“It’s time to stand down,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned President Donald Trump. “It’s time to, dare I say, do the right thing.”
Newsom has a history of locking horns with Trump, especially as the former has emerged as a strong contender for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2028—a race that Trump has repeatedly teased running in despite constitutional term limits and one in which his legacy will be tested nonetheless.
But midterm elections in 2026 are the main point of tension at the moment. As Trump and Republicans have pursued a controversial plan to redraw Texas’ congressional map to boost the party’s chances of retaining its narrow House majority, Democrats have threatened to redistrict in kind.
“It’s time to make another phone call to [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott—this time instead of calling them and telling him you’re ‘entitled’ to five congressional seats, it’s time to tell him to stand down,” Newsom warned Trump in a video posted Monday on X. “If you don’t, California will neutralize anything you do in the state of Texas.”
“We will fight fire with fire,” Newsom said.
Newsom also sent Trump a letter carrying the same threat. “You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” he wrote. “If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states. But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”
Newsom’s press office said at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time on Monday that Trump had “24 hours” to respond to the letter. “IF HE DOES NOT STAND DOWN, THERE WILL BE A VERY IMPORTANT PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER,” the press office posted, mimicking Trump’s social media posting style, phrasings, and capitalization.
Trump did not immediately publicly respond to Newsom, and the White House did not respond to TIME’s request for comment Monday night.
How California plans to ‘neutralize’ any Republican gains
State legislatures normally redraw their congressional district maps every 10 years to account for population changes. These maps can be redrawn to the advantage of whoever is the ruling party at the time for political gain.
But in California, where three-quarters of the state legislature is Democratic, an independent commission composed of equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans, and independents is tasked with redistricting—a shift supported overwhelmingly by California voters in 2010.
Newsom, however, said he would, in retaliation to Republican redistricting efforts, seek to toss out the commission’s maps and instead use maps drawn by state Democrats. He would need to act quickly to get state lawmakers to later this month approve a special election in November for Californians to vote on the use of the maps for 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections.
Not the only redistricting threat
Newsom joins other Democratic governors that have issued similar threats to pursue congressional redistricting if the effort in Texas succeeds.
“If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us no choice, we must do the same,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Aug. 4.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he is considering “all options” as the state’s House Majority Leader David Moon is pushing for trigger legislation that would kickstart Maryland’s redistricting if Texas approves new districts.
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, where many Democratic Texas state lawmakers fled in effort to block their state from moving forward with Republican-led redistricting, told late-night host Stephen Colbert last week that a similar effort to what Newsom has proposed in California “is possible” in his state. Pritzker added: “Everything is on the table. Look, we’ve got to fight fire with fire.”
Texas unfazed
All the threats, however, do not seem to faze Texas Gov. Abbott, who has threatened the Democrats. “All of those big blue states, they’ve already gerrymandered,” Abbott told CNN Monday.
Abbott also believes that his state has greater ability to counter any tit-for-tat redistricting efforts. “If California tries to gerrymander five more districts—listen, Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our states. We can play that game more than they can because they have fewer Republican districts in their states.” Texas is currently represented by 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the U.S. House, while California has 43 Democrats and only 9 Republicans.
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