‘This moment was thrust upon him': Gavin Newsom steps up to parry Trump's ‘wrecking ball' attacks on American democracy
When Donald Trump landed in Los Angeles to tour the ruins left by January's devastating wildfires, just days after being sworn in for a second term, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, was waiting on the tarmac to greet him. The surprisingly warm exchange between two longtime political rivals seemed to reflect a new reality: with a vengeful Trump back in the White House, fire-ravaged California – and its Democratic governor – had a great deal at stake.
In the weeks that followed, Newsom met with Trump at the White House to lobby for federal disaster relief, then approved funding to strengthen the state's legal defenses against challenges from the Trump administration. He invited Maga-world fixtures on to his podcast, including Steve Bannon, and infuriated progressives, and even some allies, when he said that it was 'deeply unfair' for transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports – a wedge issue central to Trump's conservative agenda. All the while, his state was suing the Trump administration – over executive actions on immigration, federal funding and tariffs – at a rate of more than one lawsuit a week.
Their fragile detente, already showing cracks, shattered spectacularly last week, when the president mobilized thousands of national guard troops and 700 marines – over the governor's objections – to quell protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids across the region.
Newsom accused Trump of deliberately injecting chaos into a situation that local authorities had under control. Trump's actions, he declared, were 'madness' and marked an 'unmistakable step toward authoritarianism'. Trump, in turn, called Newsom, whom he refers to as 'Newscum', grossly incompetent and suggested the governor should be arrested. 'Gavin likes the publicity,' the president mused, though he later played down the threat.
With guards troops deployed in the streets of Los Angeles, the 57-year-old governor of the country's most populous state delivered a formal, state-of-the-union-style address warning that the president was taking a 'wrecking ball' to American democracy.
'Look, this isn't just about protests in LA,' Newsom said on Tuesday. 'This is about all of us. This is about you.'
'California may be first – but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next,' he said. 'Democracy is next.'
***
For months, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and a growing number of alarmed Americans had been clamoring for leaders who grasp what they say is the urgency of Trump's assault on democratic norms and American institutions. When Trump activated California's national guard troops, Newsom stepped into the ring – and hasn't stopped swinging since.
'This moment was thrust upon him,' said Mike Madrid, a sharp critic of Trump and former political director of the California Republican party, 'and whether it was a battlefield conversion or a genuine moment, Gavin Newsom realized that the only way out of this was to fight.'
In the week since the national guard's deployment to Los Angeles, Newsom has mounted an all-out offensive – battling Trump in the courts and in the court of public opinion. He has made himself ubiquitous: sitting for interviews with podcasters and YouTubers, national media and local media. On social media, he and his team are running a rapid response blitz – a stream of taunts, Star Wars memes and factchecks.
Newsom sued to block the guard's deployment without his consent. California later filed an emergency order asking a judge to bar the guard from assisting with immigration enforcement. On Thursday, a federal judge sided with the state, finding that Trump's deployment of the guard was unlawful – though the victory was short-lived. Two hours later, the ninth US circuit court of appeals temporarily blocked the order.
'He is not a king and he should stop acting like one,' Newsom said on Thursday, at a press conference before the ruling was paused.
The White House has responded in kind, with Trump hurling insults back at Newsom. When asked what crime Newsom might be charged with, Trump sniped: 'His primary crime is running for governor, because he's done such a bad job.'
Trump, thanking the appeals court on Friday, said: 'If I didn't send the military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now' – a claim Newsom, city officials and local law enforcement strongly dispute.
Tensions escalated further on Thursday, when a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was forcibly removed and handcuffed after trying to ask a question at a press conference held by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles. Newsom called the episode 'outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful'.
'This is a moment that tests the mettle of leaders,' said Brian Brokaw, a longtime political adviser to Newsom. He noted that Newsom's tenure was defined by crisis from the very start.
Newsom has pretty good instincts. He knows what a moment like this requires – and that's what you're seeing from him now
Brian Brokaw, longtime political adviser to Gavin Newsom
The day after he was elected in 2018, a gunman killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks and as the Camp fire – the deadliest wildfire in state history – raged toward the town of Paradise. Since then, Newsom has faced a near-constant onslaught: more fires, more mass shootings, floods, mudslides, drought, a global pandemic, mass protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the wildfires that swept Los Angeles earlier this year.
'Newsom has pretty good instincts,' Brokaw said. 'He knows what a moment like this requires – and that's what you're seeing from him now.'
The rapidly intensifying standoff between Trump and Newsom has rallied Democrats. Twenty-two Democratic governors signed a joint statement in support of California, calling Trump's troop deployment 'ineffective and dangerous'. The signatories spanned the ideological spectrum of the party and included several governors who are potential 2028 presidential contenders, such as JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
'He has shown he's not going to be intimidated, and we're all for that,' Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said earlier this week.
Even some of his critics have been impressed. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind Saturday's 'day of defiance' protests against Trump, said Newsom's pugilistic response to the president's 'bullying' has been 'spot on'.
'I think he's been one of the leading members of the 'roll over and play dead' faction, one of these dead-dog Democrats,' Levin said. 'But maybe – maybe – he is shifting sides, and I think it is very important that we welcome people and leaders when they do that.'
***
The White House believes its maximalist response to unrest in California plays to its political advantage. Trump, who campaigned on a promise of mass deportations, has framed California's resistance as an obstruction to what he says is a popular mandate. Images of protesters waving Mexican flags near burning robotaxis feed the rightwing narrative of disorder in Democratic-run cities such as Los Angeles.
