California Governor Gavin Newsom doesn’t seem to have an ounce of humor in his soul, and his “jokes” and social media presence are usually cringe-inducing and just make you shake your head. Trump, on the other hand, was blessed with the gift of comedy — and love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t have timing and storytelling down to an art form.
Newsom, however, comes across as a soulless AI product dreamed up in some Silicon Valley lab, while when you watch Trump, you feel like you’re seeing the real man, warts and all.
Appearing on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night in what he must have assumed was friendly territory, the elegantly coiffed gov instead got hammered by the left-leaning (but evolving) comedian. It was frankly tough to watch (but immensely satisfying):
Bill Maher stops Gavin Newsom mid-rant and forces him to confront how he’s copying Trump’s style at every turn.
The more Newsom tried to explain himself, the deeper he dug his own grave.
NEWSOM: “To me that’s the biggest reflection of this moment, is how…the…just the sewer… pic.twitter.com/4OgOgULYfY
— Overton (@overton_news) May 2, 2026
Bill Maher stops Gavin Newsom mid-rant and forces him to confront how he’s copying Trump’s style at every turn.
The more Newsom tried to explain himself, the deeper he dug his own grave.
NEWSOM: “To me that’s the biggest reflection of this moment, is how…the…just the sewer that we are now living in because of Donald Trump. And he’s allowed all of us to feel free to shove again and I think if nothing else—”
MAHER: “But many people would say you are imitating him. Among all the people who may or may not be running, you are the one who kind of imitates his style with the trolling. You are suing Fox now, I understand. That’s right out of the—”
NEWSOM: “Fox better look to settle right now or apologize for defamation.”
MAHER: “Okay, but that sounds exactly what he does! Suing media?!”
NEWSOM: “Well then don’t defame, don’t lie.”
MAHER: “Okay, again! But that does sound like him!”
Newsom just kept stepping on the same rake.
MORE: Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Sermon on Respecting Women in Media Ignores Some Inconvenient Facts
But wait: there’s more — so much more. As much as I haven’t liked some of Maher’s politics in the past, he’s refused to close his eyes to the disaster that is the California socialist experiment, and he continued to hammer away at the failed governor and presumed 2028 presidential candidate. How about you admit that your $135 billion bullet train to nowhere project (which some estimates say will actually be as high as $231 billion) is an utter fiasco, Maher demanded:
The blunt advice came as Maher ticked through the Golden State’s mounting problems — sky-high gas prices, crushing rents and a laundry list of economic complaints that critics say define Newsom’s tenure.
“The other side, what they are going to say though is, but have you seen the stats from California?” Maher pressed.
“Good! Fourth largest economy. Let’s go!” Newsom fired back.
Maher wasn’t buying it.
“Well… are they going to say good about gas prices?” he replied. “Are they going to say good about how high their rents are? So many people live…I mean there’s a whole litany.”
Then came the kicker — the state’s infamous rail project, now carrying a jaw-dropping price tag.
“I mean the train! Gavin, you got to get rid of the train!” Maher said. “I say this as a friend, you got to let that train go! Let the train go.”
CBS Exposes Newsom’s $135 Billion Train Debacle: No Tracks Laid, Billions Wasted, and Going Nowhere
Bill Maher just ended Gavin Newsom’s political career in 46 seconds pic.twitter.com/QowF7wGQ5r
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) May 2, 2026
Maher can be confounding, as he sees so much of what is wrong with the Left — yet stubbornly refuses to disavow himself from it entirely. Even formerly leftist lawyer Alan Dershowitz, whom I implored on many occasions to just make the switch to the right side of history (the GOP), finally made the move in April, as our Ward Clark reported.
Nevertheless, it was a thing of beauty to watch Maher mercilessly pummel the worst governor the Golden State has ever seen. Make no mistake about it — this hair-gelled creature wants to take his disastrous vision to the United States as a whole, and he must be stopped. If even a leftist late-night comedy host sees that there’s something extremely rotten in Denmark, you know things are bad.
The “failing upward” tendency of so many Golden State politicians, which was mercifully stopped with Kamala Harris’ epic defeat in the 2024 presidential campaign, must continue to be exposed.
Gavin Newsom has (temporarily) destroyed the most populous state of the union, but it’s time for his political career to come to an ignominious end.
Editor’s Note: Gavin Newsom wants to turn America into one big version of California – a failed, overtaxed, dystopian nightmare.
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