Marvel star Mark Ruffalo says California Gov. Gavin Newsom is disqualified from higher office for fighting to shield billionaires from taxes while working families struggle.
Left-wing actor Mark Ruffalo took to X to unload on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, declaring the Democrat’s record “disqualifying” for anyone with presidential ambitions.
The Hulk star and Spider-Man: Brand New Day lead tore into Newsom over the governor’s support for Proposition 42 and the Paramount takeover of Warner Bros., casting both as sellouts to corporate power and the ultra-rich.
Breitbart reported the posts after Ruffalo spent Wednesday and Friday blasting the governor online. Newsom is widely expected to eye a 2028 presidential bid, and the public scolding lands as another crack in Democratic unity.
Ruffalo, whose reported net worth tops $35 million, framed the fight in blunt class terms and left little room for walk-backs.
"It’s beyond sad. It’s beyond disappointing; at this point, it’s disqualifying for anyone with ambitions for higher office as a Democrat, or a Republican, for that matter, to be fighting to keep billionaires from being taxed while kids don’t have health insurance and the cost of living goes sky-high,"
He did not stop at the tax fight. Ruffalo tied Newsom to what he called a pattern of siding with moneyed interests over ordinary Californians.
Proposition 42, as described in the coverage, aims to head off a state wealth tax on unrealized gains, taxes on investment paper profits before any sale. Ruffalo cast Newsom’s support as a gift to the rich and a betrayal of workers.
On Wednesday he linked that stance to the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal and accused the governor of a familiar habit.
"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,"
Friday’s follow-up went further, calling the posture disqualifying for higher office in either party and urging Newsom to reverse course. Ruffalo argued that taxes are the only remaining tool to counter “economic forces that have bought our politicians.”
He also dragged in artificial intelligence and the wealth gap, claiming billionaires are “hellbent on replacing entire workforces with the AI they are developing with our tax dollars” and that the country is living through “the largest wealth gap in modern history.” Those lines are Ruffalo’s claims, not independent findings.
Ruffalo listed prior decisions he said proved the same bias. He charged that Newsom vetoed a bill that would have put a “kill switch” on AI and another that would have removed forever chemicals from cookware, even after a bipartisan legislature backed the measures.
"Let’s hope Gavin gets some sense and walks this back. It’s crazy that this is what he chooses to spend his political capital, and part of his legacy, doing. He vetoed the bill that would have put a “kill switch” on AI for our protection. He vetoed a bill that would have gotten forever chemicals out of cookware. Time and time again, he goes with corporate interests over the well-being of the people, even after his own bipartisan legislature votes for something,"
In the same streak he dismissed the governor’s tough talk as empty and rejected any “Democratic version of Trump” branding.
"Gavin, we aren’t looking for the Democratic version of Trump. That was a good goof. Please try something else. It’s tired."
He closed the appeal by demanding “a real, bona fide champion” on “billionaires vs. people and the planet.” The quotes show a Hollywood progressive policing Newsom from the left, not a broad-based policy review.
Public pressure from a marquee Marvel name adds to the picture of a party already sorting its hierarchy. Newsom has slipped in early 2028 primary polling as rivals gain ground, and celebrity lectures do not reverse that trend.
Party strain is not limited to California. Democratic candidates have split over Kamala Harris’s campaign support as internal divisions deepen, the same factional energy now aimed at Newsom’s corporate and tax choices.
Ruffalo’s wealth sits in plain view while he demands heavier taxes on “billionaires.” Voters can weigh a star worth more than $35 million scolding a governor for resisting an unrealized-gains scheme—the contrast notes itself.
Newsom has also floated stepping back under certain conditions. He pledged to stand aside in 2028 if Harris runs, yet the field may already be moving on without him, and friendly fire from the entertainment left does not help.
Similar intra-party bloodletting has hit other Democrats. Anonymous critics claiming ties to ex-Fetterman staffers have promised more revelations while Democrats intensify their own attacks, another sign that loyalty is thin when ambition and ideology collide.
Even unification plays elsewhere underline the churn. In Alaska, Tom Begich ended a gubernatorial bid and backed a rival in a bid to unify the party, proof that Democrats are already cutting deals and cutting losses before the next national contest.
Ruffalo cast Newsom as the politician who talks tough in press conferences yet folds when “real imbalances” appear. The posts give no new legislative text, no fiscal score, and no rebuttal from the governor’s office, only the actor’s verdict that the Paramount deal and Prop 42 equal another giveaway.
California’s cost of living, children’s health coverage, and AI policy all appear in the tirade as moral props. What the record in these posts actually shows is a wealthy celebrity drawing a bright line: support a wealth tax or face a public “disqualifying” stamp from the activist wing.
Newsom’s team did not supply a response in the available reporting. The governor remains the state’s chief executive, the backer of the contested measure, and a presumed 2028 contender now being graded in public by one of Hollywood’s most reliable progressive voices.
When multi-millionaire activists and restive primary voters start calling a governor disqualified, the Democratic bench looks less like a movement and more like a crowded exit row.