Gavin Newsom has accused Donald Trump of showing more concern for White House interior design than American troops killed in his military strikes against Iran.
The California governor, 58, said he had been appalled to watch Trump, 79, briefly discuss in a press conference the U.S soldiers who had lost their lives in the Middle East conflict—only to then describe his East Wing renovation plans with notably more enthusiasm.
“He mentioned them in passing and then went on to mention in great detail the drapes, and the imperial palace, on the East Wing that he’s building,” Newsom said.
Newsom said the “damning” moment went “to the heart of who he is,” and showed the world that Trump had launched his war with Iran without considering the fallout, which now includes six slain U.S. soldiers, scores of civilian deaths, and thousands of U.S. citizens stranded in the region.
“I hope it’s dawning on everybody. He had no plan, no strategy,” the 2028 presidential hopeful said of Operation Epic Fury.
Newsom made the remarks Tuesday evening at a sold-out event at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, where he was appearing alongside Pod Save America hosts John Favreau and Tommy Vietor to promote his new Penguin Press memoir, Young Man in a Hurry.
Speaking days after Trump launched airstrikes against Iran, Newsom set aside questions about his book to deliver a sustained attack on the president’s handling of the crisis. He called Trump “a broken president” who is “historic because he’s historically unpopular.”
Newsom catalogued what he described as a sequence of shifting and contradictory justifications for the Iran operation. “His rationale [is] non-rational,” Newsom said. “This is keystone cops, but playing with real lives, with our reputation.”
He questioned the constitutional basis for the strikes, saying that only “a cursory look” at the Constitution was needed to establish that the president requires congressional approval for a declaration of war.
He pointed out that Trump—who has repeatedly billed himself as the “Peace President”—had already launched more airstrikes in his first year than the Biden administration carried out in four.
Newsom also linked military spending to domestic cuts the administration is pursuing simultaneously. “At a time when he’s cutting taxes for billionaires, he’s cutting food stamps, he’s cutting Medicaid, he’s cutting Medicare, and here he is spending tens of billions of dollars—not for recovery here in Los Angeles, he has no interest in that, but overseas,” he said.
He warned the conflict risked becoming a regional war, with U.S. allies in the UAE under threat, a proxy conflict with Hezbollah unfolding in Lebanon, and what he called mounting anxiety over the roughly 20 percent of global oil supply that flows through the region.
Newsom also cast doubt on the role of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in shaping the U.S. decision.
“He’s got his own domestic issues. He’s trying to stay out of jail,” he said of the Israeli leader, adding that Netanyahu’s influence on “where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self-evident.”
He said he broadly supports efforts by minority members of Congress to invoke the War Powers Act. “I appreciate Congress now getting back, not the leadership, but the minority getting back into the game in this respect,” he said. “This is a hell of a thing.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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