Gavin Newsom (00:00):
But it's indicative, I think, of America, for those of you are not American. It gives you a sense of what we're up against and what's happening across my country and what happened here in Davos. I was going to speak last night, it was a well established event at the USA House, simple conversation, discussion. After Trump's speech, they made sure that I didn't. They made sure it was canceled. And that's what's happening in the United States of America. Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. It's America in reverse. They're censoring historical facts. They're rewriting history. They're censoring books, 4,340 books, libraries, and in schools, banned, in the United States of America. You're watching institutions, any institution of independent thinking is under assault and attack by the Trump administration.
(00:51)
You're seeing what's playing out in the streets of American cities, what played out in California, the second largest city in the United States of America. 4, 000 National Guard were federalized. 700 active duty Marines were not sent overseas, they were sent to my largest city in the state of California. Masked men. Guy Greg Bovino dressed up as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb. Greg Bovino, secret police, private army, masked men, people disappearing quite literally. No due process. Windows being smashed. Seat belts on being literally just cut off. People dragged in the streets, kids, separated from families, knocking on doors, racially profiling American citizens. 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. It's consistent with this administration and their authoritarian tendencies. Forgive me. These are objective facts.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But I would say, this was not ... Just to be clear, this was a private enterprise endorsed by the State Department, but these are a lot of decisions are being made by private companies right now. This is a capital, this is probably the central global gathering of CEOs, and I guess I wonder if you can give me a review how you see these folks. And you know your way around this world. How you see those people behaving.
Gavin Newsom (02:22):
Society becomes how we behave. We are our behaviors. We're not bystanders in this world. The world we're experiencing happened on our watch. So in the relationship to your question, yeah, they're complicit in some respects to this moment. And forgive me, you brought up a tweet, but part of my approach has been a little more aggressive than perhaps a lot of American politicians. I created a patriot site. On the site, you can go, there are knee pads that are available to purchase. The last round of knee pads sold out just as our law firms are selling out. Many American universities are selling out. And yes, many corporate leaders are selling out to this administration. Selling out our values, selling out our future, selling out what makes America great. And breaks my heart. And people need to stand up. People need to ... Courage in their damn convictions.
(03:23)
We're the 250th anniversary, the United States of America this year. It's a 250th anniversary. The best of the Roman Republic, Greek democracy, co-equal branches, the government, the rule of law, popular sovereignty. Tell me that that reflects the America you read about today. There's no rule of law. It's the rule of Don. For Europeans, it's dawning on you. It's not the rule of law. You don't have co-equal branches of government. You have a supine Congress. You don't have a Speaker of the House. It doesn't exist. Popular sovereignty being challenged every single day by voter suppression, trying to rig elections. I mean, heck, Donald Trump tried to steal the election, the last election, tried to light democracy on fire, and then pardoned everyone that participated in that. Is anyone paying attention to what the hell is going on in the United States of America?
(04:16)
So my state of mind is a little different perhaps than many others. I won't be complicit at this moment. I won't. I can't. I can't look my kids in the eyes. And so I'm just blessed that I get to represent a state that's larger than the size of 21 US states combined. 27% of us are foreign born, we practice pluralism. That's a word you haven't heard in America in a year. Where we dominate in every critical category in terms of energy and daring and entrepreneurialism and innovation. Look, give me a category and California outperforms. Fourth largest economy in the world. So we can punch above our weight. We can come here with formal authority and a little moral authority. And I tell you, we need a little moral authority in our body politic in the United States of America today.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Governor, how do you balance-
Gavin Newsom (05:05):
Good morning, everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Sorry. I figured we would ... Yeah. You're a tough interview, governor. And I think you have chosen a sort of if you can't beat them, join them strategy to the way you're talking about this stuff. You're running around distributing knee pads to CEOs. And I think it does-
Gavin Newsom (05:32):
I'm not handing them out. I do have a few if you'd like. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And honestly, it sounds ...
