“If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself,” said Fox News’ Dana Perino.
In case you missed it, Governor Gavin Newsom recently adopted a new social media strategy which largely consists of mocking the writing style of President Donald Trump. From all-caps rants to alliterative nickname-laced jabs, the “Governor Newsom Press Office” Twitter/X account posts multiple times a day in an unmistakably Trumpian fashion. It is not a particularly hard writing style to emulate—ChatGPT can do it in seconds with the right prompt.
Evidently, that appears to be exactly how Newsom’s account managers are doing it.
A post from Right Angle News Network has revealed that Newsom’s Press Office account has been using AI to generate all of its posts. Included are several instances where Newsom’s tweets are checked against a host of sources like Copyleaks, Originality.ai, and Scribber. It is revealed that as much as 99% of some individual posts show signs of AI generation.
The account managers have tried to play it off by responding “MANY ARE SAYING THAT TRUMP’S WRITING IS AI.”
Trump’s Truth Social posts, however, do not show signs of AI generation when put through AI detection software.
Prior to this news, many on the Left have lauded Newsom’s strategy and fawned over Camille Zapata—the so-called “genius Latina running Gavin Newsom’s socials.” Prior to this role, she led a “queer woman of color (QWOC)-owned creative” called House of Zapata.
“Let’s give credit where it’s due—and much credit is due—to Camille Zapata, the digital powerhouse behind Gavin Newsom’s feeds, serving viral hits with precision, style, and bite,” said one X user. “She leads a small but fierce team of three, handling everything from graphic design to social media strategy to rapid-fire political comebacks.”
She also relies on AI to write her messages—or at least isn’t catching it when others on her team do so.
Another piece by Comstock’s Magazine describes Zapata as “[leading] a team of three that handles everything from graphic design to social media, as well as rapid response.”
CALÓ News says she leads a “small but mighty team of three” that prioritizes “rapid responses on Twitter.”
Even the praise she’s receiving sounds as though it were written by AI.
Newsom has long defended AI and pushed back against efforts to regulate it too aggressively. This includes vetoing a high-profile AI safety bill that arrived on his desk earlier this year. At an AI event in San Francisco, Newsom revealed his fair that California will not lead the world in AI innovation: “I don’t want to cede this space to other states or other countries.”
“If we over-regulate, if we overindulge, if we chase the shiny object, we could put ourselves in a perilous position.”
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that his own team would effectively put AI in charge of their messaging and outreach strategy.
“That’s not surprising. Democrats cheat at everything,” one critic on X stated in response to the news.
“No surprise here. Have the Democrats been authentic about absolutely anything???” comments another.
Whether the strategy comes off as bold or desperate will depend entirely on one’s political perspective. Fans of the President insist that one cannot simply Trump’s online persona to siphon some of his cultural relevance.
“I thought they hated Trump, but they’re trying to be more like him and they have to pay people to do it,” said Fox News’ Dana Perino.
“If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself,” Perino continued. “He’s got a big job as Governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little more serious.”
The Governor Newsom Press Office account—or perhaps the AI system that writes their tweets—responded by calling her “DANA ‘DING DONG’ PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!)”
Interestingly, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon offered the most temperate response out of Newsom’s myriad critics: “He’s no Trump, but if you look at the Democratic Party, he’s at least getting up there, and he’s trying to imitate a Trumpian vision of fighting, right? He looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win.”
