Just a few short days ago, President Trump was remarkably and viciously feuding with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the person who spent more money than anyone to return him to the White House.
But one of the constants in Trump’s second term is that the subjects of his quarrels are ever-changing. And by Monday, Trump had turned the page on Musk — for now — and focused on a more familiar and frequent target for his rage: Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California.
This was, as my colleague Tyler Pager wrote, the fight that Trump had been waiting for, and on an issue that is perhaps most central to his political identity: cracking down on immigration.
Over the weekend, Trump moved to take control of California’s National Guard and deployed troops where protesters had clashed in Los Angeles with federal law enforcement officers over immigration raids.
Newsom and other California leaders, including Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, accused the president of fanning the flames and needlessly escalating matters rather than calming them. This morning, the state announced plans to sue Trump for his deployment of the Guard.
“These are images that Donald Trump created,” Newsom said in a local television interview, referring to the unrest, burning cars and police clashes. “Of course he wants it politically.”
There is not much disagreement on that. Trump campaigned on aggressive immigration enforcement and it is the issue that has put Democrats most in a defensive crouch, both in 2024 and in the months since. A historic surge of border crossings during the Biden administration slowed sharply and almost immediately upon Trump’s inauguration.
Of course, Newsom has been creating his own images, including a live interview on MSNBC from the state’s emergency operations center in which he challenged Thomas Homan, Trump’s border czar, to arrest him. “Let’s just get it over with, tough guy,” Newsom said.
Newsom’s relationship with Trump, who derisively calls him “Newscum,” has been complicated lately, to say the least. Immediately after the election, the governor called a special session “to protect California values,” an effort that became known as Trump-proofing the state. In January, deadly wildfires led to a détente, including a tarmac visit and a handshake. And when Newsom began a new podcast, his first guests included top Trump supporters like Stephen Bannon and Charlie Kirk, as Newsom said he was trying to better understand the president’s appeal.
Now, Newsom is deploying against Trump some of the same dismissive age-related language that Trump loved to use against Biden. “I saw him trip on the steps today,” Newsom said of video of Trump stumbling Sunday as he boarded Air Force One in Morristown, N.J. “He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago.”
But in another sense, Trump very much remains who Trump has always been, moving quickly from one dramatic showdown to the next with rarely a pause in between. On Monday, he returned to the White House and embraced the idea of arresting Newsom. “I think it’s great,” he said, while still deferring to Homan.
By then, even Musk had come around to expressing solidarity with Trump. When Vice President JD Vance wrote that Trump “will not tolerate rioting and violence,” Musk weighed in approvingly with two American flag emojis.
In One Graphic
Unwelcome: The countries targeted by Trump’s new travel ban
President Trump has targeted the citizens of a dozen countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States and restricted travel for those from several more countries. My colleagues Allison McCann and Pablo Robles explained the new restrictions.
They touch more parts of the world and could affect more people than similar travel bans that were introduced during the first Trump administration.
All travelers who are citizens of countries in the first tier will be barred entry, while certain types of visas will be suspended for people from those countries in the second tier.
ONE LAST THING
Last of the RINOs
Back in Trump’s first term as president, Republican members of Congress who wanted to publicly criticize him were a dime a dozen. No longer.
Over the weekend, my colleague Annie Karni wrote a compelling profile of Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is one of the last of his kind: a swing-district Republican who regularly breaks with the president.
“I don’t want to be the guy who follows the flute player off the cliff,” Bacon mused.
Maybe not, but Bacon, 61, also may not be long for Congress. He is already talking about his place in history and plans to announce soon whether he will seek another term or retire in 2026.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
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