Gavin Newsom (05:37):
By the way, I'm not kidding. They're the new Trump signature series knee pads. And they are available online. I told you the last one sold out. It's a serious moment. We laugh. Anyway, these are available, and in bulk too.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
But I want to read you a couple of things the US government has said about you in the last 24 hours or so.
Gavin Newsom (06:00):
The US government. It sounds ominous when put it in those terms.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The Treasury Secretary described you as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken. The White House Communications director. Hold on.
Gavin Newsom (06:11):
That was the US Secretary of Treasury.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I have a couple more and then you can respond. The White House Communications Director called you Gavin Newscum.
Gavin Newsom (06:21):
Newscum.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And an official White House account, a federal government account described you with a, I'd say, very online sexual slur that people here probably don't want to hear at 8:30 in the morning. And you're in some sense responding in kind, and so-
Gavin Newsom (06:34):
I fight fire with fire.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Should you, I mean, is that kind of discourse from you from them good for America?
Gavin Newsom (06:41):
No, it's deeply unbecoming. Come on. And of course it is. It's not what we should be doing. But you've got to point out the absurdity. You got to put a mirror up to this. This is madness. You see what he's saying about European leaders, you, talking down to people, talking past people. I mean, look, the comments he made yesterday that we're not even discussing because you're discussing all the other comments about windmills or whatever else that was happening. Well, he talked about Somalia's community. This is not normal. It's a deviation of normalcy. We got to call it out. So I put a mirror up to Trump and Trumpism in all caps.
(07:15)
And it was ironic because Pravda, Fox News in America, others, they got offended by it. They said, "Well, where is his mother to wash his mouth out with soap?" I said, "Where the hell have you been? You've never said a word about Trump dressing up as the Pope, tweeting out and cosplaying on the world stage." So the Treasury of Secretary talked about a Barbie doll. It was as if he was reading a diary and had just broken up with someone. I mean, that was the Secretary of Treasury using valuable time yesterday on the world stage. Some sexual ... Thank you for not sharing that on the official White House account. We're deeply in their head. I think the affordability agenda appears to be I'm living rent free in the Trump's head, Trump administration's head.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
The most talked about speech here in Davos actually isn't what wasn't Donald Trump's address yesterday, it was the Canadian Prime Minister-
Gavin Newsom (08:10):
Forgettable speech yesterday.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It was Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney the day before who talked about, I don't know, in large terms, the middle powers, everybody except for China and the US, really have to adapt permanently to a world without American leadership. I guess I wonder, I mean, that's in some sense a pretty anti-American point of view. That's a view that America is gone from the world stage, that whether the next president is JD Vance, Gavin Newsom, somebody else, this isn't a deviation, as he said, this is permanent. Do you buy that? Do you buy Carney's point of view?
Gavin Newsom (08:42):
I felt there was moments, and forgive me, I should be cautious making this statement. I don't want it to be overanalyzed. But when I was listening to the EU president speak, there were moments where I said, "That used to be us. I remember that." So am I surprised by what Carney did? Quite the contrary. I thought it was ... I had more leaders from the United States quietly saying, not publicly, not enough standing up publicly, the transcript of that speech saying, "Wow." I mean, got in Trump's head yesterday. He brought it up. You know everything about Trump, because it's what's not in the teleprompter that tells you everything you need to know about where Trump's head is on things. It was incredibly effective.
(09:25)
The markets were more effective. Markets. It's not mother nature, thought of most powerful force on earth was mother nature, but it's the markets, particularly the Trump administration. Combined that with the comments of Macron, combine that with the EU commissioner, but the clarity that came from Prime Minister of Canada. But the fact that he went to China, came back with a deal, started introducing low cost, high quality electric vehicles not made in Michigan, Detroit, but overseas into Canada, it says everything you know about the recklessness
Gov. Gavin Newsom (10:00):
... of America's foreign policy. Everything you need to know. You know it intimately, but it's a remarkable thing to break down 80-plus years of alliances. Takes decades and decades to build trust and organizations, the architecture of that. It takes weeks, tweets, hours, minutes sometimes, to destroy it. Destruction is not strength. The Trump administration is weakness, masquerading as strength. And people need to understand that. That's reflected in the tweets. That's reflected in canceling people. That's reflected in sending masked men into the American cities. It's reflected at this moment.
