawsuits against those who share “materially deceptive” AI-generated political content, and a second law requiring online platforms to act as government censors by removing or labeling certain political commentary identified as “materially deceptive”.
On August 29, 2025, a federal court ruled that the two California laws were unconstitutional, agreeing with The Babylon Bee that the state was censoring online political speech, including parody.
Social media users know a bad meme when they see one, and they chewed the Democratic governor up over his weak sauce — here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:
Especially protecting awful parodies like this which could have had a massive penalty multiplier.
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) October 2, 2025
— No place like home (@BerkenShirley) October 1, 2025
— Edward Faini (@RealEddieFaini) October 2, 2025
Pure hypocrisy. BTW, Dems don’t know how to meme. A good meme is shareable, funny, and snappy. This one is just sad and cringeworthy.
— AgaObF (@AgaObF) October 2, 2025
Thinks putting a patriotic hat on him is a burn. That tracks for leftists
— Tim (@timgreen37) October 1, 2025
Newsom thinks he’s big and bad when his best work is just cheap, reactionary imitations of innovating trolling.
— Truthspresso (@TruthHubOrg) October 1, 2025
Kyle, it seems the Democrat consultants had determined that the reason men have switched their allegiance to Trump and the Republicans is because they are cussing and posting memes. They seem to have missed the part where it is based in authenticity. Thanks for being real.
— Michael Cromwell (@MCromwell1976) October 1, 2025
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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