Gavin Newsom wrapped up 2025 with a jab at his favorite target, Donald Trump.
In a brief end-of-year video on his X account, the California governor criticized the president by showing the Department of Justice’s release of Epstein file documents. He used the DOJ’s own blank pages and redactions to put the spotlight on Trump’s latest controversy. The clip is edited like a season finale, complete with a dramatic soundtrack that suggests the public is not getting the full story.
“And with that, the 2025 season comes to an end,” a voice says at the start of the video, with a headline on screen reading “DOJ defends removing Trump photo from Epstein files.” Trump’s face is shown next to the removed image.
Newsom’s message was that if the government is releasing the Epstein files, why do so many pages look like they were redacted, and why do photos appear and then disappear?
The DOJ released the first batch of Epstein-related documents on December 19. This initial batch included a few mentions of Trump’s name, sparking a familiar political fight, with Trump calling it a Democratic “hoax.”
2025: [REDACTED] pic.twitter.com/5L1rOMcWmF
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 24, 2025
The department must release documents tied to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, under the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in November. However, it has also withheld some material, claiming that the process takes time to protect victim identities.
The issue is that “protecting victims” isn’t the only story the public sees when pages are heavily redacted, and key items are held back for “review.”
The released documents included images found on Epstein’s desk, including two with Trump: one featuring Trump and his then-girlfriend, Melania Trump, and another with Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The DOJ later removed these photos “for further review,” raising suspicion that someone is trying to control how the public views the president.
He overlays the DOJ’s redacted pages with footage of Epstein and Trump, emphasizing their relationship and the narrative that their friendship ended in a fallout around 2004. The entire piece is set to Mumford & Sons’ “White Blank Page,” a song choice that turns the redactions into a joke.
Toward the end of Newsom’s clip, highlighted quotes appear, presented as lines from the newly released materials. One says: “Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s jet many more times than previously reported (or that we were aware).” Another, from Epstein in an email, states: “I have met some very bad people… none as bad as Trump.”
A 2020 email from the Southern District of New York is also referenced. It mentions that Trump was on Epstein’s plane more times than previously reported. The email indicates that he was present on one flight with “the only three passengers” being Trump, Epstein, and an unnamed 20-year-old woman.
After nearly 30,000 pages were released on Tuesday, the DOJ stated that documents related to Trump submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election are “unfounded and false.” The message was that they want to the public to know that not every mention is fact.
Still, Newsom’s video isn’t trying to explore every detail, its about seizing the moment and making the DOJ look like it is pretending to be transparent instead of truly being so.
Attorney General Pam Bondi added another twist to the Epstein Saga on Wednesday by announcing that “over a million more documents” possibly related to the Epstein case will be released, without giving a date.
