Gavin Newsom is having a moment. In the national struggle over U.S. House control, perhaps no politician has more at stake than the California governor, who has emerged as the leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump.

If it seems juvenile and beneath the office of California’s top elected official, this is part of the strategy, which one aide described as “holding up a mirror to Maga”. After all, Trump refers to Newsom in social media posts as “Gavin Newscum”.