All posts tagged "gavin newsom"

We elected an imbecile — and his latest move could kill us all

Since Donald Trump has been back in office, energy prices have increased at more than double the rate of inflation. The Consumer Price Index from the end of October reported an “all items price index” increase for food, shelter, and transportation of 3.0 percent over a 12-month period, while energy services for the same period rose by 6.4 percent.

After promising to slash energy prices, Trump has done the opposite. His energy policies reflect the same ethos driving everything else in his retribution playbook: reward donors and inflict pain on Democrats, even when the economic consequences are nationwide.

Lust for retribution

In early October, Trump announced the claw-back of billions of dollars in federal funding for utilities, money that had been appropriated to reinforce power grids and reduce electricity prices.

Targeting blue states exclusively, Budget Director Russ Vought announced the cancellation of “nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.” In all, 321 Congressionally set awards supporting 223 wind, solar, and transmission projects were trashed.

Trump’s aversion to clean energy isn’t the only factor driving costs. His refusal to upgrade the grid, his half-baked export and tariff initiatives, and his blind support for energy-sucking AI data centers are all contributing to surging energy prices with no relief in sight.

As Canary Media framed it, “Trump slapped tariffs on certain wind turbine materials and opened a sham “national security” probe to pave the way for even more. He halted construction on a nearly completed offshore wind farm and moved to revoke permits for two more. He canceled hundreds of millions in port funding critical to offshore wind development and imposed new directives to stifle renewable projects on federal lands.”

Trump’s dedication is showing: after only ten months of Trump 2.0, US household electric bills have increased by 10 percent, and are expected to continue climbing.

UN Climate Summit

Trump is doing more than reversing US climate successes, he’s also undermining progress in other parts of the world. Last month, when the International Maritime Organization agreed on the world’s first carbon tax on global shipping to encourage the transition to cleaner fuels, Trump released a childish Truth Social rant threatening to retaliate.

This month, he ignored the UN Climate Summit in Brazil. Thankfully, California Governor Gavin Newsom attended, representing the world’s fourth-largest economy. Newsom highlighted California's efforts to step up on climate where Trump has stepped out.

Facing down the embarrassment of an antiquated, know-nothing, pro-fossil fuel regime, Newsom didn’t hold back. When asked about the US retreat from global climate action, he called Trump “an invasive species … He’s a wrecking ball president trying to roll back progress of the last century … he’s doubling down on stupid.”

Newsom did more than talk. While he was at the summit, he signed new Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to advance clean energy, wildfire prevention, and other climate-related initiatives. He also expanded California’s existing partnerships with China and Mexico on clean energy development and zero-emission freight corridors.

Newsom managed to bolster California's profile as a stable international business and climate partner despite the optics of a US president ruled by ego and impulse.

Our loss, China’s gain

In September, addressing the UN, Trump called climate change a “con job” and urged other world leaders to abandon their climate efforts despite the Earth’s rising temperatures. Trump claimed falsely that China sells wind turbines to the world without using them at home, and told assembled leaders, “If you don’t get away from the green energy scam, your country is going to fail.”

The next day, China pledged the reverse. Xi Jinping announced China’s plan to increase electric vehicle sales and dramatically increase wind and solar power, targeting a 600 percent increase over 2020 levels.

Despite Trump’s claim, China has vastly expanded wind power developments at home, adding 46 gigawatts of new wind energy this year alone, enough to power than 30 million homes. Meanwhile, our Cro-Magnon regime froze permits for wind farms and issued stop work orders, ending tens of thousands of wind energy jobs in the process.

Critics agree that Trump’s withdrawal from climate efforts ceded valuable ground to China, which is now rapidly expanding its renewable and EV industries. China’s Ming Yang Smart Energy just unveiled OceanX, a two-headed offshore wind turbine. OceanX is expected to cut offshore energy costs to one-fifth of Europe’s costs while allowing wind farms to operate with fewer, more powerful turbines.

“China gets it,” Newsom said at the UN Climate Summit, “America is toast competitively, if we don’t wake up to what the hell they’re doing in this space, on supply chains, how they’re dominating manufacturing, how they’re flooding the zone.”

Newsom is right. Americans are suffering the tragedy of an uninformed and unstable president who rejects science, a president who wants to take us back to the 19th century. We have also inflicted our tragedy on the rest of the world.

