Gavin Newsom stood in front of a mostly black Atlanta crowd last month and told them he scored a 960 on the SAT.
Now Trump is calling him dumb – and the man who wants to be your next president just made the worst possible case for why he deserves the job.
Here is what Newsom said in Atlanta that started all of this – and what Trump said Monday that has everyone talking.
Trump Drops the Hammer in the Oval Office
Trump was in the middle of signing an executive action when he went after Newsom – and he did not hold back.
"Gavin Newscum has admitted that he has learning disabilities," Trump told reporters Monday. "Honestly, I'm all for people with learning disabilities. But not for my president."
Then he said the quiet part out loud: "Everything about him is dumb."
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle backed Trump up immediately.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2033649444877414618?s=20
"President Trump is right," Ingle said. "Gavin Newscum is the worst governor in America, and he also may be the dumbest."
This was not a slip.
Trump has now made this exact argument four times in one week – at a Kentucky rally, on Truth Social, in a Fox News radio interview, and again Monday in the Oval Office.
He called Newsom "A Cognitive Mess" on Truth Social earlier this month and said the California governor had a "mental disorder."
Newsom fired back – but accidentally handed Trump a gift.
When Trump mistakenly called him "President of the United States, Gavin Newscum," Newsom posted "NO THANK YOU, WE BELIEVE IN FREE ELECTIONS!" on X.
Democrats thought it was clever.
https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/2033659074794164537?s=20
Republicans noticed he didn't actually deny being unfit for the job.
The Atlanta Moment That Started the Avalanche
Here is the clip you need to watch to understand why this story has legs.
Newsom was in Atlanta last month promoting his new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry, when he turned to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and said this: "I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you – I'm like you. I'm no better than you. I'm a 960 SAT guy."
He added that he cannot read a speech because of his dyslexia – "You've never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech."
Republicans lit up immediately.
Here was the Democrat positioning himself as the working man's candidate – the guy who fights for the little people against Trump's elitism – telling a mostly black audience he gets them because he scored a 960 on his SAT.
Trump called it the worst interview he had ever seen of any human being in his life.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/2025964449203630526?s=20
When a reporter later asked Newsom's office for records of his dyslexia diagnosis, spokesperson Izzy Gardon told them to "f— off."
The State He Actually Ran
Newsom is the current 2028 Democratic frontrunner.
He is leading early polling at 20% among likely Democratic primary voters – ahead of Pete Buttigieg at 16% and Kamala Harris at 13%.
He has been positioning himself for two years as the man who can take on Trump – the fighter the party needs, the anti-Trump foil, the guy with the juice to go toe to toe with the most dominant political force in American life.
While he has been on his book tour, here is what is happening in the state he actually governs.
Los Angeles burned in January 2025.
Fourteen months later, it still has not been rebuilt.
California cannot build water storage, cannot finish a high-speed rail project it started two decades ago, and cannot keep its own businesses from fleeing to Texas.
The state provides Medicaid to people who crossed the border illegally while its own citizens sleep on the sidewalks of San Francisco.
Newsom's office is now spending taxpayer money on a state-funded ad campaign – not to fix any of those problems, but to convince you they do not exist.
That is the man who wants to be your president.
Democrats are going to run the guy who turned California into a homeless camp against the man who secured the border, brought manufacturing back, and is rebuilding the American economy – and they think the argument is going to be about SAT scores.
Let them try.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "Trump questions Newsom's fitness for White House, citing his dyslexia," Fox News, March 16, 2026.
- "Trump repeatedly suggests Newsom can't be president because he has dyslexia," CNN Politics, March 16, 2026.
- "Emerson poll finds Gov. Newsom leading in early 2028 Democratic field," Fox 26 Sacramento, February 2026.
- "Newsom wants a state-funded ad campaign to cover up his failures," Washington Examiner, March 2026.
