California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sounding the alarm bells over President Donald Trump’s possible intention to run for a third term in office in violation of the 22nd Amendment and urged Americans to “wake up.”
“I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” Newsom said at Politico’s “The California Agenda” summit in Sacramento. “I have two dozen ‘Trump 2028’ hats his folks keep sending me.”
During the interview with the outlet’s Christopher Cadelago, Newsom also pointed to Trump’s expansion plans at the White House that the President says he plans to pay for.
“Who spends $200 million on a ballroom at their home and then leaves?”
“This is serious, guys. This guy doesn’t believe in free and fair elections; he tried to wreck this country. He tried to light democracy on fire… Now he’s doing it in plain sight,” Newsom continued.
Earlier this year, Trump seemingly teased about finding “methods” to run for a third term before launching sales of “Trump 2028” hats this spring, although he later admitted he would “probably not” challenge the 22nd Amendment.
Then he warned he was “not joking” about the possibility of running for a third term, even though Republicans claimed he was joking.
But he’s not, because he brought it up again earlier this month, according to The Hill, saying again he would “probably not” run for a third term.
“I’d like to run. I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” Trump falsely added on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
And Newsom bolstered his argument about Trump’s fantasies about a third term at Politico’s summit, describing an incident earlier this year when he traveled to the White House in February to meet with Trump over disaster aid for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfire.
Newsom said in the meeting, which lasted 90 minutes, Trump pointed to a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt, the only President to serve more than two terms.
“I said, ‘I know exactly what you mean,’” Newsom explained. “And then he went on and on about the third term.”
Social media ignited over Newsom’s warnings.
“He not only tried, he is still at it!!!” X user Jacqueline Monroe agreed with Newsom’s comment about Trump trying to “wreck this country.”
“Of course, he doesn’t want another election, and the people who voted for him. We have some who were misguided but others are down with it. They support rich pedophiles,” Karen Bell commented on X, referring to Trump’s bungled handling of the Epstein files, which he still has not released, and which erupted into a major scandal earlier this summer.
And this from White House X-ray on X, “Trump’s 2028 hats aren’t campaign merch—they’re autocracy starter kits. The Constitution’s term limits now face their greatest stress test since FDR, sold as MAGA-branded beachwear.”
Newsom has been trolling Trump on social media for weeks, tearing a page out of Trump’s own MAGA playbook and mocking the President’s social media style. It seems to be working, too, as Trump has become increasingly defensive, lashing out repeatedly at Newsom.
In the governor’s latest humorous post showing a screen grab of a conversation with X’s AI bot Grok, Newsom asked the chatbot, “Do people with dementia repeat false things over and over again?” implying Trump is suffering from dementia.
Grok replied, “Yes, people with dementia can repeat false statements or beliefs, a behavior often linked to memory impairments and cognitive changes. This can manifest as confabulation, where they create or repeat false memories to fill gaps in recollection, or perseveration, where they fixate on a particular idea or statement.”
The post followed comments by Trump on Tuesday criticizing the state’s response to a massive wildfire in Los Angeles in January, and demanding Newsom “turn the rest of the water on.”
“We sent hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day to the Pacific Ocean. They turn a valve. The valve heads out. We turned the valve back. I actually had to do it using force,” Trump said in a senseless rant.
Newsom humorously fired back, posting a mock-up photo on X of a giant faucet on the top of a dam with the caption, “A glimpse into Trump’s make-believe world of ‘giant water valves’ in Northern California…”
