California Gov. Gavin Newsom clapped back at a controversial White House deportation video by depicting President Donald Trump and his top goons in handcuffs.
On Tuesday, the White House commandeered singer SZA’s “Cuffing SZN” for a video showing ICE agents detaining alleged illegal immigrants.
The video enraged SZA—who slammed the administration’s actions as “Evil n Boring”—and drew fire from Newsom.
Newsom’s AI video also features SZA’s festive hit, but instead of real footage of masked federal agents running around putting people in handcuffs, it stars Trump and two of his henchmen.
The clip, posted Wednesday, depicts Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller sitting on a curb in cuffs. Snow falls and sirens wail in the background as “It’s cuffing season” appears on screen.
The AI clip cuts to a shot of the three men sandwiched in the back of a car, cuffed hands in front of them, as tears fall from their faces.
As the song’s haunting hook kicks in, the trio looks back at the AI camera, walking towards gathered press and officials in what appears to be a court building.
The clip is the latest entry in a catalog of increasingly audacious attacks on the president from the California governor and his social media team.
Newsom, 58, the early frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, started trolling the president in the summer and has steadily stepped up his campaign.
Trump’s unique social media style has been a defining part of his presidency, giving him an unprecedented messaging platform. Newsom has done his best to counter that by caricaturing Trump’s style in similarly wild and boastful all-cap posts.
On Monday Newsom posted an AI picture of Trump awarding him a fictitious ‘peace prize,’ three days after Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize by the soccer federation’s boss, Gianni Infantino.
SZA was also enraged by Trump’s video, taking aim at the White House for supposedly “baiting” artists by using their songs.
In a post on X, SZA’s manager wrote, “Trying to provoke artist to respond in order to help spread propaganda and political agendas is nasty business. Knock it off.”
It drew a response from the star herself, who added, “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw tactics ..Evil n Boring .”
Trump’s immigration crackdown, and its deliberately brutal nature, has sparked fury across the historically liberal arts and entertainment industry.
On Dec. 1 the White House rolled out similar, heavily filtered footage of agents carrying out the unprecedented crackdown to the backing track of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song “Juno.”
“This video is evil and disgusting,” the two-time Grammy winner fired off on X. ”Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” Within days, the footage was gone, deleted from the government’s account.
In August, White Stripes icon Jack White unloaded on the administration for using his anthem “Seven Nation Army” in a video of Trump walking to a private jet.
“Oh…. Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” White said. “Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin,” he added, referring to Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin.
As of Sept. 25, according to NBC’s Deportation Tracker, 59,207 migrants had been detained by ICE, while Fox News reported on Wednesday that 2.5 million people have left the country either through deportations or self-removal since the crackdown began.
Trump’s counselor for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, failed to see the funny side of Newsom’s video.
“I went to prison, defending the constitution because of woke a--holes like you who Weaponized our justice system,” he raged on X. “This isn’t close to funny. All you are doing is inciting more violence.”
Navarro received a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress after ignoring a subpoena from a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
