After masterfully trolling President Donald Trump on social media and mimicking his style of using all capital letters while posting AI-generated images for days, California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday he is not letting up on his attacks but leveling up his offensive against the president by releasing a cryptocurrency meme coin to rival Trump-themed assets.
While guest-co-hosting Friday’s episode of podcast “Pivot” hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Newsom explained his strategy behind going after Trump and the MAGA world.
“I just wanted to put a mirror up to the absurdity of all of this,” Newsom said, adding some of the social media posts shared by Trump, including the mock-up pictures of Mount Rushmore with the president’s face and Trump as superhero characters, are “comical.”
“Text like a 13-year-old or 10-year-old – it’s humiliating. It’s embarrassing, so this is the mirror,” Newsom said.
The California governor’s tactics drastically changed in recent weeks after months of attempting to play nice with the Trump administration, especially as federal natural disaster funds could be at stake ahead of wildfires and earthquakes. Newsom said the gloves came off when the president sent National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles as aggressive immigration raids began.
“That’s when we just said, ‘We’re on the other side of this,’” Newsom recalled the conversations with his staffers. “And we told the team, ‘it’s no permission slip now, not even forgiveness. You just go and we go hard, and we don’t stop.’”
Americans can expect to see more trolling and bashing from Newsom as the outgoing California governor and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate pledged to continue to call out “corruption. And one of the strategies is a cryptocurrency meme coin that will counter those associated with the president, especially the official meme coin called $TRUMP.
Newsom’s meme coin will be called the “Trump Corruption” coin, he said although he had initially wanted to name it “Smelt” coin, likely alluding to media reports that the president has a unique and strong smell.
“All of (the proceeds) will go to our Campaign for Democracy. They go for this effort on redistricting. They go into our effort to continue to raise awareness and communicate and organize.”
While his anti-Trump strategies may sound satirical and even funny to some, the California governor said there’s a serious concern for the nation’s democracy that’s fueling the movement.
“I am really worried about this country. I think we’ve crossed the red line,” Newsom said.
The governor also expressed confidence that his “Trump Corruption” meme coin will outperform Trump’s coins as he recalled his conversation with the president months ago during his visit to the White House.
“He goes, ‘Hey Gavin, this coin. It’s not even a coin.’ I said, ‘That’s amazing, Mr. President,’” Newsom chuckled while looking back on the conversation. “Then he went on to say how much money he just made … he mentioned Melania and her meme coin.”
As he relentlessly mocked Trump and his namesake fragrances during the one-hour conversation, the governor – possibly jokingly – said he may also mimic and create his own perfume line although he’s not set on the name.
“We may crowdsource it,” Newsom responded to Swisher’s question on what the name of his perfume would be.