Gavin Newsom has earned himself a reputation for being a more ‘hip’ politician, but one of his latest social media posts has some thinking he missed the mark.
The California governor is currently facing backlash and ridicule online after he posted a side-by-side photo of himself, comparing his face to Patrick Bateman, the famous scary character played by Christian Bale in American Psycho. Though he was presumably trying to be funny, numerous internet users began roasting him for the picture, not understanding why he would want to compare himself to such a character or an iconic actor. Read more about the situation below.
For so many years people have been saying that Patrick Bateman and I look alike. Now this pic has been going all over the place. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/K5j4vKNzUL
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 24, 2026
Gavin Newsom Posts A Photo Comparing His Face To Patrick Bateman From ‘American Psycho’
One of the most common parts of today’s digital world is seeing politicians and people in office on social media. There are some who keep things strictly professional, usually having a social media team member to create things for them, while others like to have a bit of fun.
One of the latter is Gavin Newsom, who has been the Governor of California since 2019 after serving as lieutenant governor and the mayor of San Francisco. The governor’s social media pages have become rather popular with his and his team’s creative posts as well as his witty responses to others. However, one of his latest posts stood out for an unexpected reason.
On March 24th, Gavin took to X to share a photo that might’ve been AI-generated, portraying half his face aligned with half the face of Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale’s character from the 2000 film American Psycho.
“For so many years, people have been saying that Patrick Bateman and I look alike,” he wrote. “Now this pic has been going all over the place. What do you think?”
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Social Media Users Slam Gavin's Post
After his slightly unconventional post on X was shared, it quickly went viral for numerous reasons.
Some people were a bit taken aback by the way the post was quite unrelated to politics. However, that was one of the least talked-about points. Others found that it was very strange for Gavin to compare himself to the character instead of the Batman actor, given that Patrick Bateman is a clean-cut man who is a secret killer.
"Not sure if your comms guy read who Patrick Bateman is, but I don't think comparing yourself to Patrick Bateman is the flex you think it is," wrote an X user.
"This is beyond cringe, man," added another.
On other social media platforms like Instagram, users continued to slam the politician for his post.
"That's not a compliment, sir," commented a user.
"Don't flatter yourself, Gav," added a user.
