“There is a California derangement syndrome that I’m also deeply mindful of,” Gov. Gavin Newsom recently told Politico.
MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is known for his catch phrases. He likes to remind people that he’s “not ideological” but “open to argument, interested in evidence.” He frequently describes California as “America’s coming attraction.”
“The future happens here first,” he says often.
Lately, as his profile as a prospective 2028 presidential candidate rises, he’s embracing yet another pet phrase. Increasingly, he’s been diagnosing his critics with “California derangement syndrome.”
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He and his staff use the term to characterize people who criticize him as being irrationally obsessed with California, and desperate to paint it as a failed state. It’s a play on the term “Trump derangement syndrome,” which President Donald Trump and his supporters coined to deflect criticisms of the Republican president in much the same way.
Last week, Newsom’s press office made two AI-generated posts in that vein. One, in response to a video of Trump calling Newsom “a horrible governor,” was simply an image of a pill bottle emblazoned with a prescription for “Newsom derangement syndrome.” The other, in reply to a clip of Fox News commentator Sean Hannity blasting California’s income taxes and gas prices, was a video of an AI-generated version of Hannity holding a similar bottle.
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“Ah, the classic California derangement syndrome,” AI-Hannity said. “Where common sense goes to take a permanent vacation.”
Newsom also used the phrase in a recent interview with Politico, telling the publication he was “deeply mindful” of its prevalence in other states where he would have to win over voters in a theoretical presidential campaign.
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“There is a California derangement syndrome that I’m also deeply mindful of,” he said.
In response to criticism from podcaster Joe Rogan, who said Newsom ruined San Francisco and California, Newsom said Rogan suffers from the same affliction.
“I think there’s a California derangement syndrome and he’s part of it,” he told the hosts of the “Higher Learning” podcast last month. “People are obsessed with focusing on what’s wrong with the state and not what’s right with the state. I mean, you have more scientists, engineers, more researchers, more Nobel laureates in the state than any other state in the nation. We’re the fourth largest economy in the world, $4.1 trillion. We have the finest system of higher education.”
On his podcast, Rogan has criticized Newsom’s tendency to list all those good things about California when confronted with critique.
“Whenever someone says something bad about California, he’s like ‘No. 1 in Fortune 500 companies, No. 1 in higher education,’” Rogan said, mocking the governor. “It was all that s— before you were there … It’s because the weather’s perfect, it has nothing to do with you.”
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The “derangement syndrome” framing appeals to Californians, but it’s not a good strategy beyond the Golden State’s borders, said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant.
If he wants to run for president, Newsom will need to win over voters in other states with concerns about California’s visible homeless problem and high energy prices, Stutzman said.
“Newsom’s problem is he needs to gain traction with people that don’t love California,” Stutzman said. “Implying to them that they’re deranged … is pretty arrogant.”