Newsom Launches Website Tracking Trump's 'Criminal Cronies,' Turning Politics Into Code

California's leader has introduced a digital platform that treats political accountability like a technical bug report. This new site documents the legal troubles of various figures linked to the former president, framing their actions as errors in the government system.

By using the developers' language to track these individuals, the governor is attempting to modernise the public's view of political scandals.

Monitoring the 'Criminal Cronies'

On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a fresh government-operated portal that monitors those his team labels 'criminal cronies' surrounding President Trump. This move represents the most recent provocative strategy by California's leader, which closely mirrors the former president's habit of using taxpayer-funded assets to resolve personal disputes.

The Governor timed the portal's debut alongside recent data on illegal activity, which became public in early November and indicated declining numbers of murders and physical attacks within California.

This government platform lists what it describes as the 10 primary guilty verdicts for which Trump has granted clemency to date—ranging from individuals involved in the 6 January unrest to ex-lawmakers and corporate heads found liable for deception, narcotics distribution, and monetary offences. Furthermore, the site refers to Trump as the 'criminal in chief.'

Visualising the 'Felon' Roster

The portal displays AI-generated pictures of individuals like Rod Blagojevich, the sole Illinois leader to face impeachment and dismissal from his post; ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty of narcotics smuggling; and Ross Ulbricht, the creator of a hidden-web narcotics bazaar who was previously sentenced to a life term with no chance of release. These visuals depict the group in a row, with the term 'felon' printed across them in crimson.

'With crime dropping — again — California is proving what real public safety leadership looks like,' Newsom said in a statement. 'Meanwhile in D.C., Trump is a felon who surrounds himself with scammers and drug traffickers. We're providing the public with a resource putting the facts in one place so Californians, and all Americans, can see who he elevates and who he protects.'

Heightened Digital Friction

This debut marks the most recent surge in Newsom's increasingly fierce online crusade against Trump. Over the past few months, the governor and his communications team have transformed social platforms into a frequent stage for ridiculing and provoking the president by releasing messages in capital letters, using viral-style imagery, and delivering biting criticism directed at Trump's bold speech, legal history, legislative plans, and partisan supporters.

Republican consultant Rob Stutzman, who frequently speaks out against Trump, suggested that the governor's newest approach might be going beyond satire and is instead 'perpetuating the Trump denigration' of community standards and the faith people place in official bodies.

Strategy Reactions

'Newsom's online campaign mocking Trump has clearly been part of his rise in popularity with base Democrat voters,' Stuzman said. 'But by doing so from a taxpayer financed website with state employees, he is agreeing to disregard previous norms for public institutions that Trump has dismantled. Be careful to not become that which you despise.'

Different observers, such as Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant and founder of the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, argued that the governor's imitation cannot be considered excessive when it merely highlights the president's own conduct. Madrid called Newsom's approach 'fantastic.'

'He's turning the tables completely on Trump. Completely,' Madrid said. 'The more Trump attacks him, the more Trump's enablers attack him, the stronger he's gonna get ... Do I like the fact that taxpayer dollars are being used this way? No, but that train left the station on January 2017 when Trump took office the first time.'

Declining Crime Indicators

The illegal activity data, published on 3 Nov by the Major Cities Chiefs Assn, indicated that murders across California's primary urban centres fell 18% compared to the previous year, while thefts involving force decreased by 18% and severe physical attacks dropped by 9%.

The group also discovered that violent offences decreased in every reporting California city, with the most significant reductions occurring in Oakland, where incidents fell by 25%, and San Francisco, where they decreased by 21%.

Newsom's new website emphasises Trump's extensive exercise of executive power to grant clemency to roughly 1,500 people who were accused or found guilty of their participation in the 6 January 2021, incursion at the US Capitol. According to the governor's staff, several of those individuals had prior legal histories, while others were later convicted of additional offences after being pardoned.

This action adopts methods that Trump and his team have previously utilised. Recently, Trump introduced a portal featuring 'media offenders,' identifying journalists and news agencies he claims are prejudiced. Newsom's team rejected the comparison, arguing that the reporters singled out by Trump were blamed for being opinionated rather than for criminal conduct, unlike those featured on the California site.