Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) criticized Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for becoming allies of President Donald Trump after being the “most effective critics” of the president.
Newsom, who has said he is considering a 2028 presidential run, told MS Now his feelings about his possible opponents in the next presidential election, saying he doesn’t think Vance or Rubio can “carry out” the “MAGA flame,” when asked by anchor Jen Psaki.
“JD Vance and Marco Rubio were two of the most effective critics … of Donald Trump,” Newsom said. “What frauds. What phonies.”
Before supporting the president, both Vance and Rubio were outspoken critics of Trump in 2016.
While running against Trump in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, Rubio called Trump a “con artist.” After suspending his campaign, Rubio endorsed Trump and became a staunch supporter of the president.
Similar to Rubio, Vance said in 2016 he was a “never Trump guy” and compared Trump to “America’s Hitler,” but his tone changed when he announced he was running for Senate in Ohio as a Republican, becoming a defender of the president.
The vice president was pressed on his past comments about Trump during both his Senate campaign and when he joined the Trump ticket in 2024, saying he was “wrong” in the past.
For this reason, Newsom said Vance “scares” him “almost more than Trump.”
“Talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it,” Newsom said. “JD is a unique fraud and phony and he’s a little more dangerous.”
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Newsom’s comments about Vance and Rubio come amid him hitting the media circuit for the release of his memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.
The California governor said Vance and the people around him remind him of people he knew in the past.
“The folks around him, these are not folks who believe,” Newsom said. “I mean, listen to his biggest funders, the way they talk, there is a nihilism. I know these guys, I literally know them, not figuratively know them, some of them are in the book. Knew them back when.”
Newsom said he believes Trump will try to “run” out of having to make an endorsement about who will succeed him in 2028. While there has been speculation, neither Vance nor Rubio has announced a presidential campaign.
Over the last year, Newsom has been asked numerous times about a possible White House bid in 2028. While he has not given a definitive answer, he has left the possibility open.
Newsom said he “wouldn’t put it past” the president to run again in 2028, despite Trump being term-limited.
“God forbid we don’t take back the House of Representatives, [Trump] may be on that ballot,” Newsom said. “What he does is he tests all this. He throws this stuff out, sees how far, sees how you’re going to react. If you don’t react, all of a sudden it’s socialized, it’s normalized.”
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Newsom said the people need to “call out” Trump to prevent his actions from becoming “normalized.”
“That’s why it’s so important that we not say ‘Oh Trump is being Trump,’ perhaps those are the most damning words in the English language right now,” he said. “It’s not Trump being Trump, you got to call it out.”
“None of this is normal. It’s unconscionable,” he added.