Pope Leo frames climate action as a moral and spiritual imperative, tying the “cry of the Earth” to the “cry of the poor,” because small island nations and the global south, including poor states in the US, will continue to suffer the most from extreme weather and climate destruction.

Trump will be dead before climate change becomes an obvious existential threat. As Newsom said, he is only temporary. But the global destruction he leaves behind could be permanent. We owe it to our children, ourselves, and all the earth’s inhabitants to never again elect an imbecile, and to shut this one down before he kills us all.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Dead in the water': Gavin Newsom slams Trump on 'reckless' oil drilling plan

Gavin Newsom has slammed Donald Trump's oil drilling plans for California and Florida.

The governor of California called the plans "reckless" in a statement released on Thursday. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the oil drilling plan a "forward-thinking" project, which he says would make American energy "dominant" for years to come.

He said, "The Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America’s offshore production. By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come."

But Newsom has called the project "idiotic" and said that it will not only harm Californians but is an "attempt to sell" to Big Oil donors. Newsom said, "Trump's idiotic plan endangers our coastal economy and communities and hurts the well-being of Californians. This reckless attempt to sell out our coastline to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water."

"For decades, California has stood firm in our opposition to new offshore drilling, and nothing will change that." Newsom has previously aired his support for greater offshore controls following a spill at Huntington Beach in 2021. He also backed a congressional effort to ban new offshore drilling projects on the West Coast.

Trump's plan has faced opposition from the League of Conservation Voters, which called Trump's offshore drilling plan "dangerous" in a statement released earlier this week.

America Fitzpatrick, the group's conservation program director, said, "This needless, reckless expansion of offshore drilling would jeopardize our coastal communities, public health, local economies, and the environment, while prolonging our dependence on fossil fuels and doing nothing to lower costs."

It follows a statement released by Senator Rick Scott earlier this month, who announced that oil drilling would be banned through 2032, CBS reported.

Scott said, "As Floridians, we know how vital our beautiful beaches and coastal waters are to our state’s economy, environment, and way of life. It’s why I have fought for years to keep drilling off Florida’s coasts and worked closely with President Trump during his first term to ensure they remain protected with the president’s moratorium, which bans oil drilling through 2032."

"I am proud to put these efforts into law with the American Shores Protection Act. I will always work to keep Florida's shore pristine and protect our natural treasures for generations to come."

Ex-Gavin Newsom staffer indicted on allegations of stealing hundreds of thousands

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff was federally indicted on allegations of stealing $225,000 from Xavier Becerra.

Dana Williamson, 53, who served as Newsom's chief of staff from 2023 until December 2024, along with Becerra's former chief of staff Sean McCluskie, former high-ranking Capitol aide and lobbyist Greg Campbell, and two others, are accused of working together to take money from under Becerra's former political campaign account, The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Wednesday.

Becerra was then secretary of Health and Human Services during former President Joe Biden's administration.

The group is accused of conspiring to take the money under a "false pretense" and make the payments to McCluskie's wife, who was to monitor the account; however, that didn't happen.

"No such services were performed, and the payments of $10,000 per month, starting in late 2022, added up to $225,000 when they ended in the fall of 2024, the indictment said.

Williamson also allegedly subscribed to false tax returns claiming more than $1 million in business deductions for what were actually personal and nondeductible expenditures, including private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, home furnishings and designer handbags, as well as deductions for no-show jobs for friends and family, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of California.

She faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted and a $250,000 fine for each count of bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud; up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of conspiracy to obstruct and making a false statements; and up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count of subscribing to a false tax return.

“The news today of formal accusations of impropriety by a long-serving trusted advisor are a gut punch,” Becerra said in a statement. “I have voluntarily cooperated with the US Department of Justice in their investigation, and will continue to do so. As California’s former Attorney General, I fully comprehend the importance of allowing this investigation and legal process to run its course through our justice system.”

Newsom's spokesperson, Izzy Gardon, explained that Williamson does not work for the governor anymore.

“While we are still learning details of the allegations, the Governor expects all public servants to uphold the highest standards of integrity,” Gardon wrote in a statement. “At a time when the President is openly calling for his Attorney General to investigate his political enemies, it is especially important to honor the American principle of being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers.”

