President-elect Trump is reluctant to embrace Governor Gavin Newsom’s aggressive and visible campaign to protect California from the Trump White House.
“Governor Gavin Newscome is trying to kill our beautiful California,” President Trump wrote on his Truth social account Friday, using the nickname often used for the state’s Democratic governor.
Trump’s post came a day after the governor called a special session of the state Legislature to prepare for potential Republican-led attacks on abortion rights, environmental protections and disaster funding in the liberal state.
Trump said Newsom is using the term “Trump-proof” as a way to stop all the great things he could do to “make California great again,” but I just won the election by a landslide. ” he wrote.
Mr. Newsom’s preemptive strike signals a return to rivalry between Democratic-controlled California and the Trump administration.
Newsom said in a video address to small donors and supporters Friday afternoon that he felt nostalgic for President Trump’s criticism.
“This is a tired old scenario of complaints. There’s no prescription. There’s no solution. It’s just complaints,” he said.
The governor’s proclamation heading into the largely symbolic special session states that President Trump will restrict access to abortion pills, pursue a nationwide abortion ban, dismantle environmental protections, repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, The administration has said it expects it may withhold federal disaster response funds. Among other promises he made during the campaign.
Newsom is calling on lawmakers to immediately file lawsuits and provide additional funding to the California Department of Justice and other agencies within his administration to defend against lawsuits from the Trump administration.
The governor’s aides said the state’s legal defense increase will be funded by higher-than-expected income tax revenues this fiscal year, but the amount of funding will be determined through negotiations at the state Capitol. The special session is scheduled to begin on December 2nd.
The president-elect on Truth criticized California’s Democratic leadership for “insane policy decisions” and blamed it on people fleeing the expensive state. (California’s population grew by 0.17% last year, after three years of decline, according to state data.)
“They’re making it impossible to make affordable cars, we have an unchecked and disproportionate homelessness catastrophe, and the cost of everything, especially ‘groceries,’ is spiraling out of control.” President Trump wrote.
President Trump’s social media posts included a promise to require voters’ identification and proof of citizenship to vote. This fall, Newsom signed legislation that prohibits local governments from imposing voter identification requirements.
The president-elect also wants to “reroute millions of gallons of water a day from the north to the Pacific Ocean, rather than letting it be used for free in towns, cities, and farms across California.” criticized.
President Trump, speaking at his Rancho Palos Verdes Golf Club in September, spoke out against California leaders over water allocation and environmental laws aimed at protecting endangered fish species such as the small Delta smelt. He expressed his intention to revive his first-term rivalry with the others.
To prevent wildfires, he said, “we will pump water back into the hills where there is a lot of dead forest and where the forest is fragile.” and threatened to withhold federal fire aid to California unless “Newscam” agreed to “sign these documents.” This clearly refers to water policy, but he did not specify which document.
In an interview days before the election, the governor praised President Trump’s victory, calling him “Newscam” by his nickname.
“We’re obviously in his head, and from my perspective, that’s a good thing,” Newsom said. “It means we’re doing the right thing.”
Trump and Newsom sparred on social media, in the press and in court during the president-elect’s first term, but their relationship wasn’t necessarily rocky. The governor has publicly praised Trump multiple times for providing federal aid to California’s wildfires. Trump also used footage of Newsom praising Newsom for sending coronavirus testing swabs to California in an ad during his 2020 presidential campaign.
The two had maintained a friendly relationship behind the scenes, but that relationship appears to have ended.
In a video address Friday, Newsom thanked those who tuned in to help elect Democrats in 2024, a total of 35,000 people he said.
He said he respects the office of the president and wants Trump to succeed. But he is not naive about the president-elect’s policies.
“We know the strategy,” Newsom said. “He’s going to be more aggressive than before.”
The governor said the special session was about getting ready, and hinted that other preparations were in the works.
“We are by no means done,” Newsom said.
