California Gov. Gavin Newsom reportedly escalated his online attacks on President Trump Wednesday, posting an AI-generated video depicting Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller in handcuffs.
The video, shared on X, is the latest example of Newsom’s increasingly aggressive use of artificial intelligence to mock the Trump administration—a tactic critics say reflects both poor judgment and an unserious approach to governing.
The video begins with Trump, Hegseth and Miller sitting on a set of outdoor steps, hands cuffed behind their backs, as the text “It’s cuffing season” flashes on the screen. It then cuts to the three men apparently crying in the backseat of a vehicle before showing them approaching a courthouse surrounded by police, reporters and spectators snapping photos. The entire montage is set to SZA’s song “Big Boys.”
Newsom posted the video in direct response to an earlier White House clip that used the same song over footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers carrying out arrests. The White House caption read, “WE HEARD IT’S CUFFING SZN. Bad news for criminal illegal aliens. Great news for America.”
https://t.co/qXr5j6dc8E pic.twitter.com/s7BJ5npxFB
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 10, 2025
The pop star did not appreciate the administration’s use of her music. SZA blasted the video as “PEAK DARK,” accusing the White House of “rage baiting artists for free promo” and calling the tactics “evil n boring.” She was not alone. Singer Sabrina Carpenter had called a similar ICE video using one of her own songs “evil and disgusting,” marking a rare instance of progressive artists publicly condemning a Democratic administration’s messaging.
For Newsom, however, the moment became yet another opportunity to weaponize AI imagery against political rivals. The California governor has repeatedly leaned on fabricated visuals to troll Trump. Last week, he posted an AI image of himself receiving a fictional “Kohl’s Peace Prize” after Trump accepted the FIFA Peace Prize—an award Trump hoped would bolster his longstanding desire for a Nobel. In October, Newsom’s campaign shared an AI-generated image of Marie Antoinette with Trump’s face, mocking the administration’s push to build a ballroom during the government shutdown.
Now Newsom is again inserting himself into national politics, even floating openness to Trump’s musings about a constitutionally impossible third term. During an appearance on “The Jack Cocchiarella Show,” he claimed he had “softened” to the idea, arguing Trump’s “time of life and state of mind” made a third term irrelevant anyway. “His regime is going to be measured not in decades, but in years,” Newsom said, letting out a sigh. “And that’s comforting.”
The comments—and the AI video—come as speculation grows around Newsom’s ambitions for 2028. Yet while he postures online, critics argue he is ignoring California’s real problems: rising crime, deepening homelessness, and skyrocketing costs that have pushed families and businesses out of the state at record levels.
For Newsom, the political theater may play well on social media. Whether it resonates with Americans outside the coastal political bubble is another question entirely.
[READ MORE: Federal Reserve Cuts Rates in Divisive Vote as Inflation and Hiring Slow Under Tariff Pressures]
