California Gov. Gavin Newsom can't read the room. While Trump's election landslide triggered pledges of better behavior from terror groups, and even red-faced Democrats vowed to re-examine their party's radical version of Maslow's hierarchy of political needs, Newsom went in the other direction.
The very embodiment of California's radical ideas, Kamala Harris, lost the presidential election decisively. For others, that might cause a spasm of introspection, but not Gavin Newsom.
The anti-crime Proposition 36, which Newsom opposed and wanted to strip from the ballot before relenting, passed by more than two to one. Former Attorney General Harris refused to tell reporters how she voted on this measure. Newsom's opposition was loud and cynical.
Within hours of the election, with zero moments of introspection, Newsom named himself the king of the #Resistance and pledged to do everything in his power to block attempts to "Make America Great Again." He announced a "special session" of the California legislature to fund this new, planned phalanx of lawsuits against Trump. The announcement was a "stunt," as Dan Walters put it. The legislature was already meeting on Dec. 2 in a regular session.
Newsom's leap to the left is despite election results showing his state lurching to the right, as I discuss in my West Coast, Messed Coast™: Revenge of the Normies piece. Did Newsom declare himself the leader of the Trump #Resistance hoping his efforts would help people? No. It was meant to elevate his stature as the next great presidential hope for 2028.
But Newsom's political instincts suck.
He "lost" billions in the COVID employment scam. He lost billions in a COVID deal with China and has been accused in a pay-to-play scandal.
Even though California was swimming in federal COVID cash he spent the state into a $45 billion deficit.
This X user has compiled a few more of Newsom's "accomplishments."
Gavin Newsom is once again
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) November 11, 2024
abandoning California for Washington D.C. to meet with the Biden administration and CA Congressional delegation.
Other than serving as a cautionary tale, Gavin Newsom has no business speaking on policy in DC… Or anywhere pic.twitter.com/yKGKzR4bs5
During Trump's first term, Newsom loosed his radical attorney general, Rob Bonta, he of gun-grabbing fame, to use millions of state taxpayer funds to bring 110 lawsuits against the Trump Administration.
Back when Rachel Maddow and her TDS-afflicted MSNBC colleagues made Trump's tax returns a cause célèbre, Newsom and his super-majority Democrat legislature passed a measure to outlaw any presidential candidate from the ballot who refused to turn over his tax returns. It was slapped down in court like many, but not all, of their other attempts to "Get Trump."
Newsom and Bonta sued the Trump Administration for easing some of the nation's draconian environmental rules. They also sued to defend the state's costly cap and tax goals and vehicle emissions policies.
California sued over the Trump Administration's termination of the Obama Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program. The state sued Trump over the Census Bureau question about citizenship, which as I explained in my Did Trump #Resisters Try to Rig the 2024 Election? piece was used to feather California's electoral nest.
Newsom and company sued over Trump not wanting trans people in the military because he didn't want to pay for their sex change surgeries.
Newsom is ineligible to run for governor again. He terms out in 2026 and a collection of even more radical candidates have announced for the job already. Talentless Kamala Harris is also toying with trying to ruin her state even further by running for governor.
Instead of showing a shred of humility, Newsom hopes that his organized resistance will propel him to the front of the 2028 Democrat presidential pack.
The "Trump Effect" has convinced cartels to pull back that huge "carousel" caravan south of the border. The Houthis pledged to pull back the terror group's attacks from Yemen. Qatar informed Hamas terrorist leaders they need to leave town, where they've been living it up on other people's money. Putin says he's ready for "peace" talks. The European Union is considering buying LNG from the U.S. instead of paying Putin and funding his Ukraine War.
Newsom's response to the "Trump Effect" consists of putting a legal stick in the spokes of whatever Trump proposes during his second term.
Get the popcorn.
