Young Kim is running for reelection in California against another sitting Republican, Ken Calvert, after redistricting put the two of them in the same seat. Something about her pitch to voters has changed since the summer, and you can watch it happen.
Politico's California Playbook noticed first, and the Daily Beast picked it up on September 8, 2026: Kim has quietly stripped Donald Trump off the front page of her campaign website.
We checked it ourselves, against the Internet Archive's saved copies of her own site.
What the site said in August, and what it says now
On August 14, 2026, the browser tab on youngkimforcongress.com read "Young Kim for Congress - Proven America First Fighter." The first line on the homepage was:
Young Kim is a Proven Fighter who will Stand with President Trump to deliver a bold America First Agenda.
Underneath it: "America First Leadership to Defend the American Dream."
Today the same page reads:
Young Kim is taking on Career Politicians to Restore the American Dream.
Underneath it: "Fighting for the American Dream." The tab now reads "Young Kim for Congress - Fighting for the American Dream." The word "Trump" does not appear on the homepage at all. It survives in one place: her Meet Young Kim page, but only on a phone. The site keeps separate desktop and mobile copies of her biography, and only the desktop one was rewritten. Open that page on a computer and the Trump language is gone. Open it on a phone and the old paragraph is still there: "with President Trump leading the charge, I'm looking forward to continuing to push through the bold, conservative, America First agenda." The page heading still reads "A Proven America First Fighter."
In a separate change her Issues page disappeared. The August 19 capture still lists Issues in the homepage menu. Two days later the menu item is gone.
Her spokesman says this is absurd
Kim's spokesman, Chris Pack, told Politico that the idea she is putting distance between herself and Trump is "completely absurd." He pointed to social media posts in which Kim wished Trump a happy birthday and mentioned a Trump-branded savings program.
A birthday post is not a campaign platform. Twenty-six days ago her website's headline promise was that she would stand with the President. Now it promises she will take on career politicians. Whatever the reason, the change is not in dispute — it is in the archive, and it is on the live page right now.
What she actually did while the Trump language was still up
The website is the part Kim controls completely. The record is the part she does not.
She wrote the House's official response to the Los Angeles immigration raids. After federal immigration sweeps there in June 2025, Kim introduced H.Res. 516, a resolution condemning the protests that followed. It calls the sweeps "lawful Federal immigration enforcement," says "California's leadership has prioritized protecting illegal immigrants and violent individuals over United States citizens," and closes by expressing gratitude to law enforcement, ICE included by name. The House passed it 215 to 195 on June 27, 2025.
She promised in writing that she would not vote for a budget that cut Medicaid, and then voted for it four times. About 1,000 people rallied outside her Anaheim office in April 2025 to hold her to that promise. The Joint Economic Committee estimates that 27,115 people in her district lose coverage by 2034 — 17,315 off Medicaid, and 9,800 more as the Affordable Care Act subsidies go.
She voted against writing protection for same-sex and interracial marriage into federal law — once in July 2022 and again in December 2022 — while five other California Republicans — Ken Calvert, Mike Garcia, Darrell Issa, Jay Obernolte and David Valadao — voted for it both times.
None of that has been deleted. It cannot be.
Why the words changed and the votes didn't
Kim has never held a single in-person town hall since taking office. Her constituents have not had a room in which to ask her about any of this. What they have had is her website, and her website has now been rewritten to say something different from what it said in August.
The votes are still on the House clerk's roll calls. The resolution condemning the protests against the Los Angeles sweeps is still in the Congressional Record with her name on it as sponsor. A campaign can change its slogan in an afternoon. It cannot change what it did in 2022 and 2025.
What the record shows
On August 14, 2026, Young Kim's campaign homepage described her as a "Proven America First Fighter" who would "Stand with President Trump." Twenty-six days later, that language is gone from the homepage, the page title has been rewritten, and her Issues page has been deleted. Her spokesman calls the suggestion she is distancing herself from Trump "completely absurd." In the period when the Trump language was still up, Kim sponsored the House resolution condemning the protests against the Los Angeles immigration sweeps and thanking law enforcement including ICE, voted four times for a budget bill the Joint Economic Committee estimates will cost 27,115 people in her district their health coverage, and voted twice against protecting same-sex marriage in federal law.
Source
"Republican Young Kim Busted Quietly Scrubbing Trump From Site," The Daily Beast, September 8, 2026, following reporting by Politico's California Playbook. Website comparisons verified independently against the Internet Archive and the live site on September 9, 2026. Photo: official U.S. House portrait, via Wikimedia Commons.
