Newsom Tries to Find Political Footing in Clash With Trump

Facing a gaping budget hole, an electorate that decided his attention was elsewhere and middling reviews on Apple Podcasts, Gov. Gavin Newsom began the first half of 2025 searching for relevance and purpose.

That all changed this week.

Newsom stood before a camera on Tuesday night and delivered remarks seemingly aimed at positioning himself as President Donald Trump’s number one opponent — and perhaps the Democratic Party’s heir apparent. In the nine-minute speech, the governor tore into Trump’s decision to send armed troops to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests in and around the city, and framed it as part of a larger power grab by the president.

“When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is all about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here,” Newsom warned. “And other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”

It didn’t hurt that the confrontation with Trump gave the governor a break from a thicket of thorny issues back at the state capitol. But after months during which both the governor and Democrats more broadly have struggled to find a coherent message to push back against the president, Newsom seized a volatile moment to speak not just to California but to the nation — and seemed to find his footing.

“He’s rising to the moment,” said state Sen. Josh Becker, a Bay Area Democrat who has known Newsom since the governor was a fresh-faced supervisor in San Francisco.

“I think Democrats have been looking for leadership and this is the kind of leadership they want,” Becker added. “Donald Trump is a bully. He is a bully 100% and the only way to confront a bully is to stand up to a bully, and Gavin Newsom is standing up to him right now — and I think he’s earning the admiration and appreciation of Californians and the nation.”

Newsom’s speech followed a dayslong legal and rhetorical battle with Trump, who took the rare step of ordering the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles over Newsom’s objections. On Sunday, Newsom challenged Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to arrest him — “Just get it over with,” Newsom insisted — which Trump said would be a “great thing.”

The next day, Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging the military deployment.

The back and forth laid bare the strange relationship between Trump and Newsom, who have at times appeared friendly, like when the president traveled to L.A. during the fires there in January. But they both have also relished using the other person as a politically convenient foil to play to their respective bases.

“Look, I like Gavin Newsom — he’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent,” Trump said Sunday when asked about the incendiary idea of arresting a democratically elected governor. Trump went on to say that Newsom’s crime was “running for governor.”

There have been many twists and turns over the years between Newsom and Trump.

In Trump’s first term, Newsom stepped forward immediately as one of the president’s most vocal Democratic critics. But this year, Newsom has treaded more carefully. He has let other Democrats, namely California Attorney General Rob Bonta, take the lead on pushing back against Trump’s agenda. Some of that shift can be attributed to the devastating Los Angeles fires earlier this year and the state’s need for federal assistance.

But it’s also created some political problems for Newsom — and this showdown with Trump could shore up support for the governor among California Democrats, who have questioned the termed-out governor’s political intentions and policy agenda for his final 18 months in the Capitol.

Newsom’s proposal to close a projected $12 billion budget shortfall rested on cuts to Medicaid coverage for undocumented residents — an idea that garnered fierce pushback from immigrant advocacy groups. A podcast he launched this year, featuring interviews with far-right figures, angered many in his own party — especially after the governor made comments that many on the left saw as throwing transgender kids under the bus.

And voters seemed to question whether Newsom’s eyes were wandering toward the White House. A recent poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found 54% of California voters thought Newsom was focusing more on bolstering a future run for president than on governing the state. Even Democrats were split evenly on this question of the governor’s political compass.

California Republican strategist Tim Rosales said the chance to climb back in the ring with Trump provides a welcome respite for Newsom from tough governing choices that could further divide the governor from his base.

“Anything that he can do to kind of deflect attention from some of those things and pick a fight with President Trump is certainly beneficial for him,” Rosales said. “It puts Governor Newsom back on the national stage, which is, we all know, where he wants to be and I think where he has eyes toward for 2028.”

That sense — that Newsom is acting out of his own interests, with an eye on his political future — has long dogged the governor.

But some Democrats who have clashed with Newsom in the past said they were heartened by the governor’s shift in tone and message this week.

“He’s stepping up in this time. He’s stepping up for Californians, and it’s something I think we were hungry for,” said California Labor Federation president Lorena Gonzalez.

Gonzalez is a former state Assembly member who has undertaken public policy fights with Newsom in the past. But she praised his Tuesday speech for calling out the indiscriminate nature of Trump’s immigration raids — and said the integral role of undocumented immigrants in California necessitated a response from the state’s highest officeholder.

“There is nothing I think that Gavin Newsom has ever done to suggest that he doesn’t have that type of desire to stand up for Californians, all Californians and protect them from deportation when they’re not criminals. So I think it’s very consistent. I don’t think it is opportunist,” she said.

An ever-escalating confrontation is not without risk for Newsom. For one, the governor is largely responding to developments outside of his control. Trump could very well benefit politically with his own base if troops are needed to maintain order — and he could use any confrontation as justification to roll out troops in other Democratic cities, and as a pretense for further escalation nationally.

Newsom, by pushing back against those deployments, is betting that state and local officials can keep acts of violence or vandalism isolated and the situation in control.

In the meantime, the governor has joined Trump in using the events in Los Angeles to rally his political supporters.

On Monday, Trump’s political arm sent an email blast to backers warning of an “ATTACK ON THE HOMELAND.” Then on Wednesday, Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy PAC issued his own appeal in a text, alongside a request for $10 and $20 donations.

“Gavin Newsom here, asking if there is ANYTHING I can say to convince you to donate to help me continue to fight back against the attacks and threats from the Trump administration,” the text read. “I can’t do this alone.”

Accompanying the text was a photo of Newsom and Trump facing one another, the governor wagging his finger at the president.