(10:38)
So I respect what Carney did because he had courage of convictions. He stood up. And I think we need to stand up in America and call this out with clarity. We can lose our Republic as we know it. Our country had become unrecognizable in a matter of months, just not years. It is code red, blinking red, in the United States of America.
(11:01)
So forgive me, I feel this with passion, some indignancy, as someone frankly who's taken it for granted all of these years. And it's why I came here to Davos to call it out. And I wish there were more of us doing the same because there are more of us. And on that, I just... Forgive me, I want you to know, Donald Trump is an historic president. That's absolutely correct. He's historically unpopular in the United States of America. In every category, he's underwater. He will be remembered in years, not decades. He's not going to run again, time of life denies that. Not a state of mind, but time of life.
(11:42)
But we need to manifest that and we need to do the hard work. And that hard work includes the difficult work of coming to Davos and calling that out. This is not where I want to be spending... I love you all... my time. And so anyway, it's an extension of the conviction I feel about this moment.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
But to go back to Carney. Talking about people who among other things aren't American, maybe be concerned for America, but are making decisions about their own politics, their own countries. And what Carney's core point was this is a rupture, this isn't an anomaly, and there's no going back. And I mean, do you think that-
Gov. Gavin Newsom (12:16):
There's always going back.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
... a different American leader can bring...
Gov. Gavin Newsom (12:18):
Yes. I think these relationships are in dormancy, they're not dead. I don't use those binary terms. Don't fall prey to that. That's a bit hyperbolic and I'm prone to a little of that at times. Dormancy.
(12:35)
Look, he's an invasive species, Donald Trump. He's not... He is. He took over the Republican Party. I mean, he's got a few of them, Lindsey Graham, I mean, speaking of the knee pads. I'm sorry. This is tough stuff. It's tough stuff. I don't recognize these people any longer. I used to respect Lindsey. I mean, Lindsey, you think what I'm saying about Trump's tough. How about what Lindsey Graham said about Trump? How about the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Do you think-
Gov. Gavin Newsom (13:11):
I mean, these are the same people. And this is why for things to change, we need to change and that's why I'm changing my approach. And again, grateful you all took that well.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I mean, I suppose do you think post-Trump there's a path back? Because you see this everywhere, the kind of insult politics that you're doing here, which you said you don't really enjoy, you kind of seem to.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (13:30):
I'm just putting a mirror up. No. I was doing my 10-point plans before, and I don't think any of you would have been here this morning had I done that.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh, they would have been here.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (13:40):
No. It wasn't working. Everyone's trying to figure this guy out-
Speaker 2 (13:45):
This is like hardly a Mark Carney crowd.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (13:46):
Yeah. No, but it's how do you communicate? How do you respond to this moment? And for me, it's about iteration. It's an entrepreneurial spirit. It's a very California mindset. You got to keep increasing the number of tries. And I was trying everything, weren't working, weren't breaking through. Democratic Party at large, wasn't breaking through. And we decided the only way to address Trump is quite literally to fight fire with fire.
(14:10)
I did an initiative Prop 50 in California, it was to reflect the fact that Donald Trump called an American politician and said in the middle of the decade to the governor of the state of Texas, "I am entitled, Greg Abbott, to five seats. And I need you to redraw district lines." Mid-year redistricting to rig the 2026 election before one vote is cast. What the Trump administration expected we were going to do, as good Democrats do, we might write an op-ed. And we may all go out and just say, "This is just so wrong." And all of us would be applauding and say, "Yes, yes." As he's consolidating power, instead we went out and we redraw our maps and we also drew a line in the sand. And I think that's what's required at this moment.
