| | | |  | | By Adam Wren with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco On this morning’s Playbook Podcast, Adam Wren and Dasha Burns talk through Gavin Newsom’s new Trumpian approach to social media, the latest in the diplomatic scramble over Ukraine and Russia and the ongoing surge of troops to Washington.
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| Good morning, and happy Wednesday. I’m Adam Wren. Send me your tips: awren@politico.com. In today’s Playbook … — Inside the MAGA-parodying strategy that has rocketed Gavin Newsom to the top of social media algorithms — while annoying leading Republicans. (Also: Playbook receives what we believe is the first official White House press statement delivered exclusively in meme form.) — Donald Trump’s crackdown on D.C. continues, with more National Guard troops arriving. How do voters feel about it? We have exclusive new polling. — Elon Musk quietly backs away from funding a third party. Why? The possibility of JD Vance as the GOP standard-bearer.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has found a new approach to taking on Donald Trump, potentially redefining how Democrats function as the opposition party. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP | BLACK MIRROR: With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees. There’s Newsom on Mount Rushmore. There’s Newsom getting prayed over by Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and an angelic, winged Hulk Hogan. There’s Newsom posting in all caps, saying his mid-cycle redistricting proposal has led “MANY” people to call him “GAVIN CHRISTOPHER ‘COLUMBUS’ NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.” If this genre of social media post provokes déjà vu and a certain image of President Donald Trump, there’s a good reason for that. “He’s trying to mimic President Trump,” MAGA vanguard Steve Bannon tells Playbook. “He’s no Trump, but if you look at the Democratic Party, he's at least getting up there, and he's trying to imitate a Trumpian vision of fighting, right? He looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win.” For a decade, Trump has blazed trails online. And now, Newsom has found that by replicating Trump’s posts to the point of outright parody and trolling, he’s effectively gamed social media algorithms and colonized X’s typically right-coded “for you” tab. In doing so, Newsom is not only getting on Republicans’ nerves, but potentially redefining how Democrats function as the opposition party in the age of Trump. Michelle Obama famously advised Democrats to live by a dictum: “When they go low, we go high.” Newsom has framed it a bit differently: When they go low, we go low, and — backed by lots of AI-generated slop — end up high in the algorithm. "I’ve changed,” Newsom told Fox LA’s Elex Michaelson when asked about his new media approach in an interview that posted overnight. “The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change.” Newsom’s MAGA-flavored posts have birthed an organic outburst of user-generated memes and countermemes — not dissimilar to the dynamic Trump has inspired (and from which he has drawn over the years in posts on his @realDonaldTrump accounts). There’s Newsom riding a raptor into battle, a tattered Old Glory rippling in the wind behind him. There’s Newsom riding a different dinosaur while shirtless and sporting an eight-pack of abs, raising pistols in the air. (Newsom’s office tells Playbook they don’t use AI to generate written content, though lean on it to create visuals.) Newsom “isn’t just trolling MAGA; he’s proving to Democrats that stepping off your digital high horse and entering the fray is both messy and worth it,” says Stefan Smith, a digital strategist who was online engagement director on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign. “The man was political roadkill a few months ago but, with a shift in strategy, he’s become a cause célèbre of the Resistance 2.0. No doubt the rest of the 2028 shadow primary entrants are taking notes.” In some ways, it’s like peering into the near future of what a post-literate presidential campaign might look like. (In case you have trouble imagining who might occupy such a race, look no further than the side-by-side post of Newsom and fellow meme lord Vance, which has been seen on X at least 54 million times.) “Newsom has entered the digital dojo, and he’s performing the sort of memetic jujitsu that’s scaring Republican white belts unused to actual competition,” Smith tells Playbook. “For too long, Democrats have been posted up in the parking lot, too afraid of getting it wrong to throw a jab. This should energize folks to get into the octagon.” Voices on the right are noticing, too. “If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself,” Fox News’ Dana Perino said, speaking of Newsom’s antics on X. “He's got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little more serious.” In private, staffers in Newsom’s press office smiled. Perino said nothing about the leader of the free world’s own social posting — the very thing Newsom is emulating. “ALMOST A WEEK IN AND THEY STILL DON'T GET IT,” the account responded. The next morning, “Governor Newsom Press Office” again flickered to life. “FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!!” Newsom’s press office says that Trump has used all-caps less in his own posts of late. White House communications director Steven Cheung is posting about the account, and recently said that Newsom is a “coward and Beta Cuck” for not fielding questions at a press conference. (He was, in fact, as a livestreamed video showed.) Newsom’s press office shot back: “Steven Cheung (incompetent Trump staffer) doesn’t know how to use his computer. SAD!” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson called Newsom’s posts “very weird and not at all funny.” Newsom’s staff count these critiques as wins. In their minds, the Trump aides are, in an indirect way, critiquing their own boss when attacking Newsom’s tactics. “I hope it’s a wake-up call for the president of the United States,” the California governor said recently, breaking character when asked about his X posts. “I’m sort of following his example. If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president. … I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years, to go without similar scrutiny and notice?” Asked for a comment, the White House sent Playbook an original meme, referencing a famous scene from the show “Mad Men.” (It is, to our knowledge, the first official White House press statement delivered exclusively in meme form.)
