Governor’s Office Deletes Post
California Governor Gavin Newsom has never been known for restraint when it comes to political mudslinging. But on Tuesday, his official communications office may have crossed a threshold from partisan jabs into something far more disturbing — callousness in the face of tragedy.
The governor’s press account, “@GovPressOffice,” decided to mock a White House post showing President Donald Trump alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by replying with an image from Dumb and Dumber. The context? The post was made in response to the release of 20 Israeli hostages — innocent civilians who were kidnapped by Hamas during their brutal October 7, 2023 attack. That wasn’t satire. That wasn’t political commentary. That was a gut punch to the families of the hostages and an astonishing lapse in judgment from the leader of the country’s most populous state.
In order to commemorate the Gaza Peace Deal and the freedom of 20 innocent Israeli hostages, California Governor Gavin Newsom posted memes making fun of Trump and Netanyahu.
This is an elected government official in a state with a large Jewish and Israeli population. pic.twitter.com/hpfTagVMri
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) October 14, 2025
The post remained online for more than 13 hours — a staggering amount of time in the viral, minute-to-minute world of political messaging — before it was quietly deleted. But the damage had already been done. Social media lit up with backlash, as critics accused the governor’s office of mocking a deeply emotional and politically sensitive moment. The fact that the post coincided with Shemini Atzeret — a Jewish holiday when observant Jews are offline — only underscored the tone-deaf timing. This date also marks the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre on the Hebrew calendar. That combination of factors only intensified the anger.
Perhaps most unsettling of all, no apology followed. Not from Governor Newsom. Not from his team. And not from Izzy Gardon, a staffer who publicly manages the account and has taken pride in steering the administration’s sharp-edged digital presence.
This was not a lone misstep. Another post from the same account, also untouched as of this writing, mocked the same hostage deal by zeroing in on a photo of President Trump from Time magazine — this time, ridiculing his neck. The strategy here appears coordinated, mean-spirited, and clearly calculated. It’s the kind of behavior expected from anonymous trolls — not from the office of a sitting governor.
https://t.co/pGn2xOkfIb pic.twitter.com/qKescbwmQy
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 14, 2025
For Newsom, whose ambitions clearly stretch beyond Sacramento and toward Pennsylvania Avenue, this is more than a political fumble. It’s a character test. Foreign policy isn’t just about speeches and strategy. It’s about empathy. It’s about judgment in moments of pain and global complexity. By weaponizing a hostage release for a cheap political shot, Newsom and his team displayed a stunning lack of both.
Future presidential opponents won’t need to dig deep to question his fitness for national leadership — they’ll only need to point to this week, when the mask slipped and the nation saw something chilling underneath: a campaign strategy that mistakes cruelty for cleverness.
