'Clearly triggered': How Fox News 'stars are fuming' over Newsom's trolling

In an article for Salon published Sunday, the outlet's senior writer, Sophia Tesfaye, argued that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was "winning" with his Trump-like social media posts and aggressive stance against the administration, and that this win was "clearly triggering" Fox News.

Tesfaye framed Newsom’s recent legal and media offensive not merely as reactionary, but as a strategically powerful maneuver. She detailed how he filed a high‑stakes lawsuit in Delaware —seeking $787 million in damages and demanding that Fox News retract its false claim that he lied about speaking with President Donald Trump prior to deploying California National Guard troops, calling out the network’s role as “a propaganda machine” behind misinformation.

On Wednesday, Newsom dismissed Fox News’s reaction to his satirical all-caps posts, arguing that "nothing about this is normal, and it needs to be called out.”

READ MORE: 'Not answering': Conservative scrambles as she can't cite proof of Obama’s 'political targets'

"When Fox is sitting there, oh so concerned about these Tweets and all caps, they’ve missed the entire point, haven’t they?” he added.

During a press call Wednesday, Newsom emphasized that his strategy has “called out the absurdity of the normalization of Donald Trump."

In the Sunday article, Tesfaye wrote, "Trump and his sycophants at Fox News are clearly triggered by the Democrat’s incessant trolling," the article said. "That’s why the network’s stars are fuming."

She also highlighted that Newsom had shifted decisively from past attempts at outreach, even to MAGA‑aligned figures, to a resistance posture. She noted that, having once entertained voices like Steve Bannon on his podcast, he now viewed right‑wing media manipulation as a threat to truth and democratic norms.

READ MORE: 'Not answering': Conservative scrambles as she can't cite proof of Obama’s 'political targets'

According to Tesfaye, this strategic litigation transcended the limitations of standard “fact‐checking," forcing accountability through high‑profile legal action rather than mere corrections.

She argued that Newsom was winning because he was redefining how political leaders could confront misinformation — with bold, consequential action that shaped narrative control and media attention in his favor.

"It’s fascinating to see them all pretend not to get the joke so they don’t anger Trump. The president’s defenders have to frame Newsom’s mimicry as though he means to emulate Trump rather than mock him. But their over-the-top whining belies their true understanding. Newsom is throwing red meat to the resistance while baiting the right," Tesfaye wrote.

She continued: "Newsom is like the court jester pointing out how stupidly the king is acting. The inability of Trumpists to see it makes it even funnier."

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