The fight between President Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over unrest in Los Angeles reached new heights on Monday, with Trump saying he’d support the arrest of one of the top Democrats in the country and a possible presidential contender in 2028.
Escalating protests in the City of Angels over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pitted the two leaders together in a clash that has obvious political opportunities for Trump and risks for Newsom.
For Trump, California provides a reliable