California Gov. Gavin Newsom torched Donald Trump this week in a no-holds-barred takedown of the president’s lies, looks, and on-air presence—mocking his latest overseas appearance and calling for him to be booted off television.
“Looking awful” was just the start.
The 79-year-old Trump had just wrapped up a chaotic visit to the U.K., where he launched into a familiar tirade of falsehoods—again insisting, “we won in 2020, big,” while also claiming inflation is solved and the U.S. is “into that war for $350 billion,” without actually saying what war he meant.
Back in the U.S., Newsom didn’t waste time firing back. His office posted a brutal message mocking Trump’s grip on reality—and his physical condition.
“HIS SO CALLED ‘FCC CHAIR’ BRENDAN CARR MUST IMMEDIATELY APPLY THE MADE UP ‘JIMMY KIMMEL’ RULE AND KICK TRUMP OFF TV!!! LET’S GO BRENDAN! — GCN”
The dig referenced the abrupt suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show by ABC. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was pulled after a joke the host made about Trump mourning right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Trump had cheered the decision. Newsom saw the hypocrisy.
“If Kimmel can be sidelined for a joke,” a spokesperson said, “why is Trump allowed to lie nonstop on live TV?”
It wasn’t just Trump’s words getting attention. It was the way he looked doing it.
During the U.K. visit, Trump’s physical appearance drew new scrutiny—from his drooping face at a 9/11 memorial earlier this month, to close-up shots of a heavily bruised hand awkwardly caked in orange makeup during his royal photo-ops.
His cankles were clearly visible as he and Melania stepped off Marine One after the flight back. The internet noticed. So did Newsom.
“Dozy, bloated, bruised, and rambling,” one political aide commented anonymously. “He’s not fooling anyone.”
While at Chequers, Trump also threw out more of his greatest hits, claiming China is “paying tariffs” (it’s not—U.S. importers are), and suggesting the U.S. is “into that war for $350 billion,” without identifying which war he meant. He also drifted into rants about migration, prisons, Nancy Pelosi, and January 6.
The growing pile of lies, according to Newsom, makes it absurd that Trump still gets so much airtime—while Kimmel gets punished for satire.
FCC chair Brendan Carr defended the Kimmel move, saying the host had wrongly linked Kirk’s alleged killer to the MAGA movement. “The issue that arose here, where lots and lots of people were upset, was not a joke,” Carr said on CNBC.
But critics say Carr overstepped.
“It’s not the appropriate job of the FCC chairman to become the censor-in-chief,” said Tom Wheeler, who chaired the FCC under President Obama.
Trump, meanwhile, seemed thrilled with the censorship talk—floating the idea of pulling more broadcast licenses from networks critical of him.
“They give me only bad publicity [and] press. I mean, they’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their licence should be taken away,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he left the U.K.
Newsom’s office clapped back immediately: “Ya, that directly violates the Constitution.”
So while Trump lumbers back into campaign mode, trailing makeup and misinformation, Newsom’s message is clear: Enough is enough.
Bruised hands, sagging jowls, and baseless lies—Trump might still dominate headlines, but he’s looking worse for it.
Check the video and Newsom’s response blow:
Trump: We won in 2020 big… We have already solved inflation, we solved prices pic.twitter.com/CPTMyujk8R
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2025
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
