President Donald Trump and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom are engaged in a bitter fight over the dealing with of protests in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue in Los Angeles — and each are also framing their confrontation in acquainted political phrases.
On Monday, the president stated it might be a “good thing” if border czar Tom Homan arrested Newsom; in response, the California governor fired back that the remark is an “unmistakable step towards authoritarianism.”
In an indication of how a lot politics is driving the confrontation, Trump, when requested on Monday afternoon by ABC Information what crime Newsom has dedicated to warrant his arrest, Trump stated the governor’s “major crime is working for governor as a result of he is executed such a nasty job.” Newsom responded on X, “Donald Trump admits he’ll arrest a sitting governor just because he ran for workplace.”
With the protests, Trump, who has characterised them as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “Gavin Newscum inspired Riots,” has deployed Nationwide Guard members to Los Angeles. Newsom has requested the administration to rescind the deployment and stated Monday that he’s suing the Trump administration, claiming Trump illegally federalized the Nationwide Guard.
However Trump isn’t solely criticizing the protesters — he’s blasting the Democratic leaders of the state and the town as failures.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives on the White Home, June 9, 2025 in Washington.
Shawn Thew/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“The very incompetent ‘Governor,’ Gavin Newscum, and ‘Mayor,’ Karen Bass, ought to be saying, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR,'” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Monday. “As a substitute, they select to deceive the Individuals of California and America by saying that we weren’t wanted, and that these are ‘peaceable protests.'”
Trump has lengthy been crucial of the management in most Democratic-run states, usually focusing his ire on California.
The scenario, individually, offers Trump the prospect to take high-profile motion on immigration enforcement — a key difficulty for the president throughout his 2024 marketing campaign and one which has remained a priority in the course of the first few months of his administration. A current poll from Marquette Law School taken in early to mid-Might discovered that Trump had optimistic or round even job approval on border safety and immigration.
Newsom, on his finish, has explicitly accused the White Home of exacerbating the scenario for political achieve.
“They need a spectacle. They need the violence,” he stated in an electronic mail to supporters despatched by his political motion committee on Sunday evening. “They assume that is good for them politically.”
The White Home responded to an ABC Information request for remark late Monday afternoon.
“Gavin Newsom’s feckless management is immediately liable for the lawless riots and violent assaults on regulation enforcement in Los Angeles. As a substitute of writing fundraising emails meant to attain political factors along with his left-wing base, Newsom ought to concentrate on defending Individuals by restoring regulation and order to his state,” Abigail Jackson, a White Home spokeswoman, stated.
Newsom and Trump have lengthy been at odds, though the 2 had a quick detente of their relationship prior to now few months.
Within the aftermath of wildfires in January that devastated the Los Angeles area, Trump visited the town towards the tip of the month and was greeted on the tarmac by Newsom with a number of handshakes and an embrace; Newsom also met with Trump in Washington in early February, and informed CNN afterwards, “I’ve simply all the arrogance on the earth that it may be a powerful partnership transferring ahead.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom broadcasts the Golden State Literacy Plan and deployment of literacy coaches statewide, on the Clinton Elementary College in Compton, California, June 5, 2025.
Daniel Cole/Reuters
However Newsom, round that point, also approved $50 million for funds that might be utilized in authorized battles in opposition to the federal authorities.
And Newsom grew extra crucial of Trump within the months afterward — attacking the president’s tariff coverage in an ad that aired on Fox Information the place he stated the “tariffs punish households.”
The Trump administration has appeared to direct punishment at California as properly. Earlier this month, Trump vowed to impose “large scale fines” on California after a transgender teen competed in a California state last competitors in observe and area. Final week, the Trump administration signaled that it might reduce federal funding for a high-speed rail venture within the state.
Newsom, individually, has begun to construct a nationwide profile amid hypothesis that he might run for president in 2028, which included stoking extra hypothesis through a buzzy podcast launch in March. Newsom is term-limited and can’t run for governor in 2026.
Whereas the Los Angeles scenario is tied to Newsom’s present work as governor and to not any present or future marketing campaign, it places him again within the nationwide highlight and on the heart of one of many nation’s highest-profile political points.
Newsom referenced what he framed because the nationwide stakes in his response to Trump’s feedback on his potential arrest: “It is a day I hoped I might by no means see in America… it is a line we can’t cross as a nation.”
ABC Information’ Molly Nagle and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