'The results stunned him': How pollster convinced Gavin Newsom to make massive gamble

The California redistricting ballot measure passed Tuesday with overwhelming support, but sources who worked on the campaign say it started off looking like a dangerous gamble.

Politico spoke to more than 20 campaign strategists, politicians, activists and others involved with Proposition 50 about the decision to roll the dice on a measure that started with just 38 percent support for Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan for allowing the legislature to redraw the state's congressional maps.

"A loss here would reverberate well beyond Sacramento: Trump could point to California — the state that sued, defied and mocked him — as proof that even a blue-state bulwark was no match for his drive to rejigger the midterm playing field, while Newsom would own a massive whiff against his favorite foil," Politico reported. "It would be the Fox News chyron Democrats most fear: 'TRUMP BEATS CALIFORNIA.'"

The plan started off as a bluff to force Texas Republicans to back down on their own plan, pushed by President Donald Trump, to redraw their own maps to rig next year's midterms in favor of GOP candidates, and that initial poll warned of a humiliating loss for Newsom and a potential drag on Democratic congressional candidates – but it turns out they were simply asking the wrong question.

"Paul Mitchell, a data expert who was busily fashioning new district maps for the congressional delegation, had put his own poll in the field," Politico reported. "He tested a hypothetical ballot measure that would hand redrawing power back to the Legislature but he, in his words, 'wrapped the redistricting in a reform burrito' — adding language that emphasized the effort would be temporary and only apply if Texas redrew its maps while affirming California’s support for national nonpartisan redistricting."

"The results stunned him," the report added. "Nearly 80 percent of respondents supported independent redistricting and, two questions later, roughly the same number backed new, politically-motivated maps."

Mitchell is not a member of the governor's inner circle, so he showed his results to longtime Newsom pollster David Binder, and the governor's team added another crucial change by putting the proposed maps themselves on the ballot.

"With the modified proposal in place, Binder conducted a second poll where the measure got 52 percent support — a marked improvement from the sub-40 percent result earlier that month," Politico reported. "For many Democratic voters, reservations that 'two wrongs don’t make a right' were suddenly subsumed by a hunger to sock it to the president."

Another senior Newsom adviser, Sean Clegg, added a final touch – having the Legislature designate the measure as Proposition 50 – that proved highly effective in getting the measure approved.

"A ready-made campaign slogan — A yes vote on Prop 50 would protect elections 'in all 50 states' — was now enshrined in law," Politico reported. "It was the earliest glimpse of the nationalization strategy that would undergird every piece of campaign messaging."

'All on the line': Gavin Newsom flags the key to 'ending Trump's presidency as we know it'

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom described described the stakes of the upcoming elections as "all on the line" and flagged the key to challenging President Donald Trump and "ending Trump's presidency as we know it."

Newsom shared a statement early Wednesday, thanking his constituents following a historic turnout that passed Proposition 50 by an overwhelming majority — giving the Golden State the chance to add as many as five additional House seats and push back against Texas Republicans' move to redraw its maps and add five more GOP House seats — a maneuver demanded by Trump.

It was a first step, Newsom said, but the fight's not over. He called out Trump's order to bring "4,000 National Guard troops federalized in the state of California" and marines to Los Angeles, referring to it as a "preview of things to come."

"So today, I am proud. But I am very mindful about the state of things in this country. Donald Trump does not believe in free and fair elections: period, full stop," Newsom said.

"It is not complicated. It is self-evident to anyone paying attention. And it won't stop. This is just a preview of things to come.
My call today is that we all have something to contribute going forward," he added.

He argued it's up to Democrats to keep the momentum going.

"We need Virginia ... we need Maryland ... we need our friends in New York and Illinois and Colorado -- we need to see other states meet this moment head-on as well."

He urged fellow Democrats to meet the moment.

"To recognize what we're up against in 2026," Newsom said. "Because if we do, we will de facto end Donald Trump's presidency as we know it the moment Speaker Jeffries is sworn in as the next Speaker of the House. It is all on the line in 2026."

Key signals flagged that doctors are 'worried' about Trump's health

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom took a swing Monday at President Donald Trump's health claims, saying "most people don’t take that many cognitive tests unless a doctor is worried" — adding to the recent jabs at the president's cognitive and physical health.

