California Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) warned President Trump that he had “just” made illegal ballot seizure a felony and was deploying election lawyers, drawing immediate, widespread mockery on X.

"A warning to Donald Trump," he wrote, no doubt typing with Brylcreem-soaked fingers. "I’m deploying election lawyers to key battleground districts in California to protect every vote. And I just made it a FELONY to illegally seize ballots."

The statement referenced legislation Newsom signed in mid-September as part of a package of election-related bills, making his use of the word "just" questionable. That law (AB 282) makes it a state felony to seize, or cause the seizure of, ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before election officials certify results.

This all came about, mind you, because Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized roughly 650,000 ballots from the November 2025 Prop 50 election after a reported 45,896-vote discrepancy in his county's initial ballot count. Days after Newsom signed the bill (which was itself a response to the March seizure), the state Supreme Court ruled that Bianco’s seizure was unlawful under existing law.

Newsom's post was quickly ratioed into the ether for a variety of reasons.

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Reality television personality and former candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt, responded within minutes with a short reaction GIF of Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) from the movie Kingpin.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli replied directly to Newsom.

"You're going to protect every legal or illegal vote?" he asked rhetorically. "What about California citizens whose votes are being diluted by ineligible voters? Do their constitutional rights matter?"

Not in the People's Republic of California, sir.

Essayli’s post echoed ongoing federal concerns about noncitizen registration and voting in California, including prior DOJ litigation seeking to address suspected noncitizen ballots.

As RedState Editor Bob Hoge has explained, "Counting the vote in California often takes weeks, and the entire system is widely suspected of allowing fraud."

So, of course, Newsom is sending an army of election lawyers to make sure nobody can look into it.

Most of the replies to Newsom's silly chest-thumping focused on two main points. Pointing out that his new announcement was not, in fact, new. And that a California state statute cannot override federal election laws or lawful federal investigations under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

Ah, that pesky thing.

Newsom and his top advisor, Rachel Maddow in a bowtie Izzy Gardon, may need a refresher on the fact that the Constitution has a Supremacy Clause, which states that federal law is essentially the law of the land.

Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

President Trump warned California election officials earlier this month that they could face lengthy prison terms if they count mail ballots from more than 20,000 people federal agencies have identified as likely noncitizens.

A federal district court later denied the DOJ’s emergency request to sequester those ballots, prompting Essayli to announce that the Solicitor General had authorized an immediate appeal and that the department had filed a notice of appeal seeking an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit.

Mocking Newsom is funny. His clear attempt to circumvent accountability for election fraud is not.