California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a video on X in which he described the “Trump story” as “a CORRUPTION story” and stated that “this week we hold him accountable.” The clip shows Newsom speaking at a campaign event featuring signs for “Take Back the House” and candidate Derek Tran. Online users reacted after the post, with many replies accusing the governor of hypocrisy and pointing to issues in California, while others supported his framing of the president.
The video shows Newsom speaking and gesturing to the audience. In the clip, he says, “The Trump story is not complicated. It’s a corruption story, period, full stop.” He continues that he is “not talking about Bibles,” “sneakers,” “fragrances,” “watches,” or “guitars,” before listing other items he describes as examples of grift, including “Qatari jets,” “$1.4 billion in crypto,” and a “meme coin where he pocketed $636 million and the people that bought that meme coin lost $4.8 billion.”
He also references tariff changes involving Vietnam and Switzerland and states, “I’m talking about grift and corruption the likes of which we have never seen in the history of this country.” He closes by linking the remarks to accountability and the importance of the race, saying, “That’s why Derek is so important.”
The post text accompanying the video reads, “The Trump story is not complicated. It’s a CORRUPTION story. This week we hold him accountable.” The footage doesn’t show what happened immediately before or after the remarks, and the clip doesn’t independently verify Newsom’s specific claims about jets, crypto, tariffs, and other figures.
Online Reactions to the California Campaign Event Video
Many replies focused on accusations of hypocrisy, with commenters arguing that Newsom should examine issues in California before criticizing the president. One user wrote, “And yours, sir, is a story of absolute failure,” while another stated, “You wrote the book on corruption.”
Similar replies described the governor as the real corruption story, with one saying, “Gavin is corruption,” and another asking, “How’s that high-speed rail going, Newscum? All you live and breathe is corruption.”
Other responses pushed back on the premise of the post itself. One commenter noted, “President Trump is not on the ballot. He will still be my President and your President for another 27 months,” while a few replies acknowledged problems with Trump but argued Newsom was no better, including one that read, “We agree, Gavin, that Trump is corrupt but so are you.”
A smaller set of comments treated the exchange as part of a broader pattern, with one user observing that “the whole system IS corrupt and needs to change.”
Newsom’s remarks form one more exchange in the ongoing political discussion over accountability and campaign messaging ahead of the midterms. The post and its replies continue to circulate as part of that broader conversation.
