THE NEW MAN ON THE AMERICAN BLOCK: Checkmate
- Independent Ink
- Aug 22
- 5 min read
Seasoned journalist and Editor, thecitizen.in, in a refreshing insight on American politics, writes about a new, emerging political phenomena, interesting, routinely defiant, and extremely popular -- along with, of course, Zohran Mamdani in New York. With differing styles, between them, they might change the landscape of American politics in the days to come.
By Seema Mustafa
There are two growing spots of resistance to US President Donald Trump within America. One burst on to the scene in the New York Mayors election. The other is now slowly gaining attention as a symbol of resistance to the President, getting the eyeballs that his rather novel campaign is looking for. Zohran Mamdani, has reached the front pages of India as well, largely because he is of Indian origin and his mother Mira Nair is a well known filmmaker at home here and across the world.
Mamdani launched a boisterous and substantive campaign to win the Democratic primary for the Mayor’s race, defeating White and Corporate favourite Andrew Cuomo who withdrew from the race. Mamdani is now deeply involved in the final burst before the elections on November 4, and as per the latest polls seems to be far ahead of Cuomo and the other candidates in the fray. Cuomo, it might be mentioned here, decided to contest the elections despite his earlier defeat.
But more of this later as the new man on the block is serving California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with a long political innings. Fifty seven years old, Newsom who had not shaken the system earlier has come on to the political scene before the mid term elections due next year, with a series of Trump-like posts on X that are intended to give the US President a taste of what American commentators say is his own ‘bad’ medicine. In an aggressive and new social media strategy Newsom is parodying Trump’s capital letters style and often inane rambling comments on X.
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For example: WOW!!! MY MAPS (THE BEST MAPS EVER MADE) WILL SOON PASS IN THE GREATEST LEGISLATURE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA). AMERICA CAN THANK ME (GAVIN C. NEWSOM) AND TWO VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE — MAGIC MIKE & RAINMAKER ROBERT, WHO LEAD THE LEGISLATURE — TOTAL LEGENDS!!! THESE ARE “PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL” MAPS. BETTER THAN COLUMBUS, BETTER THAN GOOGLE MAPS, BETTER THAN APPLE MAPS (SORRY TIM, NO GOLD BAR FOR ME, BUT I STILL LOVE YOU!). PEOPLE ARE ALREADY SCREAMING “MAMA! MAMA!” AND I SAY, “NO, I AM YOUR DADDY!!!” THE GOLDEN ERA BEGINS IN THE GOLDEN STATE, ALL BECAUSE OF ME, THE PEOPLE’S GOVERNOR, THE CARTOGRAPHER-IN-CHIEF, WHO WILL NOW LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!!! THANK YOU, USA!!! - GCN
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Newsom’s official social media account ( on the lines of Truth Social) takes on, mocks, and ridicules the US President at every turn with the same kind of strong and direct language that is now being quoted extensively in sections of the American media. Even as the alternative media is having visible fun with the posts and the memes being released rapidly by Newsom’s team, media outlets like Fox that has been brazen about its support for Trump seem to be still scrambling to formulate a proper response to Newsom’s wit and humour. The first reactions have been in the form of serious ‘what is he doing, it's not nice’ kind of comments, with the clips of a Fox news anchor trying to counter the parody having gone viral as YouTubers and the people at large laugh out loud.
Fox News host Dana Perino who has been exuding praise for the US President said that Newsom was making a fool of himself and pat came the response from his team, in Trump style of course.
“DANA ‘DING DONG’ PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!) IS MELTING DOWN BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM! FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA’S MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR (‘RATINGS KING’) SAVING AMERICA — WHILE TRUMP CAN’T EVEN CONQUER THE ‘BIG’ STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE!!! TRUMP HAS ‘LOST HIS STEP’ AND FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. — GCN.”
Needless to say this got millions of views.
This campaign has raised Newsom’s visibility and popularity manifold, and today he has shot up in the ratings from sixth to second most popular politician in California. He is confining himself to the need to build a strong resistance to Trump, before the next mid term elections, and ensure that these spell the end of the Republicans and their President. He is warning Americans about the need to speak out and unite in the face of a challenge that he insists should not be underestimated. He himself does not mitigate the challenges posed by Trump, warning California about the dangers of authoritarianism, It is a campaign that started on social media, and is now expanding into the state and indeed outside with Newsom fast being embraced on X and in sections of the media as a candidate for the Presidential primaries.
The post above is part of Newsom’s big move to redraw California’s congressional maps where he seems to have taken the sails out of Trump’s rhetoric, and has ignited the Democrats. And some say even the Republicans who are finally sensing a real challenge to Trump.
The California Governor, just 57 years with a long future ahead, has also spruced his X account with memes that speak volumes as they not just counter Trump’s crazy posts, but also seem to have neutered him. Memes of a shirtless Governor in just Calvin Klein underwear with an American flag flying behind him have gone viral, as have indeed all that his account is posting these days. His team maintains that his account has 250000 additional followers since the campaign began, with 225 million impressions. And they are still counting.
Trump has reacted badly to both Mamdani and Newsom. Mamdani has adopted a street smart strategy whereby he is consistently on the move, amidst the people, even as he seeks to convince New Yorkers that he is for all communities and ethnicities and indeed the masses. He has successfully differentiated his politics from the billionaires of the city, and a power structure dominated by an elite power nexus.
Although an Indian and a Muslim that has earned him vicious brickbats from Trump and his supporters, Mamdani by not being defensive about his identity seems to have succeeded in acquiring an universal appeal. His enthusiastic personality is matched by powerful oratory that effortlessly captures the issues facing the communities specifically and at large. In that he draws everyone into the New Yorker, we are together in this embrace and are receiving a response that so far – insofar as the polls go… has kept him far ahead of all his rivals in the race.
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Newsom’s stakes are much higher. He is looking at the Presidential elections, by bringing the Democrats together in the mid term polls due next year. Although the rather dead party is waking up under his impact, there still is a long way to go before the Democrats come out as a solid block to resist Trump and fight to win. But given the fact that Trump seemed to have successfully stupefied the Democrats in the first months after his victory, the emergence of Mamdani and now Newsom who is in a different league of course, can give the somnolent party some hope.
Courtesy: thecitizen.in
Top photo courtesy: thecitizen.in