Fox News is having a hard time with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tweets mocking President Donald Trump, and new research shows the network has spent hours on-air whining about Newsom’s jabs.
According to data provided to Daily Kos by Media Matters for America, Fox News and Fox Business spent 2 hours and 33 minutes across 71 segments over roughly two weeks being triggered by the governor. Fox’s obsession began on Aug. 12 and continued at least through Aug. 22.
Newsom has been trolling the right while calling out Trump’s attempt to rig elections by gerrymandering House districts in favor of the Republican Party. And the California governor has been highlighting his state’s plan to redistrict in response.
The governor has taken on many of the right’s sacred cows with his posts, mocking Fox News hosts in almost real time as they whined about him. For instance, Newsom echoed Trump’s strange obsession with Taylor Swift, writing, “HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT SINCE I SAID “I HATE KID ROCK” HE’S NO LONGER ‘HOT?’ — GCN.”
Newsom referred to Richard Grenell as “the Kennedy Center’s janitor” after Trump appointed Grenell to lead the center. After Fox host Dana Perino complained about his posts, Newsom wrote, “DANA ‘DING DONG’ PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!) IS MELTING DOWN BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM!”
Newsom also bragged that his posts got more likes than Fox personality Tomi Lahren after she tried to mock his tweets. He even posted an AI-generated image of right-wing celebrities praying over him, including Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson, and the recently deceased Hulk Hogan (as an angel).
The response from Fox has been over the top.
On the Aug. 20 edition of his show, Sean Hannity insisted that the tweets were bad form. “It hurts Gavin Newsom. I’m embarrassed for him,” Hannity fumed.
Fox host Greg Gutfeld complained on Aug. 19, “Gavin Newsom hired a team of dorks to copy Trump’s way of tweeting, and they came off as insincere as his wedding vows.”
“The Five” characterized Newsom’s posts as “Poor Man’s MAGA,” and he responded by clipping their coverage and noting that when they characterized his tweets as “summer camp,” they were actually commenting on the vapidity of Trump’s communications style—since Newsom is merely mocking Trump.
Not to be left out of the right-wing whine session, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough—who visited Mar-a-Lago to cozy up to Trump after the election—denounced Newsom’s tweets.
“It’s quite embarrassing, actually. I mean, Gavin Newsom—I mean, have you seen what he’s doing online?” the former Republican congressman said on the Aug. 19 edition of his “Morning Joe” program.
Newsom has kept up the drumbeat, calling out red-state governors for having higher crime rates than cities in California while noting that “Fox News won’t tell you that.” He also referred to Trump as “CHAIRMAN TRUMP,” alongside an image of Trump with the Soviet flag, mocking the administration’s “GLORIOUS 10% PURCHASE OF INTEL.”
The trolling campaign has been a success for Newsom. His messages prompted official responses from the Trump White House, which said they weren’t bothered by his actions but nonetheless created a meme to send to the media to complain.
But Fox News seems the most disturbed by Newsom. The network, which has had to prop up Trump’s failures with made-up accomplishments, seems unnerved with how quickly Newsom has gotten support for mocking Trump’s communications style.
Newsom should simply tell his Fox News fans, “Thank you for attention to this matter!”