Gavin Newsom, the governor giving a voice to the Democratic opposition to Trump

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, launched a podcast three months ago with a very simple name: This Is Gavin Newsom. The leader’s initiative caused a stir in the great progressive bastion of the United States after he invited figures from the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement as guests on the first episodes. This past week, after several days of protests in the state over the Trump administration’s immigration raids, Newsom has stopped reaching out to the president’s supporters and has returned to his roots: being the leading voice of opposition to what he calls the “unspeakable cruelty” of Washington.

The governor is consolidating his position as one of the leading contenders for the 2028 election within a struggling Democratic Party. The opposition has several contenders, but no one has yet positioned themselves as a clear voice against Trump. Eighty-four percent of Democratic voters want to see their leaders display a more combative spirit against the president. The Republican leader’s deployment of troops in Los Angeles has brought Newsom into the fray, and even though he hasn’t ruled out a run for president, until recently he had been hinting that he had no interest in making such a move.

Newsom, who has been in Los Angeles since last Sunday (the governor’s official headquarters is in Sacramento), criticized the parade that Trump organized in Washington this past Saturday to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. military, which coincides with his 79th birthday. “It’s a vulgar display of weakness. It’s the kind of thing you see with Kim Jong Un, you see it with Putin, you see it with dictators around the world who are weak and just want to demonstrate strength, weakness masquerading as strength,” he said last week.

The 57-year-old Democratic politician has been engaged in a heated exchange of words with Trump for days. Trump ordered the deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the streets of Los Angeles, initially for two months, without Newsom requesting federal support. The troops arrived in the city to reinforce operations by Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents and to monitor the massive protests that have taken place in the city. “If I hadn’t sent the military, the city would have been burned to the ground. We saved Los Angeles,” Trump, who often calls the governor “Newscum,” claimed on Friday. Only 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s response to the Los Angeles protests, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Thursday.

The Republican endorsed the voices in his Cabinet who have called for Newsom’s arrest for not cooperating with the operations federal authorities are carrying out in the migrant sanctuary state. “This is a day I hoped to never see in the United States. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, this is a line we cannot cross as a nation: it is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom replied.

The governor has been joined by the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, in calling Trump a liar and arguing that the protests have been concentrated in parts of downtown L.A., making it unnecessary to deploy police to control the demonstrations, which have led to some violent incidents. Local police forces have arrested slightly over 500 people since the first demonstrations were reported last Saturday.

The attitude is in contrast with January, when Newsom worked with Trump to mobilize 2,500 National Guard troops to help fight the Los Angeles wildfires. The governor then welcomed the president at the airport amid the crisis. In February, the two met in the Oval Office for over an hour. Newsom publicly thanked him for his support afterward.

Five months into Trump’s second presidency, the political climate is very different. California took the federal government to court on Monday with a lawsuit accusing the executive branch of abusing its power by deploying troops without its consent. This is the 24th lawsuit against the administration from the state. The 25th came on Thursday after Trump undid the state’s strategy to accelerate the transition to electric cars. Washington is now considering reversing the creation of two national reserves located in the region. “If the day ends in Y, it’s another day in Trump’s war on California,” the governor’s office stated.

Business career

Newsom, the son of an appeals judge and a legal consultant, studied political science, but in 1992 he became an entrepreneur and opened a liquor store in San Francisco. His business, PlumpJack Wine and Spirits, expanded to hotels, restaurants, and bars after receiving an investment from a Getty family heir.

His political career began in 1996, when then-San Francisco mayor Willie Brown (a mentor to former vice president Kamala Harris) appointed him to the Metropolitan Traffic and Parking Commission. A year later, he had already made the jump to the city’s powerful Board of Supervisors, a body that oversees metropolitan government. In 2003, he ran for mayor of San Francisco, winning with 52% of the vote. A year later, he made international headlines by allowing the first same-sex marriage, long before it was legalized in the country (2015).

Newsom’s name is now nationally recognized. He is revered among Democrats and loathed by Republicans, who routinely use California as an example of what’s wrong with the United States, such as the fentanyl epidemic, the homelessness crisis, and a supposedly soft stance on crime. The dispute with Trump, however, has further raised his profile. Internet searches for his name have jumped by 9.7% in recent days, to levels not seen since 2004.

CNN analyst Harry Enten noted last week that the country is watching in real time as Newsom bursts into the Democratic race for the next presidential election in 2028. There is no clear favorite among the list of potential candidates, which includes former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Latina Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The California governor, who survived a recall attempt in 2021, is nearing the end of his term and will not be eligible to run again. The next governor will be elected in November 2026.

“This is no longer 2017, when most Democrats were looking for some way to reach an agreement with Trump. Now they want someone who can fight him. That’s why Newsom is entering this battle. He’s thinking about 2028,” Enten noted Wednesday.

Newsom has been skeptical about his political destiny for months, often saying he has a “subzero” interest in the U.S. presidency. But perhaps the temperature is rising for the Democrat. The Wall Street Journal asked him this week about his political future. “I’m not thinking about running, but it’s a path that I could see unfold,” he said. Newsom has opened a window.

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