California Governor Gavin Newsom will crash President Donald Trump’s trip to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The 58-year-old Democrat and likely presidential candidate made clear he intends to offer an alternative American message when he speaks on Thursday, Jan. 22, one day after the president.
“Trump’s economic agenda betrays our nation: it is not ‘America First’ but ‘Trump First’—rewarding the favored, punishing the dissenters, and burdening the rest,” Newsom said in a statement provided to the Daily Beast. “At the World Economic Forum, I will forcefully confront these abuses and resolutely defend the principles to which California owes its economic strength: disciplined governance, world-leading universities, boundless innovation, and an open embrace of global cultures.”
Trump, 79, will attend the economic forum with the largest U.S. delegation to ever attend the conference. His speech will be a marquee event following three weeks of high-profile foreign policy maneuvers, including abducting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, threatening to take Greenland from Denmark by force, and threatening military action in Iran.
World leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng, will be in attendance, as will representatives from Israel, Palestine, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Serbia.
Newsom plans to pitch himself and California as stark contrasts to the United States under Trump.
“As Trump undermines long-standing alliances, California will remain a beacon of stability and loyalty,” Newsom said. “To remain silent in the face of such wrongdoing is not neutrality—it is complicity.”
The White House said Newsom’s attendance at the conference was unnecessary.
“The last thing world leaders in Davos need is an expert lesson from Gravin Newsom [sic] about how to increase crime and worsen affordability,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast.
The two conference appearances come as questions remain about whether the Democratic governor will run for president. Newsom, who will leave office in California once he completes his mandated final term in January 2027, has not yet announced whether he intends to run for the top office in 2028.
Since the start of Trump’s second term, Newsom has positioned himself as a staunch opponent of Trump on the national stage. In June, he made a televised trip to South Carolina to meet with Democratic leaders. He then championed California’s redistricting effort, Prop 50, to combat gerrymandering efforts in red states like Texas. The measure passed in the November 2025 elections.
He has also challenged the president on social media. Newsom and his press team have posted countless insults aimed at Trump and his administration, targeting his policies, speculation about Trump’s health, and the government’s delay in releasing the Epstein files.
His press office said of Newosm’s trip to Davos, “The Governor will be bringing an extra suitcase of kneepads for anyone lining up to bend the knee to Donald Trump.”
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