SACRAMENTO, Oct 22, 2025 – Former President Barack Obama issued a stark rebuke of Donald Trump’s post-election maneuvers in a viral video clip shared by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, framing a key ballot measure as a bulwark against “brazen” attempts to tilt the scales of democracy. The 93-second address, posted to X with over 122,000 views by Thursday morning, spotlights Proposition 50—the “Election Rigging Response Act”—as essential not just for the Golden State but for safeguarding fair play nationwide ahead of the November 4 special election.
“The problem that we are seeing right now is that our current president and his administration is explicitly saying that we want to change the rules of the game midstream in order to insulate ourselves from people’s judgment,” Obama intones from a wood-paneled study, his voice steady against a backdrop of bookshelves and American flags. He zeros in on Republican efforts, led by Trump and Texas allies, to redraw congressional maps before the 2026 midterms—potentially flipping blue seats red through gerrymandering—contrasting it with the decennial census-driven process enshrined in law.
Obama praises Newsom and California’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, which drew the state’s current maps in 2021, for pushing back. “I could not be more appreciative of the work that Governor Newsom and the people of California are doing and saying: Stop. This is not how American democracy is supposed to operate,” he declares, ending with a call to “Vote Yes on Prop 50.” The measure, if passed, would lock in those commission-drawn congressional districts through 2030, barring midterm tweaks and mandating citizen-led oversight to counter federal overreach.
Newsom’s caption amplified the urgency: “Trump and his administration are explicitly saying they are going to change the rules of the game in order to insulate themselves from the people’s judgement. Prop 50 matters for California and for the entire country.” The post, timed just weeks before ballots drop, ties into Democratic fears that Trump’s Justice Department could greenlight aggressive redistricting in GOP strongholds like Texas and Florida, netting up to a dozen House seats and imperiling the party’s slim majority.
Fundraising tilts heavily pro-Prop 50, with backers like the California Democratic Party outspending opponents 10-to-1, per recent filings—though polls show a tight race, with 52% support driven by anti-Trump sentiment. Critics, including GOP operatives, decry it as a “Democrat power grab” to entrench coastal elites, but Obama counters that the real threat is “tinkering” with maps “before any election in which they’re worried they might lose.”
X erupted with polarized takes: MAGA voices like @txind1836 shared counter-clips of Obama on past scandals, sneering, “Anyone still believe this liar?” while pro-Prop users like @CuriousMrFox101 urged, “Vote YES on Prop 50. It’s temporary, and it pushes back against Trump’s authoritarianism.” One reply meme-ed Newsom as a puppet, captioned “Stop Newsolini now or there will be nothing left of California!”—echoing fraud allegations that dog the governor but haven’t dented Prop 50’s momentum.
As California’s 52 electoral votes loom large in 2028 speculation, this showdown underscores the state’s role as a firewall against national shifts. With early voting underway, Obama’s mic-drop—”That’s what Prop 50 is about”—could sway independents in a contest where every district counts. For Trumpworld, it’s a preemptive strike; for Democrats, a vow to keep the game fair.
