Bill Maher thinks Gavin Newsom might be playing a little too close to Donald Trump’s playbook.
Appearing on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the California governor pushed back on the idea that his recent messaging—heavy on trolling, meme-ready digs, and all-caps posts—is imitation for imitation’s sake.
“I’m trying to put a mirror up to Donald Trump,” Newsom said. “We’re just trying to reflect that reality and express the absurdity of all of this.”
That “mirror” approach has increasingly defined Newsom’s tone since Trump returned to the White House, with the governor leaning into the same kind of rapid-fire, attention-grabbing style—just aimed in the opposite direction. Early polling suggests it may be working, with Newsom emerging as a frontrunner in hypothetical 2028 Democratic matchups.
Maher, though, wasn’t convinced the distinction matters.
“Among all the people who may or may not be running, you are the one who kind of imitates his style with the trolling—you’re suing Fox now, I understand,” Maher said. “That sounds exactly like what he does.”
Newsom’s lawsuit against Fox News is a big part of that comparison. The governor is seeking $787 million in a defamation case accusing the network of distorting his account of a phone call with Trump during Los Angeles protests and falsely claiming he lied.
The case cleared an early hurdle this week when a Delaware judge ruled it was “reasonably conceivable” that Fox acted with actual malice, allowing it to move forward. The judge also rejected the network’s First Amendment-based attempt to dismiss the suit, according to Bloomberg Law.
“Looking forward to discovery,” Newsom wrote on X after the decision.
That next phase could open the door to internal Fox News communications—emails, texts, and editorial discussions tied to the segment at the center of the case. It’s a process that’s burned the network before, most notably in its $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which exposed behind-the-scenes messages that conflicted with what aired.
Still, Maher kept circling back to the same point.
“That sounds exactly like what he does, suing media,” he said.
Newsom didn’t blink.
“We’re going into discovery. Fox better look to settle right now or apologize for defamation,” he said.
“Okay, again, but that does sound like him,” Maher replied.
“Well then, don’t defame, don’t lie,” Newsom shot back.