Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, has spent recent weeks mimicking Donald Trump’s style online. Newsom’s team is filling his social media channels with all-caps screeds and vainglorious pronouncements that sound like the president, even rolling out merchandise like red hats that say “Newsom Was Right About Everything.”
The strategy has been polarizing, to say the least, with some people embracing Newsom’s approach as a fun attack on Trump, while others say it’s an unnecessary distraction that accomplishes nothing while confusing low-information voters who don’t understand he’s satirizing the president.
But Newsom’s latest idea might be his most confusing yet. The governor says he’s going to launch a memecoin to compete with Trump’s cryptocurrency $TRUMP. Newsom announced the coin on Kara Swisher’s podcast Pivot, though we don’t have many details yet. Pivot released a clip of the governor talking about his plan, but the full episode doesn’t come out until Friday.
“We’re about to put a memecoin out. And you know what? Donald Trump, we’ll see how well your coin does versus our coin,” Newsom said.
Swisher asked if it was going to be called something like Gavincoin. The governor explained it would be called the Trump Corruption Coin, which seems to break with the spirit of trolling Trump by putting out a narcissistic branded item.
The entire schtick that Newsom and his team have been engaging in involves the governor making himself the center of attention, so it’s odd to kind of break that mold while mimicking the crypto part of it. It’s also not clear yet where people will be able to buy the coin or where any proceeds may go.
Trump and his family have made billions from their crypto endeavors, according to CBS News, despite the fact that $TRUMP and $MELANIA have lost most of their value since they were launched. Trump first announced $TRUMP shortly before he was inaugurated in January, pulling off one of the most blatantly corrupt moves any president has ever attempted.
Presidents aren’t supposed to benefit financially from their role as the leader of the country. But he’s doing that not just in crypto, but through his other businesses like Trump Media and his clubs around the world.
WOW! WHAT AN HONOR! ON MOUNT RUSHMORE, THANK YOU!! — GCN https://t.co/Y7Govaliwz
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 18, 2025
Newsom has recently tried to position himself as an opponent of Trump, despite spending months getting cozy with some of Trump’s most fascist allies. Newsom launched his own podcast after the 2024 election and has conducted very friendly interviews with people like Dr. Phil, Michael Savage, and Charlie Kirk.
Newsom also interviewed Steve Bannon less than a month after Bannon made a Nazi salute at CPAC.
Newsom’s interview was fawning and treated Bannon like someone worthy of respect rather than the dangerous far-right influencer that he is.
Gavin Newsom to Steve Bannon:
“…Steve, I really enjoyed this…
I think it’s incredibly valuable and I appreciate the spirit to which we were able to engage. And yeah, I hope we could continue the conversation.
I appreciate your advocacy.
I also appreciate that you call balls and strikes…”
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
The California governor has also been working in his typically centrist ways as his time in that role comes to a close. Newsom is term-limited and can’t run again in 2026, but is clearly making a play for the presidency in 2028 and wants to show he’s tough on crime.
The governor’s office issued a press release on Thursday about new “crime suppression teams” formed by the California Highway Patrol. Among their duties will be to “Identify and suppress criminal activity in high-crime areas through data and intelligence-led policing.” What does that mean? Probably some more tech that turns California into a Minority Report-style dystopia. But we’ll have to wait and see.
Newsom has also sold out trans people, vetoed legislation that would’ve made it easier for child victims of sexual assault to find justice, and vetoed a bill from the California legislature in 2023 that would’ve capped insulin costs. The Governor insisted that the insulin price cap wasn’t necessary because the state was going to produce its own low-cost version. It’s been two years, and that hasn’t happened yet.
But at least Newsom is making some funny tweets, right? And now, apparently, a memecoin.