(14:58)
And he susses out weakness like no one else. That's his great strength. That's his gift. But you punch back, you fight fire with fire, you display conviction and strength, it's a different relationship. And so my relationship to this moment is reflected in that. I'm not naive. These guys are going to try to take me down, not just my state. I'm not naive about what I've said this morning and how that will be reflected in the official White House account. I'm not naive about the fact that he threatened to prosecute the Fed Chief in the United States of America. That has a subpoena against another sitting governor, Tim Waltz. Who's literally going after his enemies with the FBI and the DOJ, and these power ministries. I'm not naive about any of this.
(15:50)
I'm not naive about the corruption and the graft at scale we've never seen in American history. I'm not naive about folks writing billion dollar checks to Witkoff, to Jared Kushner for this new peace deal they're announcing today. I'm not naive about the fact that president of the United States made a billion and a half plus dollars in the last 12 months personally.
(16:12)
How the hell are we putting up with this? We have to call this out. Unprecedented in American history, happening in real time on our watch. We have to be held to a higher level, all of us, myself, notably, to a higher level of accountability at this moment.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And I think one of the main reasons that he has been successful is because the Democratic Party is so discredited in the eyes of so many voters. I have a couple of questions about that. One is big picture about California. People... You are in the midst of a enormous economic boom right now, and yet the state is on one hand running deficits, and on the other not always delivering services, from education to healthcare that your citizens are delighted with. And I guess, I wonder how are voters looking at California, looking at New York, looking at Chicago, supposed to say, "Yeah, this is the model we want."
Gov. Gavin Newsom (17:20):
Well, I'm proud of my state. We have more Fortune 500 companies than any other state in America, more scientists, engineers, more Nobel laureates in my state than any state in America. The finest system of higher public education in the world. We have 18% of the world's R&D. China, 22%, Germany, 21, California, 18% of the world's R&D. We're the center of the universe as it relates to AI for 32 of the 50.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
California's wonderful, but what about the governance?
Gov. Gavin Newsom (17:47):
Well, the governance, we're one of the lowest uninsured rates in America. You mentioned healthcare. We just did our state of education report, which showed in every category, every classroom, making progress with our test scores. Our investments are paying off. Just did a big state of the state.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Do you reject the idea that these blue states are spending more for less results?
Gov. Gavin Newsom (18:05):
I don't know. Higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, lower gun death rates, more productivity, higher wages, higher quality of life. $83.1 billion, that was the net contribution that we provided to the federal government versus red state, like Texas, that was a taker state of $73.1 billion. So we're producing more. And people are, I think, creating more opportunities. So look, are there problems?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
For instance, you're supporting the mayor of LA for reelection after these terrible fires that a lot of your citizens do feel was part in part because of government mismanagement. Do you just reject that narrative that the government has anything to do with these things?
Gov. Gavin Newsom (18:48):
I absolutely accept that we all should be held to a higher level of accountability in terms of our governance. And I think there's many areas of reforms that are necessary, so many areas of reforms that were underway. We can get into the specifics of any one of these issues. But the general notion that in the middle of winter, with 100 mile an hour winds that were attached to a fire... By the way, there were 16 major fires in Southern California over a two-week period... that somehow that had to do with fire hydrants is rather preposterous. And it was shape-shift because of the complete bullshit that came from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, saying somehow the sprinklers didn't work and the fire hydrants didn't work because we didn't turn on a valve in Northern California. These are literal words from the Trump administration. So I do reject that.
(19:39)
Do I reject this notion of being self-critical about governance and management across the spectrum? No, that's fair game.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And probably the biggest governance issue, policy issue, fueling right-wing parties in the United States around the country, is immigration. And I think liberal parties, again, in the US and around the world, had a posture of welcoming
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Coming immigrants that it just turned out a lot of Americans, a lot of Californians, but more Americans are unhappy with illegal immigration, the out of control border, but also it's the last issue on which Trump, though his numbers have been sliding, remained somewhat popular. And I guess I wonder, do you think that your party went too far or that you went too far? And I think for instance, in extending Medi-Cal to the California healthcare program to undocumented immigrants? Do you...
