Political gravity is undefeated. For years, Gavin Newsom has tried to float above the ruins of his own state on a cloud of hair gel and smug ambition.
He sold the country a photoshopped image of a progressive paradise while the real California was collapsing into a third-world dystopia of homelessness, crime, and crushing taxes. Now, the bill is coming due.
The polls aren't a dip. They are a reckoning.
This thread is the autopsy of a failed politician's presidential dreams. 🧵 The statistic that proves Californians have abandoned him is in #3.
For the last three years, Governor Newsom has been running a shadow campaign for President. He spent his time and California's money running ads in Florida and picking fights with Ron DeSantis, acting as the Democrats' national attack dog. All while the state he was elected to govern crumbled. His constituents noticed. They know they were abandoned for his ego.
The verdict is in. As of August 2025, Newsom's approval rating in his own deep-blue state has cratered below 40%. He is underwater with independents and is hemorrhaging support from working-class voters. The numbers don't lie: the people who know his record best are the ones who have rejected him most emphatically. His carefully crafted national brand is a fraud.
Polls are one thing; an exodus is another. The ultimate poll is the U-Haul index. For the fourth year in a row, California has seen a net population loss, as hundreds of thousands of productive citizens flee his disastrous policies for states like Texas and Florida. People are voting with their feet, their businesses, and their life savings. They are escaping his "paradise."
Newsom's approval rating collapsed because he turned California's once-great cities into a showcase for progressive failure. San Francisco and Los Angeles are now international symbols of urban decay, defined by rampant homelessness, open-air drug markets, and brazen smash-and-grab crime. His policies didn't solve these problems; they enabled and subsidized them.
He has crushed the California dream under the weight of his ideology. The state suffers from the nation's highest income taxes, the highest gas prices, and suffocating regulations that drive businesses away. After years of record surpluses, his reckless spending has plunged the state into a massive budget deficit. He is a walking, talking advertisement for fiscal insanity.
Californians finally realized that Newsom is a hypocrite of the highest order. This is the man who locked down his state and shuttered businesses, only to be caught wining and dining maskless with lobbyists at the obscenely expensive French Laundry. He embodies the sneering elitism of a ruling class that believes the rules they impose on you do not apply to them.
His "green" utopia has been a catastrophe for the middle class. He grandstands about banning gas cars while his state's aging power grid can't even handle a summer heatwave, leading to rolling blackouts. His policies have created a state where you can't afford the gas for your current car and can't rely on the electricity for your future one. It is a state of engineered decline.
His presidential dream is dead. It was killed by his own record. The rest of America has watched the California experiment and wants no part of it. He is no longer the charismatic face of the future; he is the slick-haired avatar of failure. His political brand is toxic outside the confines of a few coastal zip codes. The nation has passed on the Newsom experience.
Now, the knives are out. With Newsom's national ambitions in a tailspin, his would-be rivals are circling. The whisper campaigns have turned into loud pronouncements. The very establishment figures who once championed him are now quietly distancing themselves, sensing that his political ship is sinking. The Democratic Party is desperately searching for a new standard-bearer, and Newsom is no longer even in the running.
The conclusion is inescapable: The Gavin Newsom presidential fantasy was a mirage built on a foundation of political spin and a collapsing state. His failures in California have become his national reputation. He tried to sell a product that was defective from the start, and the American people, having seen the results firsthand, simply aren't buying. Political gravity has done its work. The float is over. The reckoning is complete.
If you like my content please consider buying a copy of Saggezza Eterna. Read the intro free on Amazon using the link: Thanks to your support we are now Number One in new releases in our category and on the first page of "The Philosophy of Good and Evil" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐amazon.com/dp/B0FGXMWRYP
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.