Gavin Newsom is clearly desperate for attention — and it shows. The California governor has spent months trying to mimic Donald Trump’s social media style, but instead of coming across as bold or authentic, his posts read like bad parodies: juvenile, overproduced, and painfully fake.
Now his rhetoric is taking an even darker turn. In one of his latest outbursts, Newsom labeled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “President Trump’s private domestic army,” a reckless and inflammatory remark made just hours before a fatal shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas.
Newsom is burning through nearly $300 million of taxpayer money to push a ballot measure that would rewrite California’s constitution and gerrymander the state’s already outrageous election maps even further in favor of Democrats. At the same time, he just signed a law banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks—a tone-deaf move given the rising hostility and violence directed at federal agents simply trying to do their jobs.
Meanwhile, when it comes to actually governing his state or improving life for ordinary Californians, Newsom can’t be bothered. He’s too busy doing podcasts and polishing his national profile to deal with wildfires, crime, or the mass exodus of residents fleeing his failed policies.
But he did carve out enough time to screw over the state’s firefighters:
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bipartisan bill to raise the salaries of California firefighters nine months after the most expensive inferno in state history incinerated Los Angeles.
On Friday, Newsom formally refused to sign a bill that would have bumped wages for CAL FIRE — the state firefighting service — up closer to those of certain local fire departments, which pay their firefighters 11 to 29% more.
The base pay for state firefighters is only $54,122 per year — while Los Angeles city firefighters make at least $85,315.
The veto came after a long battle for higher pay by state firefighters, which had almost unanimous support from California lawmakers.
Fifty-four thousand dollars might sound decent on paper, but in California, it barely gets you by. Between sky-high taxes, outrageous housing costs, and inflation fueled by reckless policy, it’s nearly impossible to live comfortably on that salary—especially if your job puts you in danger every single day. And let’s not forget, the Golden State leads the nation in all the wrong categories: highest state income tax, highest gas tax, and a laundry list of other burdens that make everyday life unaffordable.
Enter Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), one of the few voices in Sacramento who’s consistently stood up to Gov. “Hair Gel” Newsom and the extremist Democratic supermajority:
Newsom has vetoed a raise for firefighters, calling it too costly. Spending $300 million on gerrymandering is a much higher priority. pic.twitter.com/18fhlX0gFr
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) October 7, 2025
The self-proclaimed “progressive” governor suddenly claims he’s worried about “cost pressures.” Funny, coming from the same guy who managed to turn a record budget surplus into a massive deficit in just a few short years:
But Newsom said the bill would put “significant cost pressures” on state coffers and argued it would “circumvent the collective bargaining process,” in a letter explaining his reasoning.
CalFire union members condemned the governor’s decision.“It’s highly disappointing and frustrating especially when he vetoes the bill the day before we put six members on the memorial wall honoring fallen firefighters in the state of California,” Tim Edwards, president of the Local 2881 union representing CAL FIRE workers, told SFGATE.
The bill would have set a wage floor for CAL FIRE employees to within 15% of the average of 20 local departments.
Beyond pathetic. But if anything, this is a perfect display of where Hair Gel’s priorities lie: Not with ‘working-class men and women’ (the biggest lie the Democratic Party has told in decades), but with his pure, petty, political interests.
Newsom is about as anti-MAGA as it gets. He shouldn’t get within 1,000 miles of the presidency.