Bland Corporatist Gavin Newsom? No, Thanks. Gavin “Telling Trump to Fuck Off” Newsom? Yes, Please.
- john raymond
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
For years, Gavin Newsom has been the embodiment of liberal polish: all teeth, all hair, and often, all hedging. He’s been called a corporatist. A slick manager of status quo decline. A man more interested in climate slogans and vineyard economics than in drawing real blood from the enemies of democracy.
And to be honest, that version of Gavin Newsom? No, thanks.
The world doesn’t need another centrist technocrat playing referee while fascists burn down the rules of the game. The Democratic Party doesn’t need another safe pair of hands nervously clutching polling data while the Republican Party marches toward martial law. We’ve seen that movie. It ends with handwringing op-eds and a Republic in ruins.
But something has maybe changed.
Because the Gavin Newsom who stood up and told Donald Trump to fuck off over the illegal, unilateral deployment of troops to Los Angeles? That man might be the most important Democrat in the country right now.
Newsom vs. Trump: Finally, a Democrat Acting Like It's a Crisis
Let’s be clear about what’s happening. Trump is not just enforcing immigration law. He is deliberately inflaming tensions, deploying troops into American cities without proper coordination, and using federal agencies as instruments of personal power. He is testing the limits of how far he can push—and how silent his opposition will be.
And while too many Democrats are still fiddling with language or waiting for permission to sound the alarm, Newsom isn’t just saying the quiet part out loud—he’s yelling it. He called the troop deployment “illegitimate.” He said California would not cooperate. He made it clear that this was not about safety. It was about control.
And he didn’t back down.
That matters.
It matters because Democrats have spent far too long letting Trump set the tone—normalizing his aggression, hedging their criticisms, acting like the country is still in a moment of bipartisan business-as-usual.
But Newsom? Newsom finally treated it like what it is: an emergency.
When Democrats Fight, People Pay Attention
Look, the “corporatist” tag isn’t undeserved. Newsom has governed at times like a man deeply in love with the optics of progress and the mechanics of compromise. He’s made deals with big business. He’s indulged in aesthetic liberalism. He hasn’t always been the transformative figure California’s left wanted him to be.
But in this moment—this moment, with Trump turning federal troops into political props and ICE into a domestic bludgeon—theatrics are the point. And Newsom is using the tools of the stage for something useful: resistance.
The truth is, Democrats don’t need more policy papers. They need people who can punch. Who can call out fascism without softening the edges. Who can say “no” to Trump not in the language of procedural concern—but in the language of real political confrontation.
Newsom’s doing that. And if it took Trump sending troops to his state without consent to unleash this version of him? So be it.
It’s Not About 2028. It’s About Right Now.
There’s already chatter—Newsom 2028. Newsom vs. Kamala. Newsom vs. DeSantis redux. But if that’s where your head is, you’re already missing the point.
We don’t need Newsom to be “next.” We need him to be loud, and now. Because Trump isn’t waiting for the next election to consolidate power—he’s doing it in real time, agency by agency, deployment by deployment. And if the Democrats don’t build a wall of clear moral opposition, city by city, state by state, they’re going to wake up under a government they no longer recognize.
That’s why Newsom matters in this moment—not as a presidential aspirant, but as a blueprint for resistance.
So More of This Newsom, Less of the Old One
The old Gavin Newsom—the brand-polished, corporate-friendly figure—was never going to save us from Trumpism. He could manage a state. He could sell solar panels. But he wasn’t going to throw a punch.
The new Gavin Newsom?
The one telling Trump to fuck off, rejecting illegal troop deployments, refusing to let California be turned into a fascist photo-op?
That guy? That guy we need.
So yes—bland corporatist Gavin Newsom? No, thanks.
But Gavin “Telling Trump to Fuck Off” Newsom?
Yes. Please. And louder. So turn that shit to 11!
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