Ron DeSantis knows a political game when he sees one.
The Florida Governor has watched Gavin Newsom transform from a serious presidential candidate into a full-time Trump troll on social media.
And Ron DeSantis just exposed Gavin Newsom’s real 2028 strategy.
DeSantis offers Newsom a rematch he knows won’t happen
Sean Hannity gave DeSantis the perfect setup during Monday night’s show when he proposed a “DeSantis-Gavin Newsom 2.0” debate with the same rules and moderator as their explosive 2023 encounter.
DeSantis didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge.
“Of course, it’d be fair. It’d be fun,” DeSantis told Hannity. “I know he’s not going to do that. I think he has settled into being a troller of President Trump. It seems to get him some notoriety with kind of their far-left base.”
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1960158702528237687
That wasn’t just a debate challenge – that was DeSantis calling out Newsom’s entire political strategy.
The Florida Governor knows exactly what Newsom is doing because he’s watched it unfold in real time.
Newsom’s response told you everything you needed to know
What did Newsom do when faced with a serious political challenge? He posted laughing emojis like a teenager.
“Hahahhahahahahaha,” Newsom wrote on X.
That juvenile response told you everything you need to know about where Newsom’s head is at right now.
He’s not interested in debating policy or defending California’s record against Florida’s success story.
Newsom has discovered that trolling Trump on social media gets him more attention than actually governing California.
His communications team has apparently given him free rein to pursue this social media parody strategy, copying Trump’s all-caps posting style to boost his engagement numbers.
The strategy is working in terms of online buzz – but it’s also revealing Newsom’s fundamental weakness as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Remember what happened last time these two went head-to-head
There’s a reason Newsom doesn’t want another debate – DeSantis carved him up like a Thanksgiving turkey the first time around.
DeSantis has been hammering Newsom on these issues for months, and the Florida Governor’s recent appearances have reminded viewers exactly how effective his attacks are.
In previous interviews, DeSantis has systematically dismantled California’s record by acknowledging that Newsom’s state is indeed “No. 1 in a lot of things.”
Those things include: No. 1 in homelessness, No. 1 in public defecation, No. 1 in tent cities, No. 1 for highest income tax, No. 1 for highest sales tax, No. 1 for highest gas tax, and the highest electricity rates in the continental United States.
As DeSantis put it: “So they are No. 1 in a lot of things – just not the things you would want to be No. 1 in.”
That’s the kind of devastating policy contrast that made their first debate so brutal for Newsom.
That’s why Newsom won’t debate him again.
Here’s what Newsom’s real strategy shows about 2028
You want to know what this whole episode reveals about Newsom’s 2028 presidential ambitions?
He’s betting that the Democrat primary will be won by whoever can out-troll Trump most effectively on social media, not whoever has the best governing record.
That’s a dangerous gamble for several reasons.
First, it shows Newsom has learned exactly the wrong lesson from 2024. Kamala Harris tried the Trump-is-weird strategy and got crushed when voters looked at the actual results of Biden-Harris policies.
Second, it reveals that Newsom knows his California record can’t survive serious scrutiny against a competent Republican governor like DeSantis.
Third, it proves that Newsom is more interested in Twitter engagement than fixing the actual problems destroying California.
The guy who should be focused on cleaning up San Francisco’s streets is instead spending his time crafting social media posts that mimic Trump’s writing style.
DeSantis just diagnosed Newsom’s real problem
You want to know what should scare Democrats about their golden boy’s 2028 strategy?.
DeSantis didn’t just call out Newsom’s social media trolling – he diagnosed exactly why Newsom is doing it.
“It seems to get him some notoriety with kind of their far-left base,” DeSantis observed.
That’s the key insight right there.
Newsom isn’t building a national coalition or appealing to swing voters – he’s playing to the same activist base that pushed Democrats too far left in recent elections.
The Trump trolling strategy might work for boosting his profile among California progressives, but it’s terrible preparation for a general election where voters will judge him on California’s actual conditions.
California is falling apart on Newsom’s watch – the tent cities, the crime, the cost of living that’s driving families out of the state – and DeSantis would pin every bit of it on him.
This whole thing was a setup, and Newsom walked right into it
DeSantis knew exactly what he was doing when he accepted that debate challenge.
That wasn’t really about getting another debate – it was about exposing Newsom’s transformation from serious politician to social media performance artist.
The laughing emoji response just proved DeSantis’s point perfectly.
Newsom has figured out that he can get more political benefit from posting Trump parodies than from defending his actual record as California’s governor.
That might work for building buzz among the activist base, but it’s a terrible strategy for convincing normal voters that you’re ready to be president.
DeSantis just demonstrated why serious politicians don’t play social media games when there’s real work to be done.
¹ Michelle Vecerina, “DeSantis agrees to Newsom debate rematch, predicts he won’t show,” Florida News, August 26, 2025.
² Lauren Sforza, “Gavin Newsom laughs at Trump loyalist who challenged him to another debate,” Yahoo News, August 26, 2025.
³ David James, “’This is so funny’: Gavin Newsom saw Ron DeSantis open his mouth and kindly filled it with facts until it stayed shut,” Palmer Report, August 26, 2025.
⁴ Samantha Chang, “A 7th Grader Could Catch the Error in This Newsom Meme, But Apparently Newsom Doesn’t Have Any 7th Graders Working for Him,” The Western Journal, August 26, 2025.
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Author: rgcory
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