Gavin Newsom didn’t hold back on Thursday. The California governor called out Donald Trump over a bizarre Mar-a-Lago gathering last week where dancers in 18th-century formalwear paraded around in dog masks — and the 79-year-old president somehow fit right in.
“The whole dictator cosplay thing is starting to make sense,” Newsom posted on X alongside an AI rendering showing Trump in a lion costume, holding the head, surrounded by a pack of humans dressed as dogs.
The event, the American Humane Society’s Hero Dog Awards Gala, drew attention for its unusual aesthetic. Red carpet videos show performers in elaborate canine disguises. Social media and critics quickly compared it to the “furry” community — people who dress as animals, often with sexualized undertones. Newsom’s jab framed the gala as more than just quirky: it was a peek at Trump’s increasingly authoritarian theatrics.
The White House directed inquiries to the Trump Organization, which did not immediately respond. Meanwhile, Newsom’s critique gains added weight in light of Trump’s ongoing threats of federal overreach. Just days earlier, Trump had issued a Truth Social post threatening Minnesota with martial law, invoking the Insurrection Act and claiming he might “put an end to the travesty” happening there.
The context in Minnesota is grim. ICE agents, boosted under Trump’s direction, have carried out door-to-door operations that critics say target communities of color. Last week, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot and killed by an agent, and another Venezuelan man was shot and hospitalized on Wednesday. Locals and state leaders have pushed back hard.
“Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door-to-door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said. “It’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Newsom’s commentary didn’t exist in a vacuum. The spectacle at Mar-a-Lago — a president surrounded by masked humans acting like animals — was already unsettling on its own. Combine that with Trump’s escalating threats to deploy federal forces against U.S. citizens, and the “dictator cosplay” framing suddenly feels less like satire and more like a warning.
Trump did address the gala later, speaking at the event according to Florida Weekly Palm Beach editor Kelly Henry. But the optics of a president in lion regalia, flanked by costumed dogs, weren’t lost on observers. For critics like Newsom, it’s one more example of Trump’s penchant for theatrics that simultaneously entertains and terrifies — especially when paired with real-world abuse of federal power.
