06/10/2026
"Back to bed grandpa." That was Gavin Newsom's response after Trump melted down at midnight, screaming that California's election was "CROOKED."
Some clapbacks you just have to step back and admire.
Here's what set it off. Late Sunday night, well past 11 p.m., Trump took to Truth Social to throw a tantrum about an election he wasn't even on the ballot for. "Has anybody been watching the CROOKED Election going on in California," he posted. "Two great Republican Candidates are being cheated⊠Watch this 'Election' closely!!!"
Then, because one midnight meltdown apparently wasn't enough, he was back at 5:25 in the morning, sharing the projected results of the Los Angeles mayor's race, where the Trump-backed candidate was getting beaten, with the words: "No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!"
This is the same routine every single time.
Trump loses, or his pick loses, and instantly the only possible explanation in his mind is that it was stolen. Not that voters chose someone else. Never that. Always a conspiracy. Always "rigged." Always "crooked."
Gavin Newsom's press office watched the President of the United States rage-posting about phantom fraud in the dead of night and decided he didn't deserve a serious reply. He deserved the truth.
"There isn't a bigger sore loser in the country," they wrote. "Back to bed grandpa!"
That's it. That's the whole response. And it's perfect, because it refuses to treat his nonsense as a legitimate claim worth debating. It treats it as what it actually is: an old man who can't handle losing, up in the middle of the night, yelling at his phone.
Think about how much these tantrums have cost this country. The "rigged election" lie is the same one that fueled January 6. It's not harmless. But the way you rob it of its power is to stop pretending it's anything more than a grown man having a meltdown because he didn't get his way.
Newsom nailed it. The rest of us should follow his lead.