President Donald Trump delivered a sharp rebuke of California Governor Gavin Newsom, calling him a “horrible governor” during an interview on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle.
Trump said he had known Newsom for years and once got along well with him, but argued that the California Democrat had gone “radical Left” and wrecked his state through wasteful spending and failed leadership.
“I knew Gavin for four years. I got along great with him, but he’s gone radical Left, and you know, he’s building a train system from San Francisco to L.A. that’s got about a 2000 percent or 3,000 percent cost overruns,” Trump said.
“The worst thing — I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen cost overruns. I’ve never seen anything like that,” he continued.
Trump pointed to California’s wildfire recovery efforts as proof of Newsom’s failures, saying the state has struggled to recover from the devastating Pacific Palisades fire earlier this year. According to Trump, thousands of families are still waiting for help.
“If you take a look at what he’s done, so they lost 25,000 houses. Do you know they haven’t issued one building permit yet? So these people are trying to rebuild the houses,” Trump said.
The former president criticized Newsom for prioritizing political projects instead of helping families who lost everything in the disaster. He said that instead of rebuilding neighborhoods, the governor is pursuing an agenda that punishes middle-class Californians.
“But he did something — he did something even worse than that,” Trump said. “He’s now taking a big section of Palisades or some area, and he’s going to build low-income housing, where they used to have luxury housing. He’s going to put low-income housing in.”
Trump accused Newsom of ignoring the state’s larger problems, including fire management and homelessness, while pushing policies that drive families and businesses away.
“His fire stuff is out of control. The forests are burning down all over the place,” Trump said.
He added that while he once respected Newsom on a personal level, his record as governor has been a disaster for California.
“And honestly, I always liked him, but he’s a horrible governor. He’s a horrible governor,” Trump said.
Trump warned that if Newsom were ever to become president, the entire country would suffer the same fate as California.
“If he ran the country like that, we would have an absolutely gone so country. This country would be gone,” he said.
The exchange on The Ingraham Angle comes as Newsom’s name continues to surface in discussions about the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. His leadership of California has come under heavy criticism in recent years, particularly over rising crime, homelessness, and wildfires that have devastated large areas of the state.
Trump’s remarks echo what many Californians have said — that the state’s problems have only worsened under Newsom’s watch, with families fleeing high taxes, failing infrastructure, and policies that prioritize ideology over results.
For Trump, the interview was another reminder of his ongoing criticism of left-wing leadership across the country. While Newsom continues to defend his record, Trump’s words are likely to resonate with voters frustrated by what they see as years of decline in America’s largest blue state.