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Official White House statement to POLITICO Playbook | Added Abigail Jackson: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
| | | | A message from Comcast: Comcast is focused on connecting millions of Americans now and into the future. With $80 billion invested to expand broadband infrastructure in the U.S., Comcast is actively supporting the goal of bringing internet connectivity to everyone, including rural communities across the country. Learn more. | | | | CHASING CLOUT: The “Governor Newsom Press Office” account has humble origins. The handle, @GovPressOffice, was created by aides to Jerry Brown — a man more given to Zen Buddhism than the fever swamps of the internet — and belongs to the California governor’s office. Because of that, just as Brown’s aides passed it off to Newsom in January 2019, Newsom will hand it off to his successor in January 2027; he won’t be able to take what he built with him when his term ends. And what his team has built is substantial. As of this writing, the “Governor Newsom Press Office” account has more than 409,000 followers on X. Since the beginning of August, it has gained more than 250,000 followers and earned more than 225 million impressions, according to Newsom’s office. The “brain rot” trust: Though some online observers speculated that Newsom digital director Camille Zapata primarily steers the effort, Playbook has learned that the account is helmed by a team of four or five people — a group that includes Newsom communications director Izzy Gardon and rapid response director Brandon Richards. Newsom’s office declined to describe the governor’s level of involvement, but told Playbook that he leads the effort. No other prospective 2028 candidate — Democrat or Republican — is breaking through in the online attention economy like Newsom. And it’s not just his press office’s account: his campaign X account tops 2.4 million followers. On his campaign accounts alone, since 2025 began, Newsom has gained 2.96 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, X and Substack. All of that has earned him a billion-plus views and impressions, his team tells Playbook. Still, AI slop and dinosaur memes don’t vote in Democratic primaries. But Democrats who are way more offline — and who hail from far beyond the Golden State — are also noticing Newsom. “I’ve heard a lot of people say how happy they are to see a Democrat fighting back,” says Jim Demers, a former New Hampshire state representative and member of Stand Up New Hampshire, a group organizing town halls in the early primary state. “There’s this feeling that Democrats are not fighting hard enough, and he's showing the fight people are looking for.” “People in the MAGA movement and the America First movement should start paying attention to this, because it’s not going to go away,” Bannon tells Playbook. “They’re only going to get more intense.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Golden ticket: A new POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab survey finds that California Democrats prefer Newsom over Kamala Harris in a hypothetical 2028 presidential primary, POLITICO’s Dustin Gardiner reports this morning. “Between the two high-profile Californians, the governor leads the former vice president 25 percent to 19 percent among the state’s registered Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents.” The attention primary: “There’s affection for [Harris], but maybe less confidence that she would be a strong candidate,” said Jack Citrin, a veteran political science professor at UC Berkeley and partner on the poll. “[Newsom is] in the news everyday. If you think someone is running, you’re more likely to support them.” See the full polling
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We extended our network to over 1.25 million new homes and businesses in the last year alone and are on track to do the same this year. Learn more. | | | | TRUMP CARDS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: National Guard troops from Republican-led states continue to pour into Washington. Yesterday, contingents from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana arrived in D.C. to assist in the crackdown, AP’s Matt Brown and colleagues report. Troops from Ohio and Tennessee have reportedly yet to arrive. In total, it amounts to 1,200 National Guard troops on the ground in addition to the 800 D.C. National Guard members already deployed. Where they’ll be: “Army officials appear to be trying to keep the troops on the sidelines of the mission, despite the tough-on-crime image that Mr. Trump has sought to project,” NYT’s Helene Cooper reports. As such, the National Guard will be focused on tourist-heavy areas of the city, like the monuments and National Mall. Ten Metro stations will also see a National Guard presence, including Foggy Bottom, Smithsonian, Eastern Market and Waterfront. First in Playbook — What voters think about it: Nationally, 51 percent of likely voters oppose the Trump administration’s takeover of Washington’s police force and the deployment of the National Guard to the city, according to a new survey from Data for Progress. Full memo … results But majorities of voters delivered a few different conclusions regarding Trump’s actions:
- 57 percent said “Trump is being authoritarian.”
