Newsom Humiliates Trump After Replacing Him at Major Summit

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ripped into Donald Trump’s failure to lead on a major global issue and accused the president of “doubling down on stupid” during a speech at the world’s biggest climate conference.

The administration inadvertently shone an international spotlight on Newsom by skipping the U.N.’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil, making the vocal Trump critic the highest-ranking U.S. official at the global gathering.

During remarks to an at-capacity room of local government representatives in Belem, Brazil, Newsom told the audience that he was representing the “most un-Trump state.”

“He’s trying to roll back progress, the last century. He wants to recreate the 19th century,” Newsom said on Tuesday. “He’s doubling down on stupid as he tries to vandalize our progress.”

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a tour of the Federal Reserve Board building, which is currently undergoing renovations, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura — President Trump has long opposed wind power. Kent Nishimura/Reuters

Newsom, 58, also called Trump an “invasive species” and a “wrecking-ball president” who doesn’t realize he’s playing into the hands of China’s Xi Jinping by refusing to lead on the energy transition.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump, 79, has described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated” and has tried to withhold congressionally approved funding for clean energy projects.

For months, Newsom has trolled Trump on social media with all-caps posts and memes meant to highlight the president’s bizarre communications style.

But at Tuesday’s climate conference, Newsom—fresh off a win against Trump in their national redistricting fight—tried to position California as a stable, long-term climate partner.

Speaking at several packed sessions, the governor, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run, also encouraged attendees to frame climate change in economic terms, focusing on affordability and the cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s not about electric power. It’s about economic power. We, as the state of California, are not going to cede that race to China,” he said, according to The New York Times.

US President Donald Trump (L), backdropped by Turbines at the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, also known as the Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm, walks on the first fairway after playing off the first tee to officially open the Trump International Golf Links course in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, north east Scotland on July 29, 2025. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) — Gavin Newsom said China has benefitted from President Trump’s refusal to lead on climate change and the energy transition. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

California has the fourth-largest economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund’s 2024 World Economic Outlook report, and produces more electricity from renewable energy than any state except Texas.

Other Democratic governors, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, were also slated to attend COP30, The Guardian reported.

But as the summit’s most high-profile American official, Newsom was trailed by crowds, according to the Times. He struggled to arrive at his events on time as he stopped to wave to applauding crowds, talk to admirers, and take questions from the media.

While he was at the conference, his press office shared a social media post saying utility costs have risen 11 percent over the last year as Trump has promoted fossil fuels, and tried to roll back Biden-era investments in wind and solar power.

Critics, however, have pointed out that average electricity rates in California shot up 47 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to Inside Climate News. Both the White House and Trump’s Department of Energy have tried to pin the increase on California’s investments in renewables.

Newsom “flew all the way to Brazil to tout the Green New Scam, while Californians are paying some of the highest energy prices in the country.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Times in a statement.

“These Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump’s commonsense energy agenda,” she added.

In fact, research shows the main culprits behind California’s spike in energy prices are utility spending on wildfire safety and recovery measures, and investments in distribution infrastructure, Inside Climate News reported.

Average utility rates for California’s investor-owned utilities are also more than 50 percent higher than rates for its public municipal utilities, according to a June policy brief from the UCLA School of Law and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

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