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Well, two different questions.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I guess on the big picture and the small picture, do you feel like you went too far?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Two different questions. Do I believe in universal healthcare? Yes. Regardless of preexisting conditions, ability to pay and your status, I campaign on that. We delivered on that. And I'm proud of that. We're one of 16 states to provide care to people regardless of immigration status. By the way, we have universal care in emergency rooms and you pay the price on the back end, at least Americans for that, regardless of your immigration status. But the issue of immigration, Donald Trump is very unpopular on immigration. He's successful on the border, separate issue, connected. And yes, the Democratic Party failed in the last few years on the border. And yes, I was critical of that.
(21:10)
And yes, I put our own National Guard on the border the day I got elected into office in 2019, sent 394 National Guard down to the border. And we were very, very pointed with the Biden administration that we were failing to deliver border security for a number of years. On the larger immigration issue, I happened to share the same old office of Ronald Reagan, governor of California, who decided in his last day in office at the White House, and he gave a love letter to immigrants from around the world. It was love letter to America and what distinguishes America from the rest of the globe. He talked about lady torch, Lady Liberty's torch.
(21:45)
And he talked about the vibrancy of newcomers, people coming all over the globe for riches and new beginnings, becoming Americans, and what defines our great nation. And that's the spirit that defines my mindset. Getting first round draft choices around the rest of the world is what makes California so vibrant. It's because of that diversity and it's because of people's willingness to dare and to match up with ideas and perspectives and backgrounds to come in to make a go of it. That has made California the fourth-largest GDP in the world. But we have failed on the border and Donald Trump is failing on immigration. His economic policy is not complicated. It's tariffs, which is a regressive tax. It's mass deportations, which is having a major impact on supply chains. And you've seen the American jobless rate. You're seeing it growing, the unemployment rate in America. Bessent didn't talk about this. They had the worst jobs numbers in the first year of the Trump administration outside of recession since 2003. 49,000 jobs a month. The Biden administration last year was averaging 168,000 jobs a month. Inflation is not lowering. It's still at 2.7%. Ask folks what a pound of beef costs in the United States of America or a brand new car. Everything you heard yesterday was BS. And it's impacted by these policies of tariffs that are impacting ranchers and farmers and small business folks.
(23:16)
A major tax that they celebrate, a tax that they celebrate collecting, which is ironic from the Republican Party. And the third leg of the stool is a massive tax cut away from the wealthy and the privileged, taxing now the burden on small businesses and working folks. That's the policy easily described of America's economic strategy. And it's a failed strategy. And the impacts of that strategy are being felt all throughout the United States of America, including my state that has been disproportionately impacted by these policies. So, I'm very critical of those.
(23:57)
I'm critical of our assault on institutions by higher learning, research, institutions that have literally been... I mean, they're part of that formula for success. And the rest of the world gets that. And he's putting sand in the gears across that spectrum. And in California again, is fighting and pushing back.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
And some of those first round draft backs got incredible contracts and are now made quite a lot of money and are now very freaked out, threatening to leave California over a proposal that just to be clear, you oppose for a sort of one time tax on the wealth of the very, very, very wealthy Californians. And I guess I want to ask you two questions. One is I was talking to somebody progressive here who said, "This guy's basically a fake populist. He talks a good game about the billionaires. Here is an actual proposal that they're unhappy about. And you're on the other side. You're standing with Elon Musk and David Sachs on this." Why is that?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Well, one time wealth tax at a state level that almost exclusively goes to solve one problem, healthcare and not solving for larger issues like education, supporting police officers and firefighters and starves the rest of the general fund that has had already the impact of people moving out of our state and impacting then the annual income tax collection is not something I support. And by the way, vast majority of labor does not support as well, and that's reflected in my opposition. What's not reflected in my opposition, quite the contrary, is my advocacy for progressive taxes. That does tax go wealthy disproportionately.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Do you have a theory for how to tax...
