Gavin Newsom Goes Nuclear on 'Dementia Don' and Kash Patel in Savage New Cartoon

California Governor Gavin Newsom's press office used X on Thursday to post a scathing cartoon aimed at Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel, showing the president asleep at his Oval Office desk and Patel slumped forward clutching a bottle. The post placed Gavin Newsom and Kash Patel at the centre of a fresh round of political conflict, with Newsom's team captioning the image in all caps, "DEMENTIA DON !!!!"

The post did not land out of nowhere. Earlier this month, Newsom used an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher to accuse the second Trump administration of running what he called 'the greatest grift we've ever seen in our lifetime,' broadening his attack from policy to money, influence and personal gain.

Newsom and Patel in One Caustic Image

Trump was drawn in pyjamas, apparently asleep while signing an executive order, his head tilted back in the chair in the kind of visual insult designed to travel quickly online and hit before anyone has time to parse it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared at one side holding a tube of pills, while White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller stood stiffly with folded arms, turning the image into a crowded little accusation board rather than a one-note joke.

Patel's depiction was the most pointed of the lot. He was shown face down on the desk in front of Trump, eyes closed, bottle in hand. The post came after Patel was accused of 'bouts of excessive drinking,' an allegation he has denied. Nothing in the image proved that claim, and nothing is confirmed beyond the fact that Newsom's office chose to lean directly into the rumour mill for political effect.

Other props in the frame were hardly accidental either. The words 'Epstein files' were visible on the desk, alongside a hamburger, fries and a Diet Coke, a set of visual cues aimed less at subtle satire than at maximum provocation. It was a cartoon built for screenshots, outrage and loyal applause in equal measure.

Newsom Uses Patel to Widen His Trump Case

What makes the post more than a stray social media jab is the argument Newsom has been making around it. He has become one of Trump's loudest critics during the president's second term, and in recent days he has increasingly framed the administration not simply as ideological opposition, but as an operation built around self-enrichment.

On Maher's programme, Newsom put it in blunt terms. 'Every day is a corruption story with the Trump administration. Let's get serious,' he said. 'It's the greatest grift we've ever seen in our lifetime, and that also needs to be called out. We can't allow any of this to be normalized.'

He then moved from slogan to inventory. Newsom pointed to development deals pursued by the Trump family since returning to office, saying Trump had 'eight or nine countries' where major golf course or property projects were under way.

The accusation, as he laid it out, was not just that the White House was politically hard-edged. It was that public power and private opportunity were now sitting far too comfortably together.

From there he turned to crypto, which he said had become another lucrative lane for the Trump orbit. 'It's meme coins and stable coins. It's crypto, it's World Liberty Financial,' Newsom told Maher, sketching a picture of a presidency surrounded by ventures that blur the line between governance, branding and business.

He saved some of his sharpest language for Trump's diplomatic circle. Referring to what he called the president's 'Peace Board,' Newsom said, 'This Peace Board is about getting a piece for Witkoff and for Kushner.' He went on to add, 'You see Donald Trump Jr. in the drone companies, in the mineral companies.'

That wider backdrop matters because it explains why Patel appeared in the cartoon at all. Newsom's post was not just an insult aimed at one official. It was part of a much larger effort to paint Trump's second administration as chaotic, compromised and impossible to take at face value, with Patel drafted in as one more symbol in a picture Newsom plainly wants voters to remember.