Donald Trump lashed out at Gavin Newsom for damaging his image at the Davos summit in Switzerland this week.
The forum was attended by California’s governor, who spent time criticizing the president and his administration while urging allies to “stand together.” At one point, the 58-year-old claimed he had been denied entry to the US hub airport.
On Wednesday, Newsom watched Trump address political and business leaders before criticizing the president’s “boring and sometimes rude” speech.
“It was a trivial matter. He said what we all know: he would not invade Greenland,” he told the Guardian.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (center) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum at the Davos Convention Center in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21. /Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump has backed off threats of military invasion and tariffs on other European countries, but he still can’t seem to get over Newsom’s emergence.
Trump blames Newsom
“Gavin Newscum, as the ‘lame duck’ governor of a failed state, should not be running around Davos screaming for the attention of foreign leaders and embarrassing our country,” Trump, 79, complained on the website Truth Social. “He made a mockery of himself and everyone, including his staff, knew it!”
Trump went on to attack the term-limited governor who cannot run for re-election in 2028 on specific issues in California.
Trump concluded: “With a record like his, one of the most beautiful places on earth being destroyed and people leaving in droves, it’s hard to imagine him running for president, but who knows, it’s a very strange world!”
Newsom, 58, responded succinctly to Trump’s 158-word attack.
“Rent free,” he wrote on the X.
Newsom happily shared Trump’s post, saying it was an example of the president’s fascination with him. /X/Gavin Newsome
Newsom also attacked Trump supporters who follow the president in criticizing him.
When radio host Bill Mitchell captioned a photo of Newsom, “That’s the look you get when you don’t win and you know it,” the Democrat shot back: “That’s the look you get when every Make America Great Again doormat can’t stop talking about you.”
Newsom also spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as a de facto anti-Trump envoy. / Fabrice Coferini/AFP/Getty Images
It was only a matter of time before White House Communications Director Steven Chang stepped in.
Chang, who recently held Newsom accountable for his criticism of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and world leaders in Davos for fawning over Trump, provided his own caption for Newsom’s photo.
He wrote on
Fox News’ attacks on Newsom continued late into the night.
Despite Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s misgivings about Newsom selling knee braces bearing Trump’s signature, Katie Miller, wife of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, said there was widespread voting and welfare fraud in his state and complained that Newsom “still hasn’t turned over his voter rolls or welfare rolls to us.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Newsom’s office and the White House for comment.
Previously, the White House told The Daily Beast that “no one in Davos knows who Newsakam is or why he is hanging out in Switzerland instead of solving the many problems he has created in California.”
