Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo says California Gov. Gavin Newsom is disqualified from higher office for shielding billionaires from wealth taxes, a left-wing purity fight that undercuts Newsom’s own party brand.
Breitbart reported that the Hulk star unloaded on Newsom in a string of X posts, calling the governor’s stance on California’s Prop 42 and related corporate fights a deal-breaker for anyone chasing the presidency.
Ruffalo framed the fight in blunt terms. He tied Newsom’s support for Prop 42, a measure aimed at blocking a state wealth tax on unrealized investment gains, to a broader pattern of siding with big money over working families.
The actor, whose reported net worth tops $35 million, did not spare the language.
On Friday he posted:
"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 kept going. Ruffalo cast billionaires as the force behind AI job losses and a historic wealth gap, then argued only heavier taxes could fix a system he says has “bought our politicians.”
"At this point, the only way to balance out the economic forces that have bought our politicians and keep rigging the game against working people is through taxes."
That message lands with special force coming from a Hollywood A-lister. Progressive stars often demand soak-the-rich policies while sitting on fortunes built in the same market they scold. Ruffalo’s posts fit the pattern: high moral heat, personal wealth intact.
Ruffalo did not stop at Prop 42. He listed vetoes he says prove Newsom chooses corporate interests even after the state legislature backs the opposite course.
He cited a bill that would have installed an AI “kill switch” and another meant to pull forever chemicals out of cookware. In his telling, Newsom killed both and keeps spending political capital the wrong way.
"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,"
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, Ruffalo had already hammered the same theme through the Paramount-Warner Bros. fight. He accused Newsom of selling out working-class Californians “again and again” and of backing a measure that would make taxing the wealthy nearly impossible.
"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 posts paint Newsom as a Democrat who talks tough in front of cameras yet folds when money and industry push back. For a governor long watched for 2028 presidential moves, that charge is meant to wound.
Prop 42, as described in the coverage, was built to stop a state tax on paper gains before investors sell. Ruffalo treats that as an unforgivable gift to the rich. Newsom’s camp gets no direct reply in the available posts; the actor simply hopes the governor “walks this back.”
Ruffalo also needled Newsom’s public style. He told the governor the country is not looking for “the Democratic version of Trump,” called that approach a “good goof,” and said it is “tired.” He closed by demanding “a real, bona fide champion” who fights the “billionaires vs. people and the planet” imbalance in daily life, not just in tweets.
That line of attack tracks a familiar progressive script: any Democrat who resists ever-higher taxes on capital is a sellout. It also ignores the practical damage wealth taxes and unrealized-gains schemes can inflict on investment, jobs, and the very tax base states rely on. California already labors under high costs and an out-migration problem. Ruffalo’s cure is more of the same medicine.
Newsom has spent years positioning himself as a national progressive face while managing a state that repeatedly collides with business reality. The actor’s outburst shows the left’s own base will still police him from the further left. That dynamic has already shown up in prediction-market slides and rival Democratic names gaining ground.
The timing is not subtle. Newsom is widely expected to eye a 2028 presidential bid. Every veto, every corporate-friendly signal, and every clash with activists now doubles as primary audition tape.
Ruffalo’s demand for a pure “champion” leaves little room for the triangulation governors often practice. It also sits awkwardly beside other recent Newsom moments that have fueled speculation, including his public praise for a Trump-era children’s savings concept that scrambled the usual partisan lines.
Inside the party, the jockeying is already visible. Newsom has even signaled he would step back from a 2028 run if Kamala Harris jumps in, citing mutual political destruction. That kind of caution does not satisfy activists who want permanent confrontation with capital.
Meanwhile, separate scrutiny continues on the money side of Sacramento politics, including a federal look at whether Newsom donors received state favors. Ruffalo’s posts do not address those probes. They simply add another loud progressive voice accusing the governor of putting billionaires first.
The contradiction notes itself. A multimillionaire Marvel star lectures a Democratic governor for insufficient zeal against wealth, while California families face the daily cost of the state’s progressive experiment. Newsom gets hit from his left for not going far enough; taxpayers live with the results of how far the state has already gone.
When Hollywood’s rich demand higher taxes and ideological purity tests, working voters should notice who pays and who performs.
