Gavin Newsom has revealed new details about how the president phoned him to throw playground taunts and boast about MAGA merch sales instead of discussing anti-ICE protests in California.
Newsom said the call, on the eve of President Donald Trump sending National Guard troops into Los Angeles to quell street protests against ICE raids, notably failed even to mention the public safety crisis.
“He called me… and all he wanted… he wanted to brag about the ‘Newscum’ thing,” the California governor told MeidasTouch founder Ben Meiselas, referring to the nickname Trump has used since at least last November.
“He said, ‘It’s pretty funny, isn’t it?’ He goes, ‘Pretty original.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s not original.’”
Newsom has previously said the moniker was used against him by bullies at school, and that it “triggers” him.
Newsom then revealed that Trump launched into a weird brag about his MAGA merchandise.
“He goes, ‘Hey, what about my hats? What do you think? It’s a pretty good brand, right? MAGA, you know, it’s pretty good. I’ve sold hundreds of thousands.’
“I mean, I’m like, are you serious? Are we seriously having this conversation when you’re supposed to be reading me the riot act about keeping people safe in Los Angeles?”
As if speaking directly to the president, Newsom added, “You never once talked about the National Guard.”
The governor’s account landed hours after his fiery Los Angeles press conference, where he unveiled the “Election Rigging Response Act”—a November 4 special election to let California temporarily redraw its U.S. House map if Texas follows through on a GOP plan to juice Republican seats.
Newsom framed it as meeting fire with fire in a redistricting arms race kicked off by Trump’s allies.
Trump’s spring and summer escalation in L.A.—including National Guard deployments and protests over federal immigration sweeps—has already sparked legal and political blowback in California.
Newsom has accused the White House of trampling long-standing limits on domestic military use, and he previously demanded that Trump rescind what he called an “unlawful” deployment.
His MeidasTouch revelation is the latest in a tit-for-tat verbal war between the pair, with Newsom and his media team having stepped up their attacks as they attempt to play the president at his own game.
When Trump’s comms chief Steven Cheung falsely claimed Newsom ducked media questions at the L.A. event, the governor’s team posted the Q&A receipts and called him an “idiot.”
In the MeidasTouch sit-down, Newsom’s larger point was about Trump’s fitness and focus.
Calling the president “unhinged,” he said the country is watching “one of the great… corruption[s] that we’ve ever seen,” blasting Trump’s economic “extractions” and attempts to rewrite history.
“This is a serious moment… it requires us to… fight fire with fire and play by a new set of rules,” he said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Newsom for comment.
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