By SEUNG MIN KIM, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and MICHAEL R. BLOOD
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was earlier this year that California Gov. Gavin Newsom was making nice with President Donald Trump as he sought help for his wildfire-battered state and moderating his approach ahead of a potential bid for the White House.
But now the gloves are off after Trump took the extraordinary step of federalizing the National Guard in Los Angeles over Newsom’s objections and the governor responded by suing the administration, alleging abuse of power that marked an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”
The escalating clash pits the leader of the Republican Party against a Democrat with ambitions of leading his own party, with a striking backdrop of a domestic troop deployment meant to control a city in unrest and now to assist in arresting migrants — the centerpiece of the president’s agenda.
Trump said Thursday that without the military, Los Angeles “would be a crime scene like we haven’t seen in years.”
Newsom had “totally lost control of the situation,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, misspelling the governor’s first name while using a derogatory nickname for him. “He should be saying THANK YOU for saving his ass, instead of trying to justify his mistakes and incompetence!!!”
For Trump, it’s another chance to battle with Newsom, a frequent foil who leads a heavily Democratic state the president has long criticized. And for Newsom, the feud has handed him a national platform as a beleaguered Democratic Party seeks a leader able to resist Trump.
“He has shown he’s not going to be intimidated, and we’re all for that,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said of Newsom on Wednesday.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, a former California resident, said Newsom’s motivations for taking on Trump are clear.
“This is all about Gavin Newsom running for president in 2028, and what he is hoping is that becoming the face of a resistance to Trump is going to jog him to victory in Democratic primaries,” he said in his podcast “The Ben Shapiro Show.”
Trump wages a war against California
Trump has long been a foe of California, which overwhelmingly rejected him in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Over the years, Trump has threatened to intercede in the state’s long-running homeless crisis, vowed to withhold federal wildfire aid as political leverage in a dispute over water rights, called on police to shoot people robbing stores and warned residents “your children are in danger” because of illegal immigration.
As a candidate in 2023, Trump said California was once a symbol of American prosperity but is “becoming a symbol of our nation’s decline.”
“The world is being dumped into California,” Trump said at the time. “Prisoners. Terrorists. Mental patients.”
Newsom would learn to balance the dueling imperatives of a governor who needs to work with the federal government with being one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent figures.
As governor-elect, Newsom joined Trump in November 2018 as the then-president viewed wildfire damage in Paradise, California, and they pledged to put aside political differences to help the community recover. He was also overly complimentary of the Trump administration’s assistance to California during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, praising Trump’s “focus on treatments” for the virus and thanking him for sending masks and gloves to his state.
But Newsom was also a top surrogate for Democrats in the 2024 campaign and frequently warned of the consequences of Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump and Newsom make nice over wildfire catastrophe
There was a handshake and a warm pat on the back.
Newsom was there on the tarmac in Los Angeles in January, welcoming Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who had traveled west to survey the damage from the deadly wildfires in Southern California.
Then they spoke to reporters together, pledging cooperation to rebuild the area and appreciating each other’s presence.
“You were there for us during COVID. I don’t forget that,” Newsom said. “And I have all the expectations that we’ll be able to work together to get this speedy recovery.”
Trump added: “We will. We’re going to get it done.”
Newsom also traveled to Washington in February to press Trump and lawmakers for more federal wildfire relief. The governor called his meeting with Trump one that was marked with a “spirit of collaboration and cooperation.”
The cordial attitude was part of Newsom’s unmistakable appeal to the center, painting himself as a pragmatist to reach out to those who had fled from a party that had just lost all battleground states in the 2024 presidential election.
Newsom spoke to conservative allies of Trump on a new podcast the governor billed as a way for Democrats to learn from the political successes of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. He voiced opposition to transgender athletes participating in female sports while shifting focus away from efforts in Sacramento to “Trump-proof” California — which Newsom embarked on after Trump’s victory in November — as the wildfires raged.
In an April interview with YouTube commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, Newsom acknowledged Trump’s ability to appeal to the public.
“His success is his ability to win every damn news cycle and get us distracted and moving in 25 different directions,” he said.
Newsom warns of democracy ‘under assault’ as Trump sends troops
The Democratic governor and Trump have been feuding publicly about the response to protests, with Newsom claiming Trump didn’t warn him he’d deploy troops in a Friday phone call and Trump claiming the conversation was about that.
Newsom has taunted Trump administration officials with arresting him, and Trump first appeared receptive to the idea and then walked back earlier remarks.
After Newsom filed an emergency request in federal court Tuesday to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles, he gave a public address accusing Trump of going beyond arresting criminals.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here,” he warned. “Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes.”
The filing this week wasn’t the first time this year that California had sued the Trump administration. In April, Newsom filed a lawsuit that challenged Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs that the governor asserted would inflate prices and inflict billions of dollars in damage to California.
And California — not just Newsom — continues to be a foil.
Just this month, the Trump administration signaled that it intends to cut off federal funding for a long-delayed California high-speed rail project plagued by multibillion-dollar cost overruns. He’s threatened to pull federal funding in California if the state did not bar transgender students from participating in girls sports. The Justice Department warned districts they could face legal trouble if they don’t bar trans athletes from competition.
And on Thursday, he’s expected to sign a measure blocking California’s vehicle emissions rules.
Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Blood from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington contributed.
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