Trump, 79, announced during a flight on Air Force One that he was recently at Walter Reed Medical Center for an aptitude test, The Daily Beast reports.

And Newsom "isn’t afraid to say the quiet part out loud" and responded on X, according to The Beast.

The test reportedly asked Trump to sketch a clock, recognize animal photos and repeat five words in a list. The exam is apparently designed "to detect mild cognitive impairment as early as possible." It is not used as a way to measure IQ or intelligence.

Trump then challenged Democratic Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to take the same exam. He also admitted that he struggled with it.

“Have [Ocasio-Cortez] pass the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed,” he said. “Those are very hard—they’re really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump.”

Newsom also responded on X to Trump's Truth Social post over the weekend, after he landed in Malaysia, about how pregnant women should avoid Tylenol.

"Won’t be taking medical advice from someone who can’t spell hepatitis and looks like this," Newsom said, posting a photo of Trump taking off his suit jacket.

'Does not remember': Newsom says new Trump quote proves 'his mental issues are very bad'

Governor of California Gavin Newsom says U.S. President Donald Trump just revealed the extent of his mental health issues.

Newsom was referring to the president's decision to make a midnight post in which he bizarrely claimed that it was the Biden administration who placed FBI agents in the crowd on Jan. 6, despite the fact that Trump himself was the president at that time.

The president took his social media site in the dead of night to write, "THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6," at a time when it would have been Trump's FBI as the then-president was contesting valid election results.

He added, "If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies."

That led Newsom's press office to weigh in just hours later. He wrote, "IN A LATE NIGHT POST, TRUMP DOES NOT REMEMBER WHO WAS PRESIDENT ON JAN 6, 2021 (HE WAS), WEIRDLY SHOUTS 'DO SOMETHING' (LIKELY AT CLOUDS). HIS MENTAL ISSUES ARE VERY BAD!"

These Dem govs standing up to tyrant Trump are presidential contenders

“This is exactly the moment for people to stand up. And do I see enough people doing it? No, I don’t,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker Tuesday, as national guardsmen from Texas were being deployed in Chicago. “It shouldn’t be that there are Democrats that are afraid, because you know what? We’re the targets. We need to be strong, we need to fight back.”

Pritzker also noted that Trump is “out of his mind and has dementia.”

Trump’s occupation of American cities — as well as his threats to redistrict more red states to eke out more Republican seats in the 2026 midterm elections — is making potential heroes out of Democratic governors who are forcefully standing up to him.

This has consequences for the 2028 presidential race (assuming our democracy lasts that long).

The tendency of the media is to look to Congress to find potential presidential candidates — an understandable response, given the Washington-centric views of much of the national political media.

But it may be that the states harbor the most formidable candidates. Trump is giving them a chance to show their stuff.

When Trump occupied Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom noted that:

“Trump’s militarization of Los Angeles seems to have been just the start of an authoritarian takeover of American cities. This is not leadership. This is a scary, unlawful grab for power, and we should all be deeply concerned.”

Newsom has been highlighting Trump’s wacko behavior by imitating Trump’s all-caps social media posts. He’s also been mimicking Trump’s merch — offering flags that say “Make America GAVIN Again” and caps emblazoned with “Newsom was right about everything” after Trump appeared with a cap saying “Trump was right about everything.”

Trump’s occupation of Chicago has now put Pritzker into the spotlight. After Trump called Chicago a “killing field,” Pritzker responded:

“Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families.”

Pritzker put the issue of Trump’s sending troops to Chicago into a larger context.

“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against. And it’s the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances. What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional. It is un-American ….
This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals. This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey Stephen Miller searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities, and end elections. There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention. There is no insurrection.”

When Trump asked Pritzker to request federal troops for Chicago — an unintended admission that Trump lacks the authority to do this over the governor’s objection — Pritzker punched back:

“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.”

Pritzker accurately noted that “13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago. Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.”

Importantly, Pritzker has asked the media to do its job.

“To the members of the press who are assembled here … I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president’s actions. Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.”

Finally, Pritzker issued a warning “to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous — we are watching, and we are taking names.”

