Feb. 16 – President Donald Trump denounced a clean energy deal between the United Kingdom and California Governor Gavin Newsom hours after it was signed on Monday, Politico reported.
In an interview with the media, Trump said that it was “inappropriate” for the United Kingdom to deal with Democratic governors. Trump, a Republican, also called Newsom a “loser,” saying “his state has gone to hell and his environmental efforts are a disaster.”
Newsom is an outspoken Trump critic and has publicly considered seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
The energy deal Newsom signed on Monday with British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband commits to cooperating on clean energy technologies such as offshore wind and aims to expand access to the California market for British companies.
“Donald Trump has caved to Big Coal and Oil and sold America’s future to China,” a Newsom spokesman said in an email. “Governor Newsom will continue to lead in his absence. Foreign leaders are rejecting Trump and choosing California’s vision for the future.”
Trump recently invited the oil and gas industry to nominate areas of southern and central California that could sell offshore oil and gas leases as early as next year, a move Newsom and environmental groups have decried as a threat to the state’s ecosystem.
In January, Newsom was barred from speaking at the official U.S. venue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a move he blamed on the White House.
(Reporting by Julia Hart; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Ziminski)
