January 15, 2025

Have Newsom’s Presidential Aspirations Gone Up in Smoke?

California’s Democrat governor may find that his political future is slipping away as Los Angeles burns.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been fancied by numerous political pundits as the leading candidate for the Democrat presidential ticket in 2028. In fact, there was speculation about him taking over for Joe Biden in 2024. As a slick, quick-on-his-feet politician, he makes Kamala Harris look like an amateur.

He used these very qualities to win the governorship in 2019, fending off a recall vote in 2021 and then turning that into a commanding reelection victory in 2022. This is despite the fact that under his leadership, California has seen crime rates jump, homelessness increase, and the population of illegal immigrants grow. At the same time, the overall population declined year over year for the first time in the state’s history.

Furthermore, under Newsom, the state with the nation’s largest economy went from enjoying a $98 billion surplus in 2022 to a nearly $45 billion deficit this past May. This is due primarily to massive state governmental spending increases and falling tax revenue because people are leaving the state. For example, Elon Musk moved Tesla out of the Golden State to the greener, lower-tax pastures of Texas.

Meanwhile, California has the fourth-highest cost of living in the country.

Now, Newsom is facing the Los Angeles fires, the most costly and devastating in the state’s history. They have thus far killed at least two dozen people, consumed nearly 40,000 acres of the city, and destroyed over 12,000 structures.

And how does Newsom respond to this crisis? By engaging in the blame game.

During a recent podcast interview with Barack Obama’s former speechwriter, Jon Favreau, Newsom noted that as the governor, the buck stops with him. However, he quickly shifted any blame to those spreading “misinformation.” He even directly named Donald Trump, saying, “You have to have a little bit of grace. But no one has any patience anymore in this weaponized — back to the grievance of Trump.”

The fact is that Trump had nothing to do with these fires. He’s not even in office yet to take any federal action regarding them. This is all on Newsom, and the only thing Trump has done is point that out. Rather than owning the policy decisions that his government has made over his term and a half, Newsom is taking umbrage with Trump criticizing his feckless leadership.

It’s almost like a scene from the famous film “Cool Hand Luke” in which the Captain, after having ankle chains put upon Luke due to his escape attempt, tells the rest of the prisoners, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” In the present circumstances, Newsom is playing the role of the Captain, telling all those critical of his leadership that it’s simply a communication problem.

The failure here is not a communication issue; the failure is that of unsound leadership and policy. And the longer Los Angeles burns, the more Newsom’s presidential aspirations go up in smoke. In fact, Newsom may not even see the end of his second term, as another recall petition has been started. According to Randy Economy, who started the petition, he’s confident he’ll easily get the 1.3 million signatures required to initiate the recall. “He’s just not leadership material,” Economy argues. “And I think what we’re seeing right now is his absolute 100% failure of leadership in the time of crisis.”

Newsom is certainly not presidential leadership material, either.

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