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California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused Donald Trump of suffering from dementia as their public war of words escalates. The dig by Newsom, viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, comes after Trump repeated a string of widely-debunked claims about aid sent to Los Angeles during the destructive wildfires in January.
In a cabinet meeting, the 79-year-old president said the federal government had to force California to ‘turn a valve’ of water back on’, claiming Californian leaders refused to provide critical water supplies. ‘We sent hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day into the Pacific Ocean,’ he said.
‘They turn a valve. The valve heads out. We turned the valve back. I actually had to do it using force.’ Referring to Newsom as ‘Gavin Newscum’, Trump said he told him ‘to turn the rest of water on’. Newsom, who has been California’s governor since 2019, hit back at Trump, using Grok, X’s AI chatbot, to suggest that the president has dementia.
Reposting a video of Trump’s attack on him, he added a screenshot of his interaction with Grok, where he asked it if ‘people with dementia repeat false things over and over again’. ‘Yes, people with dementia can repeat false statements or beliefs, a behavior often linked to memory impairments and cognitive changes,’ the chatbot replied.
‘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 White House fired back after Newsom’s social media post.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, a spokesperson said: ‘Newscum will say anything to distract from his terrible handling of the California wildfires that President Trump had to come in and clean up.’ Trump also branded Newsom as ‘incompetent’ in the cabinet meeting, adding: ‘he’s got some strange hand action going on, I don’t know what the hell his problem is.’
The Democrat governor shared the clip, responding: ‘You really want to have the conversation about hands?’ The pair have been embroiled in fierce debate since Trump repeatedly made false claims about Californian state officials and their refusal to provide water in areas to fight the wildfires.
Trump has also targeted Newsom over his opposition to mass deportations. In June, Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for deploying the National Guard to quell protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Newsom has garnered attention for copying Trump’s use of social media. On Monday, he posted pictures of his own merchandise, an imitation of Trump’s Make America Great Again products, including caps with slogans including ‘Newsom was right about everything!’
He also launched ‘The Patriot Shop,’ which mockingly offers MAGA-red hats and $100 Holy Bibles. ‘I hope it’s a wake-up call to the President of the United States following his example,’ Newsom recently said. ‘If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as President.’
