‘Zero empathy or insight’: Donald Trump attacks Gavin Newsom over dyslexia, gets brutally trolled in return
United States President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom have been at each other’s throats since last year. Every time Trump has created an opportunity for criticism since becoming President for a second term, Newsom has seized it. His words, however, haven’t gone unopposed. Trump has also at times made pointed remarks about Newsom, with the latest instance dating back to last week.
On March 11, 2026, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to post a message criticising Gavin Newsom and mocking his learning disability. It is widely known that Newsom has dyslexia, something he himself has revealed multiple times in public. Last month, while conversing with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and promoting his memoir, Newsom mentioned his dyslexia again, which Trump thought was acceptable to discuss publicly in a dehumanising manner. In his post, Trump emphasised that the reason Newsom wasn’t a suitable future presidential candidate was that he was “dumb, ” had low marks on his Boards, could not read, had dyslexia, and had a “mental disorder.” He called him a “Cognitive mess” and stated that “having a mental disorder is not a positive campaign event.”
Gavin Newsom hits back at Trump for mocking his learning disability
Gavin Newsom is certainly not the type to stay silent when Donald Trump makes a comment about him. Since Trump won a second term as president last year, Newsom has emerged as one of his top critics, repeatedly challenging him and keeping him on his toes. Some issues on which Newsom has confronted Trump since last year include his immigrant crackdown measures, his failure to improve American healthcare, the reduction of SNAP benefits, leading the government into a shutdown, and, more recently, for waging a war on Iran.
Trump’s recent Truth Social post about Newsom prompted a response from him, who then took to X (formerly Twitter) on March 12, 2026, to criticise his behaviour. He didn’t directly address Trump’s insensitivity or specifically mention any of the numerous lines he wrote for Newsom. Instead, he kept it brief and stated:
Ouch!! That should definitely sting.
Gavin Newsom is showing no signs of stopping after Trump dig
At this point, Gavin Newsom has created a reputation for himself as a dedicated Trump hater, and he seems to be diligently living up to it. After he posted to his X account on March 12, 2026, criticising Trump and calling him a child killer and pedophile protector, he again took to his account two days later and called him out.
Attaching a screenshot of one of Trump’s Truth Social posts in which he discussed how soaring oil prices would benefit him, Newsom wrote:
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