Marvel star Mark Ruffalo is once again taking aim at California Governor Gavin Newsom — this time over the governor's full-throated support for a ballot measure that would make it mathematically impossible for the state to tax its billionaires.
At issue is Proposition 42, a proposal designed to torpedo any new state wealth tax. Newsom announced his support for the measure in a statement this week, framing it as a protection for ordinary Californians.
"I am proud to stand with firefighters, blue-collar unions, veterans, seniors, and small businesses in support of Prop 42," Newsom said. "We all agree that Californians deserve to have their retirement and life savings protected from new state taxes so those savings are there when they need them."
Ruffalo, the left-wing actor best known for playing the Hulk in Disney's Avengers franchise, wasn't buying it. He fired back on X Wednesday with a pointed attack on the governor's record.
"Once again. Just like the Paramount Merger Gavin Newsom does what he always does. Sells out the working class people for the billionaires again and again. Not only that but endorses a bill that will make it impossible to tax the wealthy at all."
The post marks the latest chapter in a public feud between the two Democrats that has been building for months. In September, Ruffalo accused Newsom of working to help President Donald Trump — of all people — by backing the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
According to Deadline, that rift has not healed. The outlet reports that Hollywood political operatives see the dispute as a potential 2028 problem for Newsom as he weighs a White House bid.
"Ruffalo has gained a lot of sway with (Democratic) party activists fighting the Ellisons," an unnamed Hollywood political operative told Deadline Wednesday. "Targeting Newsom as a billionaire friendly candidate will hurt him with the base, make him (look) out of touch."
The fight over Proposition 42 — and its companion measure, Proposition 40 — has exposed deep divisions within California's Democratic coalition. Prop 40, backed by progressives, would impose a new wealth tax on the state's richest residents. Newsom is actively opposing it, warning that such a tax could trigger an exodus of billionaires from the state.
Newsom's support for Prop 42 is what has Ruffalo and other progressives seething. The measure, backed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and a group of other anti-Prop 40 California tycoons, aims to ban any new state tax on personal property. If both measures pass, Prop 42 would effectively neuter Prop 40 by preventing any new retroactive wealth tax.
Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) also blasted Newsom over the stance in a video that went viral online, claiming that pleasing deep-pocketed donors and tech lords was "the only reason" Newsom opposed Prop 40.
"You can't be anti-Trump and then do the bidding of Trump donors," Khanna said.
Both measures are on next month's ballot, meaning California voters will have a direct say in whether the state's wealthiest residents face a new tax — or whether the door is permanently closed on the idea.
For Newsom, the optics are brutal. The governor has spent years positioning himself as a national leader of the resistance to Trump and a champion of working people. Now he's being hammered from his own left flank for carrying water for billionaires — and the man doing the hammering is a beloved Hollywood movie star with a massive online following.
Our Take
Watching Democrats eat their own is always a spectacle, but this one is worth savoring for a different reason: the rare moment when the Left's own rhetoric collides with reality.
For years, the left has told us that Republicans are the party of the rich, that the GOP only serves billionaires, and that Democrats are the true defenders of working families. Yet here's Gavin Newsom, the golden boy of California progressivism, proudly championing a measure designed to ensure the state can never tax its billionaires — and he's doing it with the backing of Google's co-founder.
Ruffalo's accusation that Newsom "sells out the working class people for the billionaires again and again" isn't coming from a conservative commentator or a MAGA influencer. It's coming from one of Hollywood's most reliably left-wing activists. And it's not the first time. The AI safety bill veto, the Paramount merger, now the billionaire tax — a pattern is emerging, and even Newsom's own allies are noticing.
Of course, California's working class doesn't need Ruffalo or Khanna to tell them what's happening. They're living it. They're the ones paying the nation's highest taxes while watching their governor protect the fortunes of the tech oligarchs who bankroll his campaigns. They're the ones fleeing the state in record numbers. They're the ones whose retirement savings Newsom claims to be defending — even as inflation and energy costs hollow out those savings month after month.
So here's the question, patriots: if even Mark Ruffalo — a man who once floated running against Trump — says Democrats are selling out working people for billionaires, why should any American believe the party's populist sales pitch? And more importantly, why does Gavin Newsom keep proving his critics right?