- 51 percent said “Trump is just doing this to distract from other issues”
- And another 51 percent said “Trump is doing what's necessary to crack down on crime.”
| | | | The California Agenda-- Don't miss POLITICO's inaugural California policy summit in Sacramento. Join us in-person or virtually to explore policyy debates around tech, energy, health care and more. Hear from Sen. Alex Padilla (D), Katie Porter, GOP gubernatorial candidates and more! Register to watch. | | | | | TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK: “White House creates account on TikTok, the app Trump once tried to ban,” by WaPo’s Frances Vinall LOOPHOLES FOR LOYALISTS: “In U.S. attorney’s offices in Los Angeles, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and upstate New York, the administration has effectively sidestepped or overridden both the Senate confirmation and judicial appointment processes for selecting U.S. attorneys,” POLITICO’s Erica Orden reports. “Critics worry that the lack of oversight on some of Trump’s picks could create a perception — if not a reality — that those prosecutors are simply doing the White House’s bidding.” WEAPONIZATION WATCH: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the immediate revocation of the security clearances of over three dozen Obama-era intelligence officials “whom the White House accuses of undermining the Trump administration,” POLITICO’s Jacob Wendler reports. “All personnel are reminded that holding a clearance is a privilege, not a right, and this privilege is contingent upon continued adherence to the principles and responsibilities of our profession,” Gabbard wrote on X. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Nebraska announces plan for immigration detention center dubbed the ‘Cornhusker Clink,’” by AP’s Josh Funk: “Republican Gov. Jim Pillen said he and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had agreed to use an existing minimum security prison work camp in McCook — a remote city of about 7,000 people in the middle of the wide-open prairies between Denver and Omaha — to house people awaiting deportation and being held for other immigration proceedings. It’s expected to be a Midwest hub for detainees from several states.”
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Comcast employees are delivering top WiFi, mobile, and entertainment across the country. Learn more. | | | | BEST OF THE REST FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Is that all there is?: “After all the stagecraft, optimistic language and, credit where due, a stirring reminder of the American president’s singular convening power, the Russia-Ukraine war continues,” POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin writes this morning. Yes, there were the attention-grabbing summits, but “the only concrete change from a week ago is that President Donald Trump is no longer demanding a ceasefire.” Who’s got next? The White House is floating Budapest as the potential location for a prospective trilateral meeting between Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, POLITICO’s Dasha Burns and Paul McLeary scooped. It would be a controversial choice: Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán is seen as more favorable to Putin than most of his European contemporaries, and Budapest has an uncomfortable historical parallel for Ukraine: It “harkens back to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, during which the U.S., the United Kingdom and Russia promised to uphold Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and respect for its border in exchange for relinquishing its nuclear weapons.” Happening tonight: “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine will host his military counterparts from Germany, the U.K., France, Finland and Italy in Washington late Wednesday to begin discussions on security guarantees and how to implement them,” Dasha and Paul report. Up in the air: “President Trump signaled on Tuesday that the U.S. is prepared to use air power to support a European security force in Ukraine but ruled out deploying American ground troops,” per WSJ’s Lara Seligman and colleagues. Following the Putin summit, Trump tasked Caine with developing “options for NATO-like security guarantees for that force.” MUSK READ: Elon Musk is quietly backing away from his plans to start a new political party, instead telling allies “to focus his attention on his companies” amid fears a third party would pull votes from Republicans, WSJ’s Brian Schwartz reports. Shut up and Vance with me: “As he has considered launching a party, the Tesla chief executive officer has been focused in part on maintaining ties with Vice President JD Vance … Musk has stayed in touch with Vance in recent weeks, and he has acknowledged to associates that if he goes ahead with forming a political party, he would damage his relationship with the vice president, the people said. Musk and his associates have told people close to him that he is considering using some of his vast financial resources to back Vance if he decides to run for president in 2028, some of the people said.” TRUMP’S ENEMIES LIST: Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), has formed a legal defense fund amid a DOJ probe into his finances, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs and Gregory Svirnovskiy report. A frequent foe of Trump’s, Schiff faces allegations from the president that he “illicitly claimed his primary residence was Maryland for financial benefit.” BUCK EYES: Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) raised $3.6 million in the first 24 hours after formally announcing his campaign against Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), WaPo’s Theo Meyer reports.
