Newsom and his team have successfully tapped into the need that many rank-and-file Democrats have for adopting a confrontational approach to Trump and his policies. But few people outside of California know much about the governor’s actual record — and many Democratic voters will be turned off to learn that his fervent opposition to a billionaire tax is part of an overall political approach that has trended more and more corporate-friendly.
A year ago, Newsom sent about 100 leaders of California-based companies a prepaid cell phone “programmed with Newsom’s digits and accompanied by notes from the governor himself,” POLITICO reported. One note to the CEO of a big tech corporation said, “If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away.” While pandering to business elites, Newsom has slashed budgets to assist the poor and near-poor with healthcare, housing and food – in a state where seven million live under the official poverty line and child poverty rates are the highest in the nation.
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“Governor Newsom’s reluctance to propose meaningful revenue solutions to help blunt the harm of federal cuts undermines his posture to counter the Trump administration.” The statement said that the proposed budget “will leave many Californians without food assistance and healthcare coverage.”
So far, key facts about Newsom’s policy priorities have scarcely gone beyond California’s borders. “National media have focused on Newsom as a personality and potential White House candidate and have almost completely ignored what he has and has not done as a governor,” said columnist Dan Walters, whose five decades covering California politics included 33 years at the Sacramento Bee. “It’s a perpetual failing of national political media to be more interested in image and gamesmanship rather than actual actions, the sizzle rather than the steak, and Newsom is very adept at exploiting that tendency.”
Also see https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/10/gavin-newsom-presidential-candidate-democrats
Like Trump, Newsom breaks promises, serves billionaire interests and mistakes social media theatrics for leadership. Is that really what American voters will want in 2028? After Richard Nixon, Americans chose Jimmy Carter. After George W Bush, they chose Barack Obama. After Trump, they’ll likely want change – authentic, strong, moral leadership, a leader with competence and vision.
Tariffs are a union issue, and I support tariffs on countries that undercut us on labor and environmental as well. Not supporting that, and rather supporting wall street exporting our jobs, our factories, and our technology, to China and the like, signing 99 year leases and building their factories for them, to be able to enslave their populations, forcing them to work 6-12’s, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, for starvation wages, and dump their toxins in the ditch, then bring it back here and undercut our remaining industry, forcing everyone to follow suit or go out of business, has led to a race to the bottom, both in labor and environmental regulations and in quality of products.
Only a fool wouldn’t support tariffs as such frankly. Not that the president could be trusted he is bad faith, but if the democrats didn’t abandon the working class the president wouldn’t have been able to do an end run around them, he never would’ve won 2016 without the trade issue he co-opted.
Just because the right co-opts something, do you oppose everything about that all of a sudden? If the republicans accuse you of stealing elections, just as a random hypothetical, while themselves stealing elections, do you defend all elections as safe even as they cheat? Do you not support laws that could provide safeguards against cheating, like giving a ticket with a number to a voter on request that could be referenced to make sure the vote was accurately counted after the fact? Because something has to be done, both because they are cheating, they are projecting that cheating, and the public on both sides doesn’t trust the elections anymore.
Same with trade, we all know globalism, neoliberalism, sold out the working classes, in the developed world, and most of all in the developing world being enslaved for the ruling class in those countries to develop, to use the greed of wall street to supplant those countries, to turn the inventors of the technology into consumers and not producers of those products it used to export, and cheap versions that break early at that.
As Bernie Sanders said when the president was elected in 2016, he was ready to work with him on trade on issues to protect the working class, even as we acknowledge he’s not in good faith and will not do it equitably. But evening the playing field to prevent selling out the working classes with tariffs is a Union Issue.