California Governor Gavin Newsom has skewered President Donald Trump over his bromance with Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Newsom posted an AI-generated image Thursday suggesting that Putin is leading Trump into a trap—alongside a trolling nod to the president’s weakness for McDonald’s.
The image depicts Trump, 79, moving towards a McDonald’s meal box, unaware that Putin, 73, is holding a wooden crate above it with a rope—poised to drop it and trap the president the moment he bites into his Big Mac.
Trump, whose go-to order reportedly consists of a Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, fries, and a vanilla shake, has sought to cozy into a friendship with Putin, even as the Russian tyrant wages war on Ukraine and presides over one of the most brutal autocracies on the planet.
The commander-in-chief has even hung a photograph of Putin in the Palm Room that connects the West Wing to the Executive Residence. The image shows Trump and Putin at their fruitless Alaska summit in August.
In an attempt to quell market tumult caused by his war with Iran, Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil last week, despite reports that Putin is giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. assets in the region.
Newsom, 58, reacted to the news by anointing Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as Putin’s “Good Little Boys” in another AI-generated image.
Trump decided to lift sanctions on Russia after what he described as a “good call” with Putin on March 9 about ending the war in Ukraine.
“We were talking about Ukraine, which is just a never-ending fight, and when his tremendous hatred between President Putin and President Zelensky, they can’t seem to get it together,” Trump said. “But I think it was a positive call on that subject.”
The Kremlin later undermined Trump’s version of the discussion, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that “Trump didn’t ask about a ceasefire in Ukraine during his conversation with Putin,” apparently pushing back on Trump’s claim that he’d urged his Russian counterpart to get “the Ukraine-Russia war over with.”
Asked if there was any truth to reports that Moscow is providing Tehran with assistance in targeting U.S. positions, Peskov offered no denial, saying instead, “We are not commenting.”
Putin’s top aides are reportedly snickering behind Trump’s back because they think the Russian tyrant is playing the commander-in-chief like a fiddle.
“The Russians are privately mocking Trump over his naivety about Putin’s intentions. Putin doesn’t want to end the war,” a senior U.K. security official told The Spectator last month.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
