What Gavin Newsom’s Nickelback Meme Says About Trump and Epstein

Nickelback has entered the conversation, as California governor Gavin Newsom has used the popular Nickelback "Photograph" meme to troll President Donald Trump over his alleged ties to the Jeffrey Epstein and the push for the release of the Epstein files.

In the meme shared through Newsom's TikTok account, it starts with the shot of Nickelback's Chad Kroeger from the "Photograph" video holding the picture frame but with an old photo of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein posing for a photo now included inside the frame.

Meanwhile, a parody of Nickelback's song "Photograph" plays with the lyrics, "Look at this photograph / It's a photo of a photograph / There's another fucking photograph / Because the photograph the photograph." The backing track even morphs into a ragtime version at one point.

In addition to the Nickelback meme, there's a second slide of Gavin Newsom's X account retweeting a Charlie Kirk tweet that reads, "RT if you believe @realDonaldTrump should order a FULL INVESTIGATION into Epstein's illegal sexual trafficking from the last 30 years and get answers."

The post can be viewed below.

https://www.tiktok.com/@gavinnewsom/photo/7527485723537116447?lang=en

Who Was Jeffrey Epstein?

Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier who worked in banking and the finance sector. Over the course of his life, he ran in famous circles while hanging out with many celebrities and politicians.

But in 2005, Epstein was investigated after a parent had reported that he had sexually abused their 14-year-old daughter. A police investigation turned into a federal investigation that identified 36 girls, some as young as 14, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused, per the Miami Herald.

Epstein pled guilty and was convicted in a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He served 13 months and was granted a work release.

He was later arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors in both New York and Florida. But while in prison, he was discovered dead of an alleged suicide.

In the time since his death, there has been skepticism about the nature of his death and plenty of speculation about who among his famous associates at parties may have known about or had involvement with his sex trafficking operation.

Why Is There Such Interest in the Epstein Files?

As Epstein partied in famous circles, he was often spotted on nights out with famous celebrities and politicians from both political parties.

Epstein is alleged to have concealed cameras to record some of the interactions with his underage clients with people of prominent status.

In a July 7 joint memo, the Justice Department and the FBI shared that they had found no evidence that Epstein had kept a "client list" Per USA Today, a review of Epstein materials in the U.S. government's procession also found no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people as part of his actions or that he was murdered while in custody,

But there have been calls to release the Epstein files for public transparency. including from members in the Republican party. House speaker Mike Johnson called for release of the files that have been withheld but the Justice Department.

The Epstein files reportedly contain a large volume of images and videos of Epstein and some of the alleged victims. At one point, Trump alleged that the Epstein files were "made up" by Democratic leaders. He also told reporters on July 15, "I don't understand it, why they would be so interested. He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is. I really don't."

Newsom, who has been at odds with Trump over the President's usage of ICE conducting deportation raids in California, has also been presumed to be a front runner for the Democratic party in the next election.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Uses Nickelback Meme to Troll Joe Biden

Oddly enough, Trump himself has previously used the Nickelback meme. At that point, it was 2019 and Trump, who was in the middle of impeachment proceedings, used the meme to share a photograph of Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian gas board member to implicate the Biden father and son in unsavory dealings with the Ukraine.