President Trump has rekindled his bitter rivalry with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, by deploying 2,000 soldiers to Los Angeles.
Newsom, 57, is one of the early frontrunners to become the Democratic presidential candidate in 2028.
A Napa Valley vineyard owner, he has established California as a bastion of liberal resistance to Trump’s presidency.
This year Newsom set aside $50 million to “Trump-proof” California, the wealthiest state in the US, promising to mount legal challenges to White House overreach.
The former mayor of San Francisco came to national prominence when he ignored a state law to allow gay marriage in the city in 2004.
• Latest updates on the LA riots
Trump has responded furiously to Newsom’s truculence, having previously scrapped with him over the Covid pandemic, the border with Mexico and wildfires in Los Angeles.
Trump blamed January’s devastating fires on Newsom’s “gross incompetence”. Ridiculing California’s environmental protection laws, which limit water extraction from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta to preserve the habitat of the endangered delta smelt, Trump accused Newsom of caring less about the people of LA than about some “essentially worthless fish”.
Newsom is regarded as a moderate Democrat who is determined to avoid culture wars
NOAH BERGER/AP
Given that he is constitutionally barred from a third term as president, some believe Trump is spending too much time engaging with a Democrat with clear ambitions.
Yet Trump has teased the prospect of a third term: he thrilled Republicans at a White House party last week with another hint of his hopes for 2028. “We’re going to do it for four more years,” he said, to ecstatic cheers. “Maybe eight more years.”
• California’s Gavin Newsom to sue Trump over ‘unlawful’ tariffs
More broadly, Trump enjoys casting himself against a Democratic antagonist. Like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, Newsom has earned himself a nickname from the president — “Newscum”.
Well aware of Trump’s political machinations, Newsom has accused him of deploying the National Guard to LA to deliberately orchestrate a showdown. He has appealed for calm.
“The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” he wrote on X.
Newsom finds himself defending the Latino communities resisting Trump’s immigration crackdown, something the US president may hope will alienate voters in middle America come 2028. But Newsom, whose term as California governor expires next year, has already started shedding his liberal bona fides ahead of an expected presidential run.
He came out against transgender women taking part in women’s sport after a controversy in California high schools gained national attention.
Trump threatened to withdraw federal funding from California amid a row over AB Hernandez, 16, a trans athlete who won the high jump and triple jump in a statewide competition.
“A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Yet Newsom is broadly seen as a moderate within the Democratic Party and his statement on transgender athletes was a clear attempt to avoid the culture wars issues that Trump thrives on.
Gavin Newsom, then the mayor of San Francisco, and Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2004
STEVE JENNINGS/WIREIMAGE/GETTY
Outside of politics, the two men have an intriguing personal history. Newsom’s ex-wife is Kimberly Guilfoyle, 56, Trump’s nomination for ambassador to Greece.
After splitting with Newsom, Guilfoyle, a former Fox News presenter, dated Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, until last year, during which time she became close to the president. At one point, Guilfoyle and Trump Jr were dubbed the “prom king and queen of Maga land”.
