(LifeSiteNews) — Thoughts running through Gavin Newsom’s well-gelled head while watching President Donald Trump’s inauguration at home on TV likely focused on how the Democratic Party, and possibly his own political future, could have imploded so completely.
The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, along with the Golden State’s steep decline on his watch, have renewed calls to remove Newsom from office before his second term as California’s governor ends in January 2027.
Had Joe Biden stuck to his previous suggestion that he would serve a single term as president, 2024 might have been Newsom’s best shot at executing his master plan to occupy the White House.
Newsom, 57, has been laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign for years and is almost certain to run in 2028. Publication in May of his new book, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, will mark his latest attempt to raise his national profile.
Founded in April 2023, Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy super PAC aimed at “an aggressive, coordinated and sustained state-by-state organizing campaign through the 2024 election … to confront and defeat unAmerican authoritarianism. America is in an existential struggle for democracy.”
The alarmist talking points about “extremist Republicans” were later used nearly verbatim by Biden and then Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ swap-out candidate.
Newsom raised tens of millions of dollars for the Democratic National Committee and progressive candidates in state and national races across the country, dispensing IOUs to ensure support for a future presidential bid.
Homosexual “marriage” was Newsom’s signature issue during his two terms as mayor of San Francisco, which were followed by two terms as California’s lieutenant governor. As governor, he declared the state an abortion “sanctuary” days after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
The publicity hound later toured GOP-led states that had enacted laws against abortion, trolling elected officials and renting billboards proclaiming, “Need an abortion? California is ready to help.”
Newsom was interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity in June 2023, his first appearance on the conservative network in two decades. He defended Biden’s fitness for office and endorsed his reelection, but dodged Hannity’s question about whether his own supporters were urging him to jump into the presidential race. Polls at the time showed only half of Democratic voters wanted Biden to run again.
Striving to appear statesmanlike, Newsom visited Israel in October 2023 soon after the invasion by Hamas, meeting with Californians injured in the attack. He then proceeded to Beijing, where he was warmly welcomed by Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and photographed at the nearby Great Wall.
Newsom debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox in November 2023, awkwardly acting as Biden’s surrogate. “Why don’t you just admit it?” the Republican presidential candidate baited Newsom. “You’re running.”
Seeking a fresh cause, Newsom has pushed for passage of a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on gun control – not anticipating that Biden on his way out the door would claim dibs on that number for the Equal Rights Amendment he insisted is now in effect. Thirty-four states would need to pass resolutions calling for a constitutional convention to consider Newsom’s longshot idea, but only California has done so.
Newsom allies have backpedaled on his gun control project in the wake of Trump’s decisive victory, conceding the national “vibe shift” away from the governor’s brand of hard-left politics. Last month, a leading liberal state senator voted against Newsom’s call for a national constitutional convention, warning that with populist conservatism on the upswing such an unscripted event could backfire badly on progressives.
The woke Biden policies that Trump criticized in his inaugural address and reversed with his first batch of executive orders are entrenched in California, representing Newsom’s core beliefs and constituency. Unless the electoral zeitgeist turns against Trump in a major way, the collision of political ideologies promises stiff headwinds for Newsom in 2028.
Trump pledged to end the Green New Deal and revoke Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, then promptly withdrew from the Paris climate treaty. California remains committed to a slew of state “climate change” programs, including the banning of new gas-powered cars by 2035.
Trump has abolished DEI within the federal government, while Newsom prioritizes identity politics and functions as the state’s DEI hiring manager. In 2023 he appointed a black lesbian, Laphonza Butler, to the vacant U.S. Senate seat caused by the death of Dianne Feinstein. The move repaired a racial rift within Newsom’s base dating to his appointment in 2021 of Alex Padilla to the Senate seat vacated by newly elected Vice President Harris.
That pleased some supporters by making Padilla the state’s first Hispanic senator, but displeased others because it left the nation without a black female senator. As a sort of consolation prize, Newsom within hours named Shirley Weber, a black woman, to replace Padilla as California’s secretary of state. Ironically, Butler did not seek election to the Senate seat last November, and it was won by Adam Schiff, a white man.
After stating to great applause during his inaugural address that “there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump issued an executive order titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
California is not at all on board. Newsom signed the “Menstrual Equity for All Act” in 2021, requiring public schools to stock free menstrual products in at least one male restroom. He signed a 2022 law making California the nation’s first “sanctuary” for gender-confused children, enabling them to obtain “gender transition” interventions that would be illegal in their home states.
Last July, Newsom inked the first law in the U.S. prohibiting school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of changes in their child’s gender identification or pronouns. Last November, the state began requiring prospective foster parents to explicitly affirm that a child can change his or her “gender identity.” Both measures stand a very good chance of being invalidated by state or federal courts, as dozens of other leftist laws approved by Newsom have been.
Even before the L.A. infernos, many Californians were unhappy with Newsom for reasons ranging from the nation’s highest gas taxes to the worst homelessness crisis. The governor also found himself on the wrong side of public safety last November, as he opposed a ballot initiative to crack down on crime and drug use that passed with almost 70 percent of the vote.
Today, Newsom is facing a new recall effort led by a group called Saving California that is gaining traction. He survived a recall election in 2021 when only 38 percent of voters opted to boot him from office, well below the simple majority vote required for removal.
Yet nearly 40 percent of the state’s voters chose Trump last November, compared to his 34.4 percent of the vote against Biden in 2020 and his 31.6 percent against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
If Saving California collects enough signatures to force a second recall election, the 50 percent threshold could be exceeded if enough disgruntled Democrats join the growing ranks of Republicans. A fed-up electorate might borrow the tagline from Trump’s former television show and tell Gavin he’s fired.
Newsom’s dream of attending his own presidential inaugural ball would surely be gone forever.
Robert Jenkins is a pseudonym for a Catholic writer living in Sacramento, California.