'To be very cynical about this, you can argue that this benefits both principals,' said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank at Stanford University. 'Donald Trump gets to swing at his favorite piñata, California, but Gavin Newsom doesn't mind taking the whacks because it plays pretty well with the Democratic base.'
According to a YouGov flash poll, 45% of Americans disapprove of the Los Angeles protests, while 36% approve. Similar shares disapprove of Trump's deployment of the marines – 47% to 34% – and the national guard – 45% to 38%.
Since Trump's 2024 victory, many Democrats have taken pains to show support for law enforcement and border security.
Some say Newsom's approach offers a clear path forward. He has been unequivocal in condemning sporadic violence, vowing 'zero tolerance' for bad actors. At the same time, he has offered a full-throated defense of the city's immigrant communities, accusing Trump of tearing apart families and 'disappearing' neighbors.
'What's happening right now is very different than anything we've seen before,' Newsom said in his Tuesday address, accusing federal agents of indiscriminately targeting Latino neighborhoods. 'Trump is pulling a military dragnet across LA, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals.'
Conservatives say Newsom's posture is precisely what helped Trump make inroads in some of the bluest corners of the country last year. Steve Hilton, a former top adviser to former UK prime minister David Cameron now running for governor of California, accused Newsom of trying to 'gaslight us'.
'Do your job,' he said on Fox News, 'instead of pretending this is fine.'
***
Newsom rose to prominence as the mayor of San Francisco, defying state law to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He served as the state's lieutenant governor for eight years before being elected governor in the middle of Trump's first term, riding a wave of progressive anger. He survived a 2021 recall attempt, fueled in part by backlash to his handling of the pandemic, and was easily re-elected in 2022. He campaigned aggressively for Biden in 2024, even as some in the party hoped he'd run himself. When Biden dropped out, Newsom quickly endorsed his fellow Californian, 'fearless' Kamala Harris.
Democrats' staggering losses in November left the party leaderless and without power in Washington. As Democrats grasped for answers – how to oppose an emboldened president whom voters chose over them – Newsom launched a podcast. Some speculated Newsom's moves – interviewing far-right figures on his podcast, cracking down on homeless encampments and moving to scale back health coverage for immigrants without legal status – were part of a calculated pivot toward the political center, in preparation for a 2028 presidential run.
Asked recently at a press conference if he was trying to shed his liberal persona, Newsom said he had always been a 'hard-headed pragmatist'. 'I'm not an ideologue,' he added.
California – the biggest blue state in the country – has long served as Trump's favorite foil. From homelessness and crime to immigration and climate policy, Trump has painted the state as a cautionary tale – a failed experiment in liberal governance now a 'symbol of our nation's decline'.
This week, amid his clash with Newsom, Trump signed into law a measure blocking California's vehicle emissions rules and his administration announced plans to abolish two of the state's newest national monuments.
'If it's a day ending in Y, it's another day of Trump's war on California,' the governor's office tweeted.
Steve Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant, said Newsom's 'guerrilla warfare' tactics may raise the governor's national profile – but at a cost.
'We know that the president doesn't respond well to being attacked,' Maviglio said, adding: 'It's likely going to result in a lot less federal dollars coming our way – which is about the last thing we need right now with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.'
Yet Newsom's attempt at conciliation yielded little protection. Earlier this month, the Trump administration warned it may pull billions in funding from California's long-delayed high-speed rail project. Trump has threatened to 'maybe permanently' strip federal funding if the state continues to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls' and women's sports. And California is still waiting for the disaster aid Newsom sought after the fires.
Newsom has argued in recent interviews that Trump can't be placated. The governor suggested the state had leverage: it could withhold the billions in taxes its residents pay the federal government. (He has since tempered the idea, but said he urged his team to get 'creative' on how the state might push back on Trump's threats.)
He's become what Democrats nationally have been waiting for since the election
Mike Madrid, former political director of the California Republican party
Newsom also suggested that growing public opposition to the immigration crackdown was working, after Trump conceded that his immigration tactics were hurting agriculture and hospitality. 'Turns out, chasing hardworking people through ranches and snatching women and children off the streets is not good policy,' Newsom shot back.
Though protests have calmed, the situation remains volatile. With the appeals court decision, Trump remains in command of the national guard through at least next week. On Friday, US marines temporarily detained a man outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles – the first known detention of a civilian by active-duty troops deployed there by Trump.
Speaking in Los Angeles, Noem pledged to 'liberate' Los Angeles and vowed that the Trump administration would continue its immigration operations across the region.
Ahead of planned protests on Saturday, Newsom ordered the state to 'pre-deploy' additional resources to support law enforcement throughout the state. Organized as a show of defiance against Trump's military parade staged in the streets of Washington DC on Saturday to celebrate the US army's 250th anniversary and the president's 79th birthday, the events have multiplied since Trump deployed guard troops to Los Angeles.
For Newsom, the stakes are bigger than California. He has framed this moment as a test of democratic resilience in the face of creeping authoritarianism. And for those who have long sounded the alarm, the governor is meeting it.
'He's become what Democrats nationally have been waiting for since the election,' Madrid said. 'He's the tip of the spear – the more strenuously he fights, the more aggressive he is, the more he uses Trump's tactics against him, the more he's going to be rewarded.'
David Smith in Washington and Rachel Leingang contributed reporting
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