2028 looms over Newsom’s rebuke of Trump

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emotional appeal for resistance at a fraught moment for the country, his state, Los Angeles — and for his own political ambitions. Newsom used a nationally televised speech on Tuesday, June 10, to assert that President Donald Trump’s use of the military to control civil unrest in Los Angeles is a threat to American democracy.

It is too early to know whether Newsom’s handling of disturbances over immigration raids will affect a potential run for president — or even whether Newsom will seek the Democratic nomination in 2028.

But his forceful rebuke of Trump could raise Newsom’s national profile at a time when the Democratic Party has struggled to find its voice after a resounding defeat in the 2024 election.

“To Democrats looking for direction and leadership, Mr. Newsom used one of the highest profile moments of his political career to lay out the threat he argued President Trump posed to the nation, and how Americans should resist it,” The New York Times wrote in an analysis. “And he suggested he was the man to lead that fight.”

Fox News, however, wrote that Newsom’s possible run for the White House “was likely thwarted” by his handling of the Los Angeles protests. The network attributed its conclusion to “conservative social media critics.”

‘A perilous moment’

In an address titled “Democracy at a Crossroads,” Newsom spoke on the fifth day of protests against federal immigration raids in Los Angeles. The protests had been mostly peaceful, with sporadic violence, before Trump took command of the California National Guard from Newsom on Sunday, June 8, and deployed 2,000 troops to protect federal agents and property in Los Angeles. Trump later dispatched 2,000 more Guard troops, along with 700 U.S. Marines.

Newsom has sued Trump in a federal district court in San Francisco over deploying military forces, and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, on the governor’s motion for an emergency injunction.

In the speech, Newsom said Trump “inflamed a combustible situation” created by raids aimed at making good on the president’s pledge to carry out mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants.

Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially targeted day laborers and garment workers near downtown Los Angeles. When raids continued this week, armed National Guard troops in full combat gear accompanied ICE officers. 

“Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles,” Newsom said. “Well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals, his agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses.”

Newsom said American democracy was in “a perilous moment.”

“This isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles,” he said. “This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. The moment we’ve feared has arrived.”

White House pushes back

White House officials mocked and insulted Newsom minutes after his speech ended.

“NewScum must’ve hired Kamala and Biden’s loser campaign team because he (is) saying this is a ‘threat to democracy,’” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who has directed much of Trump’s immigration policy, posted a picture of a masked protester waving a Mexican flag atop a vandalized self-driving car.

“According to Governor Newsom, this is what the Founders were fighting for,” he wrote.

A White House rapid response account on X said Newsom had claimed Trump “is ‘traumatizing our communities’ by taking criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and domestic abusers off the streets.”

Newsom responded with his own post: “Was the four year old the gangbanger? Was the pregnant woman the rapist? We go after serious violent criminals in California. That’s not what you are doing.”

Pivoting to the right

With his second term as governor ending in 2026, Newsom has long been considered a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 — especially after Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris to return to the White House.

In the months since last year’s election, Newsom has pivoted rightward, at times breaking with the Democratic Party on high-profile issues. 

His budget proposal for the next fiscal year called for limiting free health care for indigent Californians who are immigrants illegally in the country. He pressured California cities to outlaw encampments for homeless people. He angered LGBTQ+ advocates when he said it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. And when he launched a new podcast, he gave a platform to prominent right-wing political figures.

“The world’s changed,” Newsom said recently. “We need to change with it in terms of how we communicate. We’d be as dumb as we want to be if we continue down the old status quo and try to pave over the old cow path. We’ve got to do things differently.”

Face of the Democrats?

A national poll of 1,462 likely voters conducted last month by the consulting firm co/efficient found that just 2% named Newsom as the “current face of the Democratic Party.” At 26%, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was tied with “no one” for first place.

But Tuesday’s speech could change Newsom’s outlook. As Politico noted, Newsom “sought to position himself as the leader of America’s anti-Trump opposition.”