What Does Gavin Newsom Truly Believe?

An ongoing investigation

Every move California Gov. Gavin Newsom makes these days seems geared toward his inevitable presidential run, but I’m not entirely sure what Newsom actually stands for beyond “winning and somebody else not winning.” (Yes, that’s another West Wing reference.)

For instance, on Monday, after news broke that the goosestepping ghoul Greg Bovino had been removed from his role as Border Patrol “Commander at Large,” Newsom posted on social media, “Gestapo Greg is out. Keep the pressure up. It’s working.” Yet, just a couple weeks ago, when Newsom had Ben Shapiro on his podcast, creatively titled This Is Gavin Newsom, he retreated from past statements about ICE.

Shapiro seemed less offended that Renee Good was executed by agents of the government than he was that Newsom’s social media team described Good’s murder as “state-sponsored terrorism.” Demonstrating one of his classic political moves, Newsom threw his press office under the bus and backed off the (accurate) description.

Newsom responded to Shapiro’s criticism, “Yeah, I think that’s fair,” but it wasn’t. “State-sponsored terrorism” isn’t simply partisan hyperbole, like “socialized medicine is slavery” or “masks are tyranny.” State-sponsored terrorism is exactly what the Trump regime is doing and not just in Minnesota. Political violence is a central feature of terrorism. Jonathan Glover writes in Violence, Terrorism and Justice, “The terrorist aims to further a political cause by using or threatening violence. And the violence is not directed merely against property. People are killed, or subjected to kidnapping, hijacking, wounding, or other severe ill-treatment. Or there is an attempt to coerce people by the threat of these things.”

ICE isn’t just brutally enforcing immigration policy. It’s terrorizing Minneapolis — including U.S. citizens — to achieve political outcomes it can’t accomplish through legitimate means. Attorney General Pam Bondi didn’t bother hiding her mob tactics when she offered to withdraw ICE if Minnesota handed over its voter rolls. “End your sanctuary city policies or we’ll continue killing innocent people” is not negotiation. It’s state-sponsored terrorism.

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Gavin Newsom’s Gen Z Not-So Secret Weapon

Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Newsom criticized our European allies for not pushing back hard enough against Donald Trump. He said attempts to negotiate with Trump as if he were a normal mammal isn’t “diplomacy, it’s stupidity.” (I don’t disagree.)

“It’s time to buck up; it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” Newsom told reporters. “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought kneepads for all the world leaders … this is pathetic.”

World leaders have to walk a treacherous tightrope when dealing with someone as unhinged as Trump, who commands one of the world’s most powerful militaries. Newsom couldn’t hold his own against Ben Shapiro, who doesn’t have access to nuclear weapons, just an assortment of bad takes about popular movies. For instance, Newsom thinks that our allies should take a firmer stand against Trump’s imperialistic ambitions, but he’s less willing to do so when Trump is invading U.S. cities.

During his bonding session with Shapiro, Newsom boasted that California cooperates with ICE, which at this point is the worst form of complicity. It was also quite a departure from past remarks condemning ICE’s tactics.

Newsom made a point of distancing himself from the “Abolish ICE” position. Shapiro asked him, “So you disagree with [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] saying that ICE should be abolished,” and Newsom confirmed, “I disagree, and I disagreed when a candidate by the name of Kamala Harris said it.” (Watch below.)

Chris Van Hollen Shows Gavin Newsom What A Human Spine And Soul Look Like

It’s true that after her upset 2018 primary victory, Ocasio-Cortez said it was “time to abolish” ICE, but Newsom is repeating a 2024 Donald Trump talking point (colloquially known as a “lie”) that Kamala Harris “supported abolishing ICE.” There is no record of her ever taking this position. In fact, Harris took heat from the left in 2018 when she said ICE served a necessary function — deporting people who commit violent crimes, including rape, murder and child molestation.

“So, yes, ICE has a purpose. ICE has a role, ICE should exist,” Harris said. “But let’s not abuse the power. Let’s not extend it to areas that were not — that are not posing a threat to the safety and the public safety of these communities, especially when we know that these federal agencies have limited resources to do their core job.”

Harris also said, “Listen, I think there is no question that we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way it is being administered and the work it is doing. And we need to probably even think about starting from scratch because there’s a lot that is wrong with the way that it is conducting itself and we need to deal with that.”

Politically speaking, this was a distinction without a difference, as “starting from scratch” was enough for Trump (and apparently Newsom) to falsely claim that Harris supported “Abolish ICE.”

This isn’t 2018. Ocasio-Cortez’s “Abolish ICE” position is now the moderate one when discussing an unaccountable secret police terrorizing Americans. I’ve moved on to “Prosecute ICE.” I hear Nuremberg is lovely in 2029.

Why Republicans Will Never Stop At One

Newsom wants to triangulate and rebrand himself as a sensible mainstream Democrat. That usually involves some easy hippie punching, but this also isn’t 2020 or even 2024. Mayor Zohran Mamdani received a round of applause last week on The View when he openly stated his support for “abolishing ICE.” Without hedging or obfuscation, he clearly explained how ICE fails to serve any legitimate law enforcement purpose.

“What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist,” Mamdani said. “We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case.”

“I’m tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of their car, dragged out of their home, dragged out of their life,” Mamdani added. “What we need to see is humanity. And there is a way to care about immigration in this city and in this country with a sense of humanity. What we’re seeing from ICE is not it.”

Newsom could have said this to Shapiro, who is far less intimidating than anyone on The View, but he’s clearly trying to separate MAGA from more presentable right-wingers like Shapiro (and the late Charlie Kirk, the first guest on his podcast). That is another distinction without a difference. All this cozying up with bad actors will only alienate actual Democrats without gaining him a single right-wing vote. Shapiro is guaranteed to enthusiastically endorse J.D. Vance, even if Newsom runs for president wearing a Ronald Reagan mask. That’s not diplomacy, either. It’s stupidity.