‘I don’t like bullies’: Gov. Gavin Newsom chastises Trump during interview – National
California Gov. Gavin Newsom laid into U.S. President Donald Trump in a recent interview, calling him a bully and saying that his behaviour is triggering.
During an interview on Monday, Newsom told podcaster Shawn Ryan, who hosts the Shawn Ryan Show, that Trump referring to him as “Gavin Newscum” is part of what informs his deeply unfavourable opinion of the Republican president.
“I have made an effort to provide an open platform for all perspectives,” Ryan, a former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor, wrote on X.
“I don’t like bullies. It goes to why I have strong opinions about Trump, man. It’s like it triggers me…I don’t like people talking down to people, past people. I don’t like people exploiting weakness,” Newsom said.
“That’s what I don’t like about this son of a b–ch. I don’t. And forgive me, I know he’s the president of the United States, yeah, he calls me ‘Newscum’, yeah, come on. How do I explain that to my kid?” Newsom asked. One of the governor’s four children is being taunted at school because of the nickname, he explained.
I got my kid’s friends calling my kids ‘Newscum’ — that I get because I was called that in seventh grade, but not by a 79-year-old,” Newsom continued.
He urged the president to reel it in and “model better goddamn behaviour.”
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The governor, who has been touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, also went on the show to discuss his stance on numerous issues facing both his state and the country, including gun control.
“I’m not anti-gun at all,” he told Ryan, adding that his concern lies with implementing strict background checks and age restrictions.
In the interview, the governor also touched on recent anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, where President Trump had sent in the National Guard. Newsom agreed with Ryan when he suggested the scale of the riots was overembellished, but argued that the most deplorable element was turning the country’s military on its people.
The day before the discussion aired, Newsom shed light on Vice President JD Vance’s family visit to Disney in Anaheim, California.
“JD is back in California,” he wrote on X.
“He won’t take the time to debate and defend gutting our Medicaid system, taking away kids school meals, militarizing America’s streets, or adding trillions to the debt. Instead, he’s off to Disneyland. Probably to detain Mickey Mouse at this rate,” the post continued.
In June, Newsom offered to have a public debate with Vance after the vice-president accused him of encouraging illegal migration in California and of egging on riots during a visit to Los Angeles during the anti-ICE protests.
“Hey @JDVance — nice of you to finally make it out to California. Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face? Let’s debate. Time and place?” the tweet said.
Also in June, Newsom urged Trump to stop targeting immigrants and arrest him instead after the deployment of some 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
Trump had previously endorsed the arrest of Newsom by Tom Homan, the U.S. border czar, telling reporters, “I would do it, I think it’s great.”
Newsom concluded his interview with Ryan, saying that his feud with Trump would end when the U.S. administration stopped drawing attention to it, but that it was “determined to test the boundaries.”
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