Battle of the press releases: Newsom v. Trump by the numbers

While both Gov. Gavin Newsom and his political nemesis President Donald Trump heavily use social media and podcasts to speak directly to voters, their communications teams also produce an avalanche of traditional press releases, advisories and briefings for the news media, an average of nearly seven pieces of written material every day of the year through Nov. 15 from the pair, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis.

That steady stream of press fodder represents just a portion of the daily output of the dueling politicos, who after Proposition 50’s win this month are arguably now on equal footing as the standard bearers of the nation’s two major political parties. Nonetheless, the flow of the press releases and related materials perhaps provides a small window into the scope and pace of the news cycles these two command and choreograph.

Newsom’s style, under the microscope
A prominent public figure since the 1980s, Trump’s thirst for attention is well documented and well known. Newsom’s is too, and he’s received considerable attention of late for his controversial podcast and mocking the president’s distinctive style on social media. In July, political columnist Dan Walters warned that Newsom’s attention-seeking could backfire.

But Newsom’s communication efforts pale in comparison to Trump’s, at least as far as traditional press materials are concerned. From the beginning of the year through the first half of November, Trump’s communications team outpaced Newsom’s in total output, roughly 3 to 2.

That’s even though Newsom had a head start of 19 days. Trump’s production of press materials as an elected official didn’t start this year until he was inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Of course, Trump is the leader of a nation, while Newsom only heads a state, and the disparity may simply reflect that. Then again, if California were a country, it would have the fourth largest economy in the world.

In his 2007 inaugural address, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to drive that point home by referring to California as a nation-state, seemingly trying to elevate himself to the level of a president.

Trump’s productive press team
According to Capitol Weekly’s tally of all the articles, briefings and statements, presidential actions, fact sheets, remarks and research posted to the News section of WhiteHouse.gov since Trump took office through the halfway point of November, the president’s communications team produced 1,296 pieces of written material – an average of slightly more than four a day, including weekends and holidays.

The most active day for Trump was inauguration day, when his team produced 48 separate pieces, including documenting 46 presidential actions made on his first day in office. On April 9, his team published 28 pieces on a topics ranging from showerhead water pressure to recognizing National Crime Victims’ Rights Week to touting claims that the president’s actions will save an American family of four nearly $11,000 a year.

Trump had another dozen days when his team’s daily output reached the teens. In all he had over a month, 32 days, when his people published in the double digits.

Still, during the period analyzed, his team did not produce a single press piece on 40 separate days, not counting the 19 days before his inauguration.

Newsom’s output doesn’t compare…
Even accounting for the inauguration, Newsom’s communications team was downright quiet in comparison, remaining silent for the equivalent of two full months during the period analyzed, 61 separate days.

Newsom’s team published a total of 842 pieces of written material during the period analyzed, executive orders, features, items about First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, media advisors, press releases, proclamations, recent news, Spanish translations and top stories, all posted under the News tab on Gov.ca.gov.

Newsom had three separate days this year when his team published eight pieces – June 18, Sept. 18 and Oct. 10 – all days when a variety of issues were addressed, from bill signings to proclaiming Preparedness Month to an emergency proclamation to help the city of Malibu recover from a fire.

In all, Newsom had 112 days when his team released at least three pieces of press materials during the period analyzed.

…but it has steadily increased since he became governor
Since becoming governor, the output of Newsom’s press team has steadily risen year over year, from 503 pieces in 2019 to 842 during most of 2025, an increase of 67 percent. (Newsom put out 800 press pieces in all of 2024.)

Looking just at press releases, at the end of January 2019, Newsom’s team published on average less than one item a day. By the middle of November 2025, Newsom was putting out on average more than two a day.

Using a calculation known as penalized least squares change point detection, Capitol Weekly determined that the date at which the average level of activity changed the most, in a statistically meaningful way, was April 18, 2024. In other words, Newsom began issuing press releases at a consistently higher rate after that date, more so than at any other point in the period studied.

The obvious conclusion is that Newsom bumped up the output because he’s eyeing a presidential run. But at first blush, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about that date. Joe Biden didn’t drop out of the presidential race until three months later.

It’s likely just noise, like most data of this sort probably would be, no matter how interesting to political insiders. If anything, perhaps this data simply illustrates how closely people are looking for insights into Newsom’s plan, including a certain Capitol news site that had the bright idea to count up his press releases.