The political feud between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Fox News host Laura Ingraham reached new heights this week, drawing in Vice President JD Vance and igniting a wider debate over the boundaries of political rhetoric in America’s media landscape. On August 29, 2025, the ongoing war of words escalated as Newsom’s team unleashed a barrage of social media attacks, while Ingraham used her national platform to suggest that Newsom’s criticism of former President Donald Trump could incite violence against him.
It all started when Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle—the sixth most-watched program on Fox News, with an average daily audience of about 2.755 million viewers according to the U.S. Television Database—aired a segment linking Newsom’s public statements to the recent Minneapolis shooting. Ingraham played a clip of Newsom accusing Trump of authoritarian tactics and refusing to relinquish power, quoting him as saying, “The rule of law is being replaced with the rule of Don.”
Ingraham didn’t mince words as she accused Newsom, considered a likely Democratic contender for the 2028 presidential nomination, of spreading dangerous falsehoods. “This lie, endlessly repeated, is dangerous,” Ingraham declared on air, as reported by HuffPost. She then referenced the tragic Minneapolis shooting, in which the suspect Robin Westman killed two children and wounded at least 18 others before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot. Authorities found that Westman’s writings included the phrase “kill Trump now!” scrawled on weaponry, alongside hateful screeds targeting Jews, Black people, and other groups. “If deranged people take Gavin at his word, it’s kind of predictable that someone could try to stop Trump’s presidency by any means necessary, or try to, including by deadly force,” Ingraham continued. “But Newsom doesn’t care. So, the lies, they just don’t stop.”
Yet, Ingraham’s warning didn’t go unanswered. Newsom’s team, which has recently adopted a more combative and meme-driven social media strategy, fired back with its own brand of political theater. On X (formerly Twitter), Newsom’s press office posted in all caps, “LAURA ‘LOW RATINGS’ INGRAHAM ON FOX HAS A TERRIBLE CASE OF NEWSOM DERANGEMENT SYNDROME (NDS!). THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LOVE ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR!!! FOX SHOULD CANCEL LAURA IMMEDIATELY—OR FACE HUGE ‘CONSEQUENCES!!!’ THANK YOU!—GCN.” The post, reported by Newsweek, was the latest in a string of viral barbs aimed at Republican figures, echoing the rhetorical style of Donald Trump himself.
This isn’t the first time Newsom’s communications team has deployed mocking nicknames and bombastic language. In the same week, they introduced “Kowgirl Kristi” for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and “Just Dance Vance” for Vice President JD Vance. The latter came after Vance appeared on Fox News and dismissed Newsom’s Trump-like online persona as inauthentic. Speaking to Will Cain, Vance remarked, “When I see Gavin Newsom trying to act like Donald Trump, that’s the opposite of authenticity. He’s not trying to be Gavin Newsom—whoever that is. He’s trying to be a fake carbon copy of Donald Trump. And it just doesn’t work. The lesson of President Trump in American politics is you’ve got to be authentic to yourself.” Vance doubled down, saying, “You can’t mimic the king. You can’t mimic the master; you ought to just go and be yourself. And I think the people would like that a lot more than a cheap imitation of the president of the United States.”
Newsom’s team wasted no time responding. In another all-caps post, they wrote, “J.D. ‘JUST DANCE’ VANCE, WHO NOBODY LIKED UNTIL TRUMP PICKED HIM OUT OF THE ‘BARGAIN BIN’ IN THE WALMART CLEARANCE SECTION, WENT ON FOX TO TRASH ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AMERICA’S MOST POPULAR GOVERNOR.” The post continued with typical Trumpian flair, claiming Newsom lived “RENT-FREE” in Vance’s head and that “EVERYONE’S LAUGHING AT HIM, BELIEVE ME!” Newsom himself responded directly to a report about Vance saying he’s ready to step into the presidency if anything happens to Trump, curtly posting, “No thank you!”
Political analysts see Newsom’s trolling strategy as both a calculated effort to energize his base and a bid to expand his national profile ahead of a possible 2028 presidential run. William Kedjanyi, a Star Sports political betting analyst, told Newsweek, “Gavin Newsom has always been a well-recognized figure in American politics but recently he’s asserted himself as a leader of the resistance against President Donald Trump, especially with regards to more combative communications and taking Trump head on and getting under his skin. He’s now 5/2 from 7/2 to be declared the Democratic Presidential Nominee in 2028.”
Newsom himself defended the trolling approach during a recent press call with The Daily Beast and other reporters. “If nothing else, we’ve called out the absurdity of the normalization of Donald Trump,” he said. The governor’s digital communications team has shown no sign of backing down, with posts parodying Trump’s style, nicknaming opponents, and signing off with his initials, “GCN.” One particularly viral post read: “WOW! TOMORROW HISTORY WILL BE MADE. KaroLYIN LEAVITT WILL HAVE NO ANSWERS FOR THE SUPPOSED ‘FAKE MEDIA’ ABOUT CALIFORNIA’S BEAUTIFUL MAPS. … DONALD ‘THE FAILURE’ TRUMP BE WARNED, TOMORROW MAY BE THE WORST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. … LIBERATION DAY FOR AMERICA!!! — GCN.”
Meanwhile, Fox News has continued to cover the escalating feud on its various programs. On August 29, 2025, the network’s roundtable show The Five discussed voters’ perceptions of Newsom, with panelists offering sharp criticism of his political style and ambitions. The segment underscored the degree to which Newsom’s aggressive tactics have become a flashpoint for conservative media figures, even as his own supporters see them as a necessary counterbalance to Trump’s influence.
As for Ingraham, she has not publicly addressed the “Low Ratings Laura” moniker, but she remains one of Newsom’s most vocal critics, especially regarding his policies and increasingly provocative online persona. Despite the nickname, her show’s ratings remain strong within the Fox News lineup, suggesting that the battle for public opinion is far from settled.
The real question, as this political theater unfolds, is whether these rhetorical skirmishes will sway the electorate or simply deepen partisan divides. As both sides continue to trade insults and accusations, the boundaries of political discourse—and the risks of incendiary language—are being tested in real time. For now, the only certainty is that neither Newsom nor his conservative adversaries are backing down, setting the stage for a bruising run-up to the next election cycle.
With the volume rising and the memes flying, American voters are left to decide whether this new era of political communication is a sign of healthy engagement or a symptom of something much more troubling.
