Bill Maher berated Gavin Newsom in awkward exchange as he says he wants to be more like Trump

Bill Maher has suggested that Gavin Newsom is mimicking some of Donald Trump's behaviors, sparking the California governor to defend his actions of late.

Newsom recently sat down with Maher for a new episode of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher. In the episode that aired last night (May 1), Maher asked Newsom about his trolling of the president.

"Many people would say that you are imitating him," said Maher. "You of all people who may or may not be running [for the 2028 presidency], you're the one who kind of imitates his style the trolling."

He further noted that Newsom is suing Fox for defamation in similar way to Trump attempting to sue numerous American news outlets, as well as the BBC, over the years.

Gavin Newsom was recently interviewed by Bill Maher (Real Time with Bill Maher/YouTube)

Newsom responded: "Fox better look to settle right now or apologize for defamation."

"Okay, but that sounds exactly what he does! Suing media?" Maher then said.

The California governor proceeded to double down on his defamation allegations and urged news outlets not to lie.

In terms of his own style on social media at the moment, Newsom said that 'the deviation of normalcy is off the charts' because of the POTUS.

He then said of Trump: "This is a guy cosplaying as the Pope, dressing up as Jesus, you know. This guy's putting his face on Mount Rushmore. None of this is normal.

"You may recall when I first started doing this, the folks on Fox said, 'Oh, this is so unbecoming of the governor of California. He should wash his mouth out with soap and water,' with no situational awareness that their dear leader has been doing this for years, and years, and years."

Newsom proceeded to label the president as a 'manchild'. "I think it's important to call that out," the 58-year-old added.

"We're not trying to dehumanize, we're just trying to reflect that reality and express the absurdity of all of this," he continued.

One of Newsom's most recent social media swipes at the president was following King Charles' trip to the US.

The official White House Twitter page shared a picture of them together and captioned it 'TWO KINGS'.

Newsom replied to the post with: "One is the King of the U.K. and the other is the King of Bulls**t."