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I've been a strong advocate for that.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Do you have a theory on how to tax this particular group who often kind of live in this company, and I'm sure maybe people in this room who do this, but who live on debt, who have no income and live on these sort of giant revolving loans?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Yeah. I mean, you could have that conversation...
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Because I think the wealth tax is sort of an attempt to get at that.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Yeah. But in a national level, we're competing with 50 states. Capital flows and move, that's real. It's not imagined. It's very, very real. So, we have a progressive tax structure, the most progressive in the country. By the way, states like Texas and Florida are the most regressive tax structures. They tax their lowest wage earners more than we tax our highest wage earners. They are the high tax states. We have the highest tax rate for the 1%. But for working folks in middle class, it's a very different tax structure. That's the approach we promote. That's the approach that we advance in our state.
(26:37)
But again, our state of mind as it relates to the issue of a state by state wealth tax, the impact of that has to be considered in the context of how freely capital can move and how that's already occurred. It's not just an assertion. It's an evidence already in the state of California as it relates to a proposal that hasn't gone on the ballot, a proposal that has never gotten through the legislature, and a proposal that likely, if it did got on the ballot, will lose.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Would you campaign against it?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I'm opposed to it. It's already had, I think, a very negative impact on the state, and it's a badly drafted initiative. Again, that literally takes teachers and takes our educational system out of any consideration of support and impacts all parts of our general fund. It is a flawed initiative.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
And then I think conversely, these folks who control it, a ton of capital, and as you said, some are actually already leaving, have been leaving over this, but I think also over a sense that California, that Democratic leadership broadly complains about billionaires a lot, does not give them the love and respect that they feel that they're entitled to. I mean, actually, you talk to these folks. Some of them support you, some don't, but what are you saying as you call people up and say, "Hey, please don't leave California," what's your...
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Well, California's population, three years in a row, continues to grow, and so does our footprint as it relates to more Fortune 500 companies than we've added over two decades. And our innovation ecosystem and startup, because of some second to none, we have half of the country's unicorns in our state. The largest market cap private sector company, OpenAI, just headquartered in San Francisco. They could have chosen any other state in the country. Look, I don't begrudge other people's success. I've never been that kind of Democrat, but I also recognize in a world, businesses can't thrive in a world that's failing. 10% of the wealth is concentrated or rather two thirds of the wealth in the United States is concentrated in the hands of just 10%, 10% of our consumer spending. The imbalance, I mean, it was Plutarch who said it to the Athenians 2000 years ago, the imbalance between the rich and the poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics fast-forward today. So, this concentration, it's a very real issue, and we're going to have to address that, but we have to address it, I think, very thoughtfully and systemically, and I think we have to have it through the lens of a national reform.
(29:00)
What we've done is the exact opposite with HR1, which is going to explode deficits in the United States of America and debt. And again, it's transferred the tax burden to small businesses, farmers, and ranchers. It is an abomination and it's a policy, unfortunately, the Trump administration is very proud of.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Do you think a national reform is enough? I mean, a lot of this capital is really global.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
I mean, this is a challenge for all of us across the globe. And so, the challenge is, do you have a redistribution mindset or a pre-distribution mindset? Do you have a progressive tax structure that can balance these things? And this is the iteration in the state of California and this is our approximation. And I think California's figured it out in many respects. I mean, our entire entrepreneurial system is thriving in our state where I think found that balance. We had the highest contribution of venture capital last year in our history, $106 billion, 68% of it went back into the state of California
Speaker 5 (30:00):
... despite our progressive tax structure.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Well, from the tweets to Plutarch, thank you so much, Governor.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Thank you, guys. Thank you everybody for being here. Thank you. Thank you. [inaudible 00:30:10].