- Newsom publicly accused President Trump of dementia, citing repeated false claims about California wildfires and AI-generated confirmations.
- Fact-checkers debunked Trump’s water-pipeline claim; experts and polls show rising public concern about his cognitive decline.
- The exchange underscores political theater ahead of midterms and potential 2028 implications for Newsom and Trump’s public standing.
California Governor Gavin Newsom isn’t letting go of his pointed criticisms of President Donald Trump.
In a fresh social media salvo this week, Newsom suggested the 79-year-old president is showing signs of dementia, zeroing in on Trump’s repeated insistence on a debunked story about California’s handling of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
The exchange, unfolding on X (formerly Twitter), highlights the ongoing bad blood between the two leaders—and taps into a broader national conversation about Trump’s age and mental sharpness nearly nine months into his second term.
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It started Tuesday during a White House ceremony where Trump presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the family of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Midway through the event, Trump veered into a familiar discussion about the January wildfires that scorched parts of Los Angeles, claiming California officials botched the response by refusing water shipments from the Pacific Northwest.
“If we didn’t go into Los Angeles early on in the administration… we would have lost our city,” Trump said, according to a video clip shared widely online. He added, “Now they already lost 25,000 houses to fire because they wouldn’t let the water come in from the Pacific Northwest, which they should have done. I said it. You better do it. They didn’t do it… Would have been a different kind of a thing if they did what they were supposed to do.”
The claim isn’t new—it’s one Trump has hammered since the fires raged in January, shortly before his January 20 inauguration as the oldest president in U.S. history at 78.
Fact-checkers, including outlets like AFP, have repeatedly debunked it: Much of Los Angeles’ water comes from the Colorado River, and there’s no direct pipeline from the Pacific Northwest states like Washington or Oregon to Southern California.
Agriculture, not wildfires, is the state’s biggest water consumer, and federal aid focused on firefighting resources, not interstate plumbing.
Newsom, never one to shy from a fight, reposted the clip on X with a screenshot from an AI search query: “Is not having a sense of reality a symptom of dementia?”
The response, presumably from a tool like Grok (Elon Musk’s AI chatbot on X), read: “Yes. Losing a sense of reality—such as perceiving things that aren’t real or believing things that aren’t true—can indeed be a symptom of dementia.”
The post quickly racked up thousands of likes and shares, amplifying what Newsom has framed as a pattern of presidential forgetfulness.
Newsom Has a Bone to Pick with Trump
This isn’t the first time Newsom has gone there. Back in August, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump revived the water saga, dubbing Newsom “Gavin Newscum” and insisting the feds had to “force” California to “turn the rest of the water on.”
Newsom fired back with another AI screenshot, this one asking Grok: “Do people with dementia repeat false things over and over again?” Grok affirmed: “Yes, people with dementia can repeat false statements or beliefs, a behavior often linked to memory impairments and cognitive changes. This can manifest as confabulation, where they create or repeat false memories to fill gaps in recollection, or perseveration, where they fixate on a particular idea or statement.”
The White House shot back then, with a spokesperson telling The Daily Beast: “Newscum will say anything to distract from his terrible handling of the California wildfires that President Trump had to come in and clean up.”
By September, the barbs had escalated. Trump took to Truth Social to slam Newsom over a supposed plan for low-income housing in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, tying it back to the fires and repeating the water myth.
Newsom’s press office responded with a blistering X post: “Take your dementia meds, grandpa. You are making things up again.”
They listed five “lies” in Trump’s rant, including the housing claim (which Newsom’s team said was baseless, citing a Los Angeles Times report) and the evergreen water falsehood.
“There is no state effort targeting new low-income housing in the Pacific Palisades,” the office clarified, noting summer funding announcements were for rebuilding fire-damaged affordable units statewide, not displacing wealthy residents.
Newsom’s jabs come as questions about Trump’s cognitive health have simmered all year, fueled by public slip-ups and expert commentary.
Expert and Public Sentiment on Trump’s Health Status
A YouGov poll from early September found 49% of Americans believe Trump is experiencing some cognitive decline—up from 40% pre-election—with independents driving the shift (from 35% to 51%).
Even among Republicans, the figure rose slightly to 28%.
Democrats like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have piled on; in a September interview, Pritzker speculated Trump “might be suffering from some dementia” while critiquing the president’s inconsistent threats to deploy the National Guard to cities like Chicago.
Psychologists have weighed in too. Dr. John Gartner, a prominent critic, told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump’s speech patterns show “major deterioration.” “He used to speak with a high level of vocabulary in very polished paragraphs,” Gartner said. “Now what we see is not only has his vocabulary gone down, but… there are times when he’s really unable to complete a thought. Sometimes he’s unable to complete a word.”
He pointed to impulse control issues and motor skill slips, like a “droopy face” during a September memorial for Charlie Kirk, where Trump digressed from eulogies to tariffs and “radical left maniacs.”
Rhetoric expert Jennifer Mercieca echoed this in May, analyzing Trump’s “rambling speeches and stream-of-consciousness press briefings” as signs his “brain is not well-disciplined,” unable to “maintain a thought and carry it through to a logical conclusion.”
Physical concerns have added fuel. Since his June birthday, Trump has been spotted with bruised hands, swollen ankles, and a halting gait—prompting speculation about chronic venous insufficiency, as noted in a July White House memo from physician Dr. Sean Barbabella.
In April, the White House released a physical exam report declaring Trump in “excellent health” and “fully fit,” including a normal Montreal Cognitive Assessment score.
But critics, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), launched a formal probe this month into what she calls a “cover-up” of Trump’s “failing health,” citing visible swelling and forgotten facts from his first term.
Trump has brushed off the chatter, often touting his “very stable genius” status and acing the cognitive test he mocks as too easy (“person, woman, man, camera, TV”).
Aides like former physician Ronny Jackson insist he’s “mentally and physically sharper than ever.”
Yet incidents keep cropping up: In July, Trump fumbled a question on student visas, asking reporters to repeat it twice before veering off-topic.
August brought a bizarre UK trip monologue linking his uncle to the Unabomber and windmills.
By September, he was railing about “triple sabotage” at the U.N.—blaming an escalator glitch on conspiracy—and falsely tying Tylenol to autism alongside RFK Jr, as noted by The Guardian.
Moving Forward
For Newsom, a rumored 2028 Democratic contender, these clashes serve double duty: defending his wildfire record while chipping at Trump’s armor.
The governor’s team has leaned into Trump’s X-style trolling, posting in all-caps and nicknames.
But as one X user noted amid the latest round, the hypocrisy cuts both ways—Democrats were mum on Biden’s gaffes, now they’re laser-focused on Trump.
With midterms looming and Trump’s approval hovering in the low 40s, this feud feels less like personal beef and more like a preview of the battles ahead.
Whether it’s genuine worry or political theater, the drumbeat on Trump’s fitness isn’t fading.
As Gartner put it, if a patient showed up with these symptoms, “I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation.”
For now, though, the diagnosis is up to voters—and the court of public opinion.
Also Read: Republicans Face Growing Backlash as Voters Blame Them for Govt. Shutdown
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