Newsom’s 2020 Thanksgiving Rules Should Remind Us What True Authoritarianism Looks like

Never forget Gov Newsom's private gathering edicts when he calls Trump a Dictator

No more than three households could gather. And every gathering had to be held outdoors. Californians were told to wrap up their Thanksgiving celebration within two hours, Newsweek reported at the time.

Guests could enter the house only to use the restroom, and only if it was “frequently sanitized.”

Masks had to stay on at all times except for brief moments of eating or drinking. Even then, guests had to remain six feet apart from anyone outside their household. Once the bite or sip was finished, masks had to go right back on.

Singing, shouting, and chanting were “strongly discouraged.”
If people insisted on doing them, they had to keep their voices at normal speaking volume and wear a face covering.

Even seating arrangements were regulated. Six feet in all directions between households!

Food was to be served in disposable containers. Communal dishes were discouraged. Hand sanitizer needed to be available for constant use.

This was not health guidance. It was lifestyle control.

The same political movement screaming “NO KINGS!” in 2025 cheered this behavior in 2020.

Nothing Trump has done has ever come close to telling Americans who they could eat with, how long they could sit together, how loudly they could speak, or whether their relatives could play a clarinet.

Five years later, the selective memory is astonishing.