| | | | Don’t just keep up with policy shifts — set the pace. POLITICO Pro’s Policy Intelligence Assistant combines unmatched reporting with advanced AI to deliver sharper insights, faster answers, and two powerful report builders that turn intelligence into impact. Try it free for 30 days. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | POLITICO MOVES — POLITICO’s foreign affairs team has added Daniella Cheslow as author of the National Security Daily newsletter, with Eric Bazail-Eimil moving into a new reporting role covering DHS. Cheslow previously was POLITICO’s deputy tech editor. Bazail-Eimil previously was a national security reporter and NatSec Daily co-author. And Francesca Barber is taking on a new role as EVP of AI and innovation. She previously was executive director of global newsroom strategy. MEDIA MOVES — Craig Timberg is now Washington bureau chief at Reuters. He previously was deputy managing editor at WaPo and is a Valley News, Concord Monitor and Baltimore Sun alum. Full announcement … Elise Flick is now interim comms director at Forbes. She most recently was VP of comms for R/GA. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Phillip Berenbroick is now a senior strategist at the American Economic Liberties Project. He previously was chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee under Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). TRANSITIONS — Forrest Carman is joining Wharton Law as an associate working on white collar defense and federal investigations. He previously was a law clerk at the Republican National Lawyers Association. … Forterra has added Justin Gans as head of corporate development and Sanaz Tahernia as comms director. Gans previously was senior director at Capstone Partners investment bank and is an AeroVironment alum. Tahernia was previously comms manager at Applied Intuition. … … Bishop Garrison has launched Orange Court Strategies. He most recently was VP for policy with the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and is a Biden DOD alum. … Corey Broschak is now senior director of institutional affairs at the Brookings Institution. He most recently was acting deputy director of the global resilience team within the Arctic and Global Resilience Office at the Defense Department. … Emma Weir is now comms director for Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and the House Democratic Caucus. She was previously comms director and a senior adviser for the New Democrat Coalition and isa Chuck Schumer and DPCC alum. ENGAGED — Nathaniel Schwamm, an incoming law clerk at the Tenth Circuit and a Latham and Watkins alum, and Olivia Altman, a marketing project manager at Warner Bros. Discovery and a POLITICO alum, got engaged Saturday at the Graham Hotel rooftop in Georgetown. They met while studying abroad in London nine years ago. WEDDINGS — Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) and Chelsea Strub, a former anchor and producer at WNEP-TV 16, got married Saturday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They met in March 2020 when Strubb was working as a local television news reporter. In September 2021, “Chelsea reached out to Rob about covering a story on his company sending linemen to Louisiana to help after Hurricane Elsa and that connection sparked their relationship,” according to Bresnahan’s office. Pic via Brittany Boote Photography — Mitchell Brown, partner and pollster at Cygnal, and Morgonn McMichael, contributor at Turning Point USA, got married on Monday at Ashridge House in Berkhamsted, England. SPOTTED: Sam Markstein, James Hunt, Maria Giannopoulos, Matt Gregory, Juliana Henao, Will Goodson, Alexia Spanos Goodson, Micah Bock, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, Jordan Coopwood and Taylor Reed. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) … Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) … Tammy Bruce … Larry Kudlow … Bully Pulpit International’s Ben LaBolt … Oliver Darcy … Targeted Victory’s Zac Moffatt and Ryan Meerstein … Heather Samuelson … former USTR Michael Froman … Eleni Roumel … former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (92) … Jeff Morehouse … POLITICO’s Natalie Fertig, Doug Palmer and Jameson Tamblyn … Jenny Backus … Matt Shapanka … Madeline Shepherd … Ari Goldberg … Faryar Shirzad … former Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) (9-0) and Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) … Michael Donaher … Katie Peters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation … Susan Aspey … MSNBC PR’s Alisha Sahi … Shannon Travis … Jayson O’Neill of Focal Point Strategy Group … Madi Fike of The Herald Group … Gina Keeney … Flagship Pioneering’s Rachel Thomas … Connie Chung … Google’s Lauren Epshteyn … Jim Hock of PSP Partners … Al Roker … NYT’s Julia Kurzius … Jarrett Ray … Ashley Carpenter of ROKK Solutions. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misspelled Hailey Fuchs’ name.
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