As Gavin Newsom emerges as President Donald Trump’s chief Democratic antagonist, he has some surprising boosters: white nationalists and the far right.
And occasionally, Newsom has played along.
Whether via trolling or in sincere flattery, many far-right accounts owned by racists, neo-Nazis and so-called Groypers have posted memes about the California governor, who has become a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Most famously, last week, Newsom quote-tweeted an image from an account called @YungPut1n that contrasted a young Vice President JD Vance in his high school yearbook with his female classmates posing at the urinals versus Newsom with coifed hair and a scarf reading a newspaper.
“I miss that scarf,” Newsom posted.
Some hard-right white nationalists and racist accounts have boosted California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whether sincerely or ironically. (Getty)
This is not the first time that the far right has embraced a Democrat.
In 2020, Richard Spencer, the white nationalist, endorsed Joe Biden for the presidency. It is also difficult to see if white nationalists are sincere in their support for Newsom or are simply trolling for attention.
Much of the trolling surrounds a potential match-up between Vance and Newsom given the fact Newsom’s family is white while Vance’s wife Usha is the child of Indian immigrants and their children are biracial.
X, the social networking site owned by Elon Musk, blew up with a video of Nick Fuentes praising Newsom. That led to Fuentes — a white nationalist who brought Kanye West to dine with Trump in 2022 — putting out a cleanup video where he said that he would always vote Republican despite his disagreements, particularly on support for Israel.
“I will never vote for a Democrat, I would never consider it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how bad the Republican Party abuses me, betrays me. It doesn’t matter that they’re owned by Israel. It doesn’t matter that they’re owned by Wall Street and Silicon Valley. It doesn’t matter that the party is run by women and Jews and gay people and atheists.”
At the same time, he praised an image showing Newsom and his family compared with Vance’s.
“His wife is also white,” he said. “She’s tall, she’s good looking. His children, four of them are beautiful, and they’re all white with blue eyes and blonde hair.”
By contrast, he mocked Vance’s physical appearance.
“He’s visibly obese and very ugly,” he said, trolling the vice president’s physical appearance the way Trump trashes Rosie O’Donnell. “Let’s make some other observations, his wife and kids are not white.”
Other accounts, like Dr. Groyper – which had an avatar of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character who has become a symbol for white nationalists – posted a video of Fuentes fawning over Newsom at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
“Look at this Aryan,” Fuentes said. In response, the account said: “We’re voting for Newsom 2028.”
Newsom would likely never wear the support, ironic it may be, with pride. But it does show how his trolling of Trump has made him impossible to avoid.
Gavin Newsom, white nationalists, President Donald Trump, Nick Fuentes, Democratic presidential nomination
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