California Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, listens from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum as President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland. Newsom’s planned remarks at a U.S. pavilion event were canceled after pressure from Trump administration officials, according to the Governor’s Office.
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After his first speech was cancelled, allegedly under pressure from the Trump administration, Gov. Gavin Newsom got his chance early Thursday morning to excoriate the president in front of the business and political elite gathered in Davos, Switzerland.
He leaned into the opportunity, casting Trump as a corrupt authoritarian who had converted American governance into crony capitalism and diminished the nation’s role on the global stage.
“How in the hell are we putting up with this?” Newsom asked in a livestreamed interview on the World Economic Forum’s main stage with Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of the news organization Semafor. He was referring to Trump’s reported accumulation of vastly increased personal wealth over the last year.
Newsom, who Wednesday morning accused the Trump administration of blocking him from a separate speaking spot at a venue on the side of the official conference, said such an action was in line with what he described as the president’s totalitarian tendencies.
The governor described a country sliding into authoritarianism, with armed troops on the ground in American cities at the president’s orders and federal law enforcement violating people’s civil rights as they seek undocumented immigrants.
“So is it surprising the Trump administration didn’t like my commentary and wanted to make sure that I was not allowed to speak? No,” he said, “it’s consistent with this administration and their authoritarian tendencies.”
Newsom’s cancelled speaking slot was at the USA House, a venue controlled by the U.S. government. Newsom and his press office staff have said White House and U.S. State Department officials used their control of that venue to push the media organization Fortune to cancel the governor’s previously scheduled speaking arrangement.
Smith said that Newsom’s talk was cancelled by “a private enterprise endorsed by the State Department.” It wasn’t clear if he was referring to USA House or Fortune.
A White House spokesperson did not deny the allegation Wednesday, instead deriding Newsom in a statement as an unknown at the Davos conference and referring to him by the oft-lobbed Republican insult, “Newscum.”
Smith read Newsom a series of other insults federal officials had lobbed at him throughout the day — including U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s description of the governor as “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken.”
But Smith noted the governor and his communication team’s recent trend of mimicking Trump and his allies’ confrontational and crass communication style, and he questioned if the approach would drag U.S. politics deeper into incivility.
Newsom said his team sought to hold up “a mirror” to the Trump administration to expose what he described as toxic and unprofessional rhetoric.
“It’s deeply unbecoming, of course it is, come on, it’s not what we should be doing,” he said. But nor, he argued, should the U.S. treasury secretary be using “valuable time” on the world stage to mock the governor of California’s appearance.
Newsom then made a joke about the increasing national debate over how best to lower Americans’ cost of living to suggest his communications strategy was landing.
“The affordability agenda appears to be ‘I’m living rent-free in the Trump administration’s head,’” he said. The crack drew scattered applause from the well-heeled Davos audience.
Newsom is in his final term as governor. He is mulling a presidential campaign in 2028. Though Trump himself cannot legally enter that race, it is likely whoever gets the Democrat nomination will be running against the president’s legacy, given his long-sustained popularity with Republican voters.
The governor’s pitch at Thursday morning’s speech reiterated the message he has been conveying with increasing frequency throughout Trump’s second term, and particularly fervently at his January 8 State of the State address to the California Legislature. Then, Newsom called the state a “beacon,” that is “providing a different narrative” to the rest of the world.
Smith, however, questioned Newsom on how well his record in California might hold up to national voters. The state has a significant budget deficit, though Newsom’s estimates have provided a distinctly rosier analysis than that of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the nonpartisan agency that advises lawmakers.
“The state is, on one hand, running deficits, and on the other, not always delivering services, from education to health care, that your citizens are delighted with,” Smith said. “How are voters — looking at California, looking at New York, looking at Chicago — supposed to say ‘this is the model we want?’”
Newsom said the state’s statistics defend the government’s approach, and he rattled off a number of points about economic, corporate and academic success out of his state.
“California is wonderful,” Smith said, breaking in, “but what about the governance?”
Newsom cited health care and public education as indicators that investments made during his tenure were paying off. Speaking to a global audience, he glossed over some nuances of California policy, such as when he said his administration had maintained advocacy for health care access regardless of immigration status.
His budget position last year drew sharp opposition from Latino lawmakers and advocates who said Newsom stepped back from his commitment to health care access for immigrants. That tension is continuing into the 2026 legislative session.
Still, Newsom said, “I absolutely accept that we all should be held to a higher level of accountability in terms of our governance.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2026 at 1:06 AM.
