Gavin Newsom launches brutal attack on ‘son of a b****’ Trump and admits his fears about the 2028 election in Colbert appearance
California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a barnstorming performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday evening, railing against President Donald Trump’s descent into “authoritarianism.”
The Democratic favorite, 57, who has emerged as one of his party’s leading anti-Trump voices, not least through ridiculing the president on social media, used his appearance on the CBS chat show to lash out against the administration and express his fears for the future.
“This guy is flooding the zone, he is dominating the narratives, facts don’t seem to matter, and Democrats, frankly, have had a difficult time pushing back,” the governor told Colbert, admitting the “weakness” of his own side’s response so far.
“What people appreciate is that we’re willing to fight and not only fight symbolically by having a little bit of fun but fight substantively. We have 41 lawsuits against this son of a b****. We’re pushing back and we’re winning and we’re filling a void on a lot of issues.”
Accusing Trump of walking away “from leadership and moral authority around the rest of the world” on important issues like climate change and healthcare, Newsom argued that California was setting an example for other blue states by marching to the beat of its own drum. “We’re not going to listen to this guy… No one trusts the guy.”
Perhaps the governor’s most shocking declaration of the evening came when he warned that there might not be a presidential election in 2028.
“I fear that we will not have an election in 2028 – I really mean that in the core of my soul – unless we wake up to the code red of what’s happening in this country and we wake up soberly to how serious this moment is,” he said.
To illustrate his point, Newsom emphasized Trump’s decision to federalize the National Guard and send 4,000 troops into Los Angeles in June, along with 700 active-duty U.S. Marines, to quell anti-ICE demonstrations.
“He sent the military to American cities and to police American citizens, and the ICE issue is alarming beyond words,” he added.
“It is the largest private domestic army of its type [or] police force anywhere in the world. He’ll have 30,000 people that increasingly appear to be swearing an oath of office to him, not the Constitution of the United States. Again, wake up to what’s going on in this country.”
The consequences of those actions could be severe, the former San Francisco mayor warned: “We’re losing confidence and trust in law enforcement. It’s having a chilling impact across the spectrum for other local law enforcement agencies.
“Look, we had a 15-year-old disabled kid in Los Angeles who was waiting for his sister to come out of high school, and they pulled out guns on this kid. They pulled out guns and handcuffed this young child. That’s happening in the United States of America. Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars. People disappearing. No due process. No oversight. Zero accountability. Happening in the United States of America today.”
He continued: “People ask, ‘Well, is authoritarianism you being hyperbolic?’ Bulls*** we’re being hyperbolic. If you’re a Black or brown community, it’s here in this country… These are not just authoritarian tendencies; these are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government.”
The interview had begun on a lighter note, with Colbert asking Newsom about his new range of merchandise spoofing Trump and his MAGA movement, which includes a T-shirt showing Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson, and the late Hulk Hogan praying over him in a pose borrowed from Michelangelo and red baseball caps bearing the legend: “Newsom Was Right About Everything!”
Newsom said the thinking behind his “novel” strategy to deploy humor against the administration, breaking with Democratic “stiffness,” was to “put a mirror up to Trump and the absurdity of what’s going on in this country, the absurdity of Donald Trump, the absurdity of these networks [like Fox News] playing into it.”
The governor was also asked about his podcast, on which he has interviewed MAGA figures like the late Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, saying he had “got a lot of grief” from his fellow Democrats for platforming conservatives but felt it was important to reach across the aisle because “divorce is not an option” for America.
“They were successful in the last election,” he said of Republicans. “People need to understand what motivates them, how they keep winning. In the context of how they keep organizing and building a coalition, particularly young men.”
