Newsom’s ‘piss on the cicadas’ line traced to a WWI French poem

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press conference quip about Donald Trump’s move to control permits in wildfire-hit LA drew quick scrutiny over a supposed French expression. Linguists couldn’t identify a standard idiom, and Newsom’s aide initially suggested it was just a Foreign-language flourish. A spokesperson later said the line quotes Guillaume Apollinaire’s WWI-era poem “Aussi bien que les cigales” (As well as the cicadas), a memory rather than a recognized saying. The episode underscores how language quirks can go viral and spark debate in politics.