Newsom keeps getting ‘Trump 2028’ hats in the mail

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is finding it hard to get out of President Trump’s shadow regarding trolling.

Mr. Newsom thought he had the upper hand when he started mimicking Mr. Trump in his online missives, with all-caps tweets designed to capture and mock the president’s style.

However, Trump fans retaliated with a master stroke, sending what Mr. Newsom says are dozens of ball caps emblazoned with “Trump 2028,” as in the next presidential election, in which Mr. Trump would seem ineligible to participate under the Constitution.

To Mr. Newsom, the mere existence of the hats is a flashing red light for the future of democracy.

“I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” Mr. Newsom said at a Politico forum Wednesday in Sacramento. “I have two dozen ‘Trump 2028’ hats his folks keep sending me.”

When the audience chuckled, Mr. Newsom scolded them.

“This is serious, guys, this is serious,” he said. “This guy doesn’t believe in free, fair elections. He tried to wreck this country. Were you there Jan. 6?”

Chris LaCivita, who helped Mr. Trump win reelection last year, laughed at Mr. Newsom’s outsize reaction to the hats.

“President Trump lives rent-free in Gavin Newscum’s small brain because the president embodies all the traits of decisiveness and leadership that he knows he is incapable of ever possessing,” Mr. LaCivita told The Washington Times, using Mr. Trump’s favorite epithet for the governor.

Mr. Newsom, who has emerged as an early favorite for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has been trying to calibrate his positioning.

Immediately after Mr. Trump’s stunning election victory, Mr. Newsom attempted to reach out to the MAGA movement. He launched a podcast that hosted Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon and sounded open to Trump-style policies on tariffs and transgender people in sports.

After that effort was panned, he adopted a more confrontational approach, suing Mr. Trump over his federalizing and deploying the state’s National Guard and complaining about aggressive immigration enforcement.

In recent weeks, he has led Democrats’ resistance to Texas’ redrawing of its congressional map to be more Republican-friendly, urging the California State Legislature to pass a bill putting a new Democrat-dominated map on the ballot for voters in November.

That move would overturn the independent commission that drew the current maps, but Mr. Newsom has said the ends justify the means.

That’s been a theme for the two-term governor, who said in an interview this month that Republicans have outhustled Democrats. He challenged Democrats to adapt to derail Mr. Trump’s plans.

“It requires us to fight fire with fire and play by a new set of rules. I know that’s hard for Democrats. I know, trust me, I’m one of them. But this is a real moment of peril if we do not stand up,” he said in an interview with MeidasTouch, a left-wing media outfit.

In that interview, Mr. Newsom recalled the president’s conversation with him the night before federalizing California’s National Guard.

The governor said the president laughed about the “Newscum” nickname. Mr. Newsom told him it wasn’t original. Mr. Trump then began talking about the success of his MAGA hats.

“Are we seriously having this conversation when you’re supposed to be reading me the riot act about keeping people safe in Los Angeles?” Mr. Newsom said. “This guy’s unhinged. He’s getting weaker and weaker by the day.”

Mr. Newsom’s fretting over Mr. Trump’s 2028 prospects reflects the president’s repeated flirtation with the idea.

This month, Mr. Trump told CNBC that he would “probably not” run, though he continued to tease the idea.

“I’d like to run,” he said. “I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution bars a president from being elected more than twice. Mr. Trump reached that limit after winning in 2016 and in 2024.

Mr. Trump has said he doesn’t think that would constrain him.

“There are methods which you could do it,” he told NBC in March.