California Governor Gavin Newsom renewed his long-running feud with President Donald Trump this week, posting a mock doctor’s letter online just hours after the White House released the results of Trump’s recent MRI.
The satirical post quickly went viral and set off another round of political sparring between the two men’s supporters.
Highlights
- Gavin Newsom posted a parody doctor’s letter mocking Trump’s MRI results shortly after the White House released the official findings.
- The spoof letter praised Newsom’s health with exaggerated and humorous descriptions, mimicking Trump’s style of self-praise.
- Newsom’s parody highlighted contrasts, mocking Trump’s recent dozing off during meetings and questioning his stamina.
The White House shared Trump’s MRI findings on Monday, releasing a letter from the president’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella.
Gavin Newsom posted a spoof doctor’s letter, mocking Trump’s MRI results
Image credits: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read the letter aloud during the daily briefing, noting that Trump’s October scans showed “excellent health.”
The statement followed Trump’s comments to reporters a day earlier, when he said he underwent a preventive MRI during his physical but had “no idea” which body parts were examined, though he insisted the results were “perfect.”
Barbabella wrote in the memo that “advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.”
He said all of Trump’s major organs are “very healthy and well-perfused” and functioning within normal limits, before saying that Trump “remains in excellent overall health.”
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Hours later, Newsom responded with a parody letter dated December 1 and signed by a fictional “PHYSICIAN TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.”
The note mimicked Trump’s signature style of hyperbolic self-praise. It opened by claiming that nothing about Newsom’s health was “merely ‘normal’” before touting that “Governor Newsom remains the healthiest human currently alive or recorded in medical history.”
The spoof continued with exaggerated descriptions of the governor’s medical scans.
It said radiologists described Newsom’s arteries as “shimmering” and that his resting heart rate was so steady an EKG machine asked if he was “meditating or just naturally enlightened.”
It also joked that his bone density made a radiologist wonder if the scans belonged to a redwood tree. The spoof letter continued to say that Newsom’s “brain imaging showed no issues other than an unusually active region associated with intelligence, multitasking, and being wildly productive before sunrise.”
The mock physician, signing the letter as “Dr. Doolittle,” wrote that he normally would not release patient information.
But he said that because the White House made Trump’s MRI results public, he felt compelled to do the same for the governor. He then took a jab at Trump’s recent media appearances, claiming that Newsom completes full workdays “without falling asleep in meetings,” does not require “executive time,” and can stand upright without resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Only days ago, Trump was captured dozing off several times during a widely scrutinized Cabinet meeting. Similar scenes were captured at a November meeting in the Oval Office.
The letter closed by calling Newsom “the healthiest person alive and ever to live” and used a tongue-in-cheek signature from the “California Department of Peak Excellence.”
Newsom’s post spread rapidly on X, where users reposted it more than a thousand times and pushed it past 2 million views. The fake letter led to the creation of many more edited images, both from Trump and Newsom supporters.
Newsom’s post copied the exaggerated self-praise style of the Trump administration
Image credits: X
One user shared an image of a muscled, shirtless Newsom holding an American flag over the White House, calling him the “strongest and most powerful Governor” in U.S. history.
Another user shared an AI-edited image of Newsom with broken teeth and a long caption, calling him a “glistening, gel-slicked, $400-barber miracle of modern science.”
Image credits: X
Many also praised Newsom and his account.
An X user said, “This man makes me want to move to California just so I can have the pleasure to vote for him.”
Image credits: X
One user wrote directly to the White House, noting, “I hope you losers understand the level of mockery he’s dishing out. This is exactly how RIDICULOUS you people sound talking about sleepy don.”