Maryland Governor Wes Moore is also showing backbone in response to Trump’s threats to send troops to Baltimore.

Moore invited Trump to join him on a walk through the streets of Baltimore — an invitation delivered, according to Trump, in “a rather nasty and provocative tone.”

One of Trump’s posts suggested that Moore — who served in Afghanistan and received a Bronze Star for acts of valor in combat — had lied about getting a Bronze Star.

Moore’s response, referring to Trump’s student deferments during the Vietnam War for alleged bone spurs, is attracting attention because, like Newsom’s and Pritzker’s, it’s both tough and dismissive:

“President Bone Spurs will do anything to get out of walking — even if that means spouting off more lies about the progress we’re making on public safety in Maryland. Hey Donald, we can get you a golf cart if that makes things easier. Just let my team know. Did Donald Trump, the President of the United States, lie about an injury to dodge the Vietnam draft?”

While Newsom is leading the charge of Democratic governors actively seeking to redistrict their states to offset the Republican mid-decade redistricting in Republican-dominated states, Moore is also stepping up to the plate, saying:

“[W]e…need to make sure that if the president of the United States is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win in a ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters’ voices can actually be heard.”

Trump is also inadvertently putting a spotlight on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who was targeted in an arson attack in April.

Shapiro recently delivered a powerful denunciation of political violence in America, warning against the kind of “selective condemnation” coming from Trump.

“I don’t care if it’s coming from the left or the right: We need to be universal in our condemnation. The president has once again failed that leadership test, failed the morality test, and it makes us all less safe.”

Americans want leaders who will stand up to Trump with tough, intelligent, pro-democracy clarity — in contrast to Trump’s adolescent neofascist belligerence.

Trump’s threats to occupy major blue cities, redistrict red states, and condemn violence on the left but not on the right are giving four governors in particular — Newsom, Pritzker, Moore, and Shapiro — a national stage to show their stuff. They are doing so with wit, eloquence, and determination.

One of them could be our next president.

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/
Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org.

Newsom mocks Trump with Taylor Swift-themed video as new album drops

Taylor Swift's new album "Life of a Showgirl" dropped Friday, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) didn't waste any time dropping a new video mocking President Donald Trump set to one of the bops.

The video is set to Swift's "Actually Romantic," a song reportedly about another rift between the pop star and Brat songstress Charli XCX, who penned the song based on her popular album “Everything Is Romantic,” The New York Times reports.

In the video posted on Newsom's socials, it takes clips from Trump and Newsom visiting fire burn areas in the Golden State and chatting, shaking hands, then cuts to all the times the president has called California's governor "Newscum" and criticized him online.

"But it’s actually sweet," the lyrics go. "All the time you’ve spent on me."

Then, the montage moves to a recent post from Trump saying Swift is "not hot" and ends with an image of Newsom's latest swag attack featuring a white tank top in red text saying "Trump is not hot."

Gavin Newsom trolls JD Vance with new AI couch and makeup videos

California Governor Gavin Newsom mocked JD Vance with an AI video showing the vice president praising couches and an old photograph of him wearing a blonde wig and makeup when he was a student.

Newsom's office's X account has recently leaned into pushing AI content mocking President Donald Trump and other MAGA figures.

Another AI-generated image from the account on Tuesday ridiculed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's speech criticising "fat" generals, with the fake picture showing Trump eating burgers delivered by drones in McDonald's bags.

The Vance videos reference an unfounded rumor that went viral during the 2024 election that he had written about getting intimate with a couch. The pictures of Vance in a wig are believed to have been taken at a party in Yale in 2012.

“Yes, there’s a photo of me in drag from a college party, and that’s normal. Everyone experiments in college, costumes, makeup, whatever, totally normal,” Vance says in one of the fake videos. “But what I don’t understand is why people are so obsessed with this other thing, couch intimacy.”

“Look, couches are comfortable, they’re dependable. They support you when you’re down. If you can’t appreciate that kind of bond, maybe you’re the one with issues.”

Another AI video from Newsom's office on Tuesday showed Vance praising couches and delivering a history of them.

The videos resemble in style those Trump and his allies have pushed mocking Democrats, with a slew from the president this week referencing the QAnon "medbeds" conspiracy theory, and containing racist images of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.