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Instead of trying to correct the monumental problems that he has caused as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom sought the limelight on the global stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He tried to play to the media as a fierce Trump critic and presidential wannabe who supposedly knows all about world affairs. But he flopped miserably. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was spot on when he said that Governor Newsom strikes him as “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken,” referring to the main character of American Psycho and the Barbie doll’s boyfriend, respectively. Secretary Bessent went on to say that Newsom is “too economically illiterate to know anything.”
Governor Newsom reached a new low when he displayed kneepads that he is selling online to symbolize his vulgar claim that European nations and U.S. corporations, universities, and law firms have been groveling at President Trump’s feet. Newsom first made a reference to kneepads when he criticized European countries for not standing up to President Trump. “It’s time to buck up, it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” Governor Newsom said when asked if he had anything to say to Europeans concerned about the Trump administration’s comments on acquiring Greenland. “It’s time to stand tall and firm and have a backbone. I can’t take this complicity, people rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of kneepads for all the world leaders.”
That is just a sample of the nonsensical rhetoric that Governor Newsom was delivering publicly while cavorting in Davos. During a private Zoom call with European diplomats in which he was dispensing gratuitous advice on how to handle President Trump’s Greenland annexation threats, he went even further. Apparently forgetting that the camera was still on, he told European leaders that they needed to “kick Trump square in the mofuggin c*nt.”
In just a short few days, Governor Newsom managed to demonstrate that he is a laughingly pathetic caricature of a leader. This hanger-on should have brought a clown suit to wear in Davos as he repeatedly made a fool of himself in front of world leaders, business titans, and the media.
The hapless California governor whined about being excluded from participating in a group discussion held at the USA House, the official U.S. venue at the Davos World Economic Forum. Again, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was right on point when he said, “I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he’s not speaking. Because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit. The largest homeless population in America, and the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down. He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless.”
While Governor Newsom was frolicking around, President Trump was busy in Davos protecting America’s interests and officially launching his historic Board of Peace. And by applying pressure on Greenland, Denmark, and their European allies, President Trump was able to negotiate a framework of a deal with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the Davos summit. Once the details are finalized in further discussions with Denmark and Greenland officials, the U.S. would obtain more control over portions of Greenland for military bases. A new NATO security mission in the Arctic would be established to defend against future Russian and Chinese aggression. Moreover, Russia and China would be barred from obtaining rights to mine the rare-earth minerals underneath the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Discussing his understanding of President Trump’s security priorities during an interview with Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier on January 21st, Mr. Rutte said: “He is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region – where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active – how we can protect it.”
Governor Newsom does not understand the first thing about how to use leverage in negotiations, which is precisely what President Trump has done. He also does not understand the first thing about how to think outside of the box in devising effective global geo-political strategies. Instead, Newsom insulted European leaders for not standing up to President Trump.
In his World Economic Forum address, President Trump was diplomatic but firm at the same time. He proclaimed that “The United States cares greatly about the people of Europe” and that “we believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe as a civilization. I want to see it do great.” However, the president also told European leaders what they needed to hear about their stagnant economies.
“In recent decades,” President Trump said, “it became conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration, and endless foreign imports.” He added, “The consequences of such destructive policies have been stark — including lower economic growth, lower standards of living, lower birthrates, more socially disruptive migration, more vulnerability to hostile foreign adversaries, and much, much smaller militaries.”
Governor Newsom predictably dismissed President Trump’s Davos speech as “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant.” Governor Newsom should have listened more carefully to what President Trump had to say and learned a thing or two about how to fix his own state’s faltering economy. But the California governor is remarkably clueless on how far he has driven his own state into the ground, causing people to leave California in droves.
Indeed, Governor Newsom lives in an alternative universe, as he demonstrated in Davos when he painted a dystopian picture of the United States since President Trump took office for the second time while extolling how well California has been doing.
“Look, give me a category and California outperforms,” Governor Newsom boasted while childishly trolling President Trump in Davos. He pointed to what he falsely claimed was California’s “higher wages, higher quality of life.”
California has indeed outperformed the rest of the country but only as one of the worst governed states in the country, if not the worst governed state of all.
Let’s look at a few key categories of performance to see how badly California has been doing during Governor Newsom’s tenure.
California has highest cost-of-living-adjusted poverty rate in the United States, the highest state unemployment rate, and the highest homeless rate in the country. California also has the highest energy prices in the continental U.S. And California has the largest population of illegal immigrants in the fifty states. Yet, despite facing another multi billion dollar deficit, Governor Newsom’s administration has made Medi-Cal available to illegal immigrants. In Davos, Governor Newsom said that he was proud that California is “one of 16 states to provide care to people regardless of immigration status.”
Sadly, ordinary California citizens are paying the price for Newsom’s disastrous policies.
As Dave McCulloch, Chairman of the Transparency Foundation, said, “In every household budget category, the cost of living in California is exponentially higher than the national average – and costly mandates and bad policies are to blame.” The Transparency Foundation is the non-profit, non-partisan group that published last November a devastating study of California’s outlandish cost of living across the board.
The Transparency Foundation’s Cost of California Report concluded that “a typical middle-class family of three earning $130,000 a year faces a ‘Cost of California’ penalty of $29,753.16 versus if they simply paid the national average of cost in each category. The simple truth is California politicians are uniquely to blame for the financial burdens imposed on working families in their state.”
The head politician in California has been Governor Newsom since January 7, 2019. It has been downhill for this once great state ever since. Yet, in his final State of State Speech on January 8, 2026, Governor Newsom previewed his flight from reality that he brought with him to Davos. He claimed that California is providing “a policy blueprint for others to follow.”
If others do decide to follow California’s policy blueprint, they will be following a blueprint for failure, in contrast to the Trump administration’s overwhelming record of success.
