Gavin Newsom Prepares to Succeed Trump in the White House

Those of us in California have put up with Gavin Newsom inflicting himself upon us for almost three decades, since he joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1997. Then mayor, lieutenant governor and governor. Now he obviously wants a promotion to the Oval Office.

His problem is he rarely has been challenged. In 2018, the Los Angeles Times headlined his cushy background, “How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent.” These are San Francisco’s elite. The Getty Oil family, especially, bankrolled him. Another family, the Pritzkers, produced Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois. He’s a potential rival if he maxes out the Ozempic. Assuming HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr. doesn’t cancel the whole glucagon-like peptide-1 instigator industry in his jihad against Big Pharma.

By the time Newsom ran for governor in 2018, California had become a strongly Democratic state, with GOP candidates lucky if they got 40% statewide. The Legislature became supermajority – more than two-thirds – Democratic. Just mouth Dem talking points to make the dominant public-employee union bosses salivate like Pavlov’s dog.

Newsom just announced a new podcast, which he promised will included conservative sparring partners as guests. “Look at the lineup at CPAC,” he promised, meaning the reactionary worthies speaking at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.

It’s a smart move. He didn’t do that well against Gov. Ron DeSantis in their debate in the fall of 2023. Although, as I pointed out at the time, by backing radical left policies he scored his goal of impressing left-wing influencers crucial to his gaining victories in the spring 2028 Democratic primaries.

The problem is last November Donald Trump won all seven swing states. And Newsom’s California vibes are going to be a bad sell. Most recently, the disastrous wildfires that burned down large parts of Los Angeles County were blamed, rightly or wrongly, by Trump on Newsom denying water from Northern California to Southern California.

Then there are the highest state taxes in the land. Even New York doesn’t match them – although New York City is slightly higher than here, with a top income rate of 14.776% compared to California’s 14.3%. But the worst is, in California the middle-class income tax hits at 10.4%, higher than for billionaires in almost every other state. And that hits especially hard because just to live here you have to work long hours to pay for everything, especially housing. He boosted those tax rates each by 1 point a year ago.

We’re Newsom’s slaves. No wonder so many of my friends are exiting to Nashville. Their taxes are in California which is why they’re headed to Tennessee.

Newsom has dyslexia, so he has mastered memorizing facts. His budget press conferences, when he holds them, show his mastery of the data. The talent is there. So the problem, in addition to his disastrous reign, is his oleaginous personality is going to have a hard time playing in Peoria. I grew up in Michigan and remember how Jerry Brown’s personality didn’t sell well there when, as governor, he ran for president in 1976 and 1980. He was branded “Gov. Moonbeam.” What about California Gov. Ronald Reagan? He hailed from Tampico, Illinois, 66 miles from Peoria.

Things are moving so fast now we can’t parse what the issues will be in three years. But Newsom needs to brush up on foreign policy. His trip to Communist China in fall 2023 was a disaster in which he was played by the Chinese Communist Party like a cheap violin made in one of their sweatshops.

No doubt his podcast guests will include Republicans who will be defending Trump’s policies on Russia, Ukraine, China, the Middle East, etc. But he also likely will include hawkish neocon Republicans.

And he will try to revamp his personality, which is way too smooth. The temptation will be to try imitating Trump. Instead, Newsom needs to come up with some way to appeal to those Flyover Country voters while not alienating the crazies dominating his own party.

Unfortunately, as a California political writer for 38 years, I’ll have to watch all this. That’s why they pay me the big bucks.