Overview
- The president has zeroed in on California’s Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker, and Maryland’s Wes Moore, casting Democratic-led cities as plagued by crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration.
- His latest volley included a weekend meme casting himself as an “Apocalypse Now” character with the line “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” tied to his push to rename the Pentagon.
- Newsom’s team has trolled Trump, Pritzker called him a “wannabe dictator,” and Moore invited him to walk Baltimore’s streets, with all three opposing National Guard deployments to their cities as seen in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
- Trump has paired policy attacks with personal insults, reviving the “Newscum” nickname for Newsom, mocking Pritzker’s weight, and seizing on Moore’s past Bronze Star misstatement that Moore labeled an honest mistake.
- None of the targeted governors has announced a 2028 bid, Republicans tout the targets as useful “boogeymen” for messaging, and Democrats note the exchanges help figures like Newsom build anti-Trump credentials and poll standing.