California is burning—literally and figuratively—and Governor Gavin Newsom is too busy polishing his own image to care. While homelessness explodes, housing prices skyrocket, wildfires ravage communities, infrastructure crumbles, and taxes and regulations skyrocket, Newsom is preparing a $19 million taxpayer-funded PR spectacle designed to convince the world—and himself—that California is perfect. Make no mistake: this is a Kristi Noem-style “look at me,” “look at me,” campaign financed by you.
Sacramento Or The Spotlight?
Newsom isn’t governing. He’s auditioning. As Kristi Noem did in South Dakota—trading substance for attention-grabbing stunts—Newsom is treating California as a stage for his presidential ambitions. The jets, the book tours, the cable interviews, and the overseas junkets all scream: California is just a backdrop for the governor’s national image.
Meanwhile, Californians are left with sky-high rents, worsening crime, overburdened hospitals, and streets lined with the homeless. His attention isn’t on Sacramento—it’s on headlines, photo ops, and shaping his image as a Democratic foil to Donald Trump.
Your Tax Dollars, His Personal Branding Campaign
Here’s the kicker: Newsom now wants to spend $19 million of your hard-earned money to launch a “California Brand Campaign.” This is not a tourism initiative. This is not a plan to make the state safer, more affordable, or more functional. This is a taxpayer-funded PR machine aimed at selling Gavin Newsom to the national audience—much like Kristi Noem leveraged flashy messaging over real governance.
$14 million of the budget is earmarked for paid media alone, targeting investors, influencers, top-tier media outlets, and corporate decision-makers. The rest funds websites, digital content, and high-end video production. In short, it’s an entire industry of consultants, strategists, and media pros whose job is to make a dysfunctional state look like a paradise—and make Newsom look like a hero.
Californians don’t need propaganda. They need leadership. Yet Newsom is choosing marketing over management, spin over substance, and optics over outcomes.
The Reality He’s Ignoring
Let’s be blunt: California’s crises are not myths. Homeownership is out of reach for millions. Homelessness dominates the streets. Budget shortfalls persist. Wildfire recovery is slow and underfunded. The high-speed rail disaster continues to bleed taxpayer dollars. And expansions of taxpayer-funded healthcare strain the system while local services fail to meet basic needs.
And what’s Newsom’s solution? Market around it. Spin a story of prosperity while residents face skyrocketing costs, unsafe streets, and collapsing services. Like Noem in South Dakota, he’s prioritizing image over reality, making sure the optics are perfect even if nothing actually improves on the ground.
Branding Over Governing
Other states succeed because of results, not slogans. Newsom succeeds by controlling perception. He is using your tax dollars to craft a polished illusion of competence while California residents suffer. This is not leadership; it’s self-promotion on a scale few have dared.
The campaign is designed to shape narratives for investors and national media, convincing them that California is thriving while the state’s real problems—affordability, homelessness, infrastructure, wildfires—are ignored. It’s vanity at its most audacious. Branding replaces accountability. Spin replaces strategy. And Newsom replaces service with spectacle. Kristi Noem may have perfected the “look at me” formula in South Dakota, but Newsom is taking it nationwide—with a $19 million price tag and California taxpayers footing the bill.
Bottom Line
Gavin Newsom’s $19 million PR circus is the ultimate insult to Californians. It tells residents that their struggles don’t matter, that their lived reality is irrelevant compared to how outsiders perceive the state. This is not governance; it’s a presidential audition funded by your wallet. A contribution to media pocketbooks for favorable coverage.
The only thing Newsom is leading now is a campaign to market himself while leaving the real California behind. Just like Kristi Noem mastered spectacle over substance in her own state, Newsom is prioritizing headlines over homes, branding over budgets, and messaging over management. Californians deserve better than a governor who spins a fantasy while ignoring the crises at their doorsteps.
We are so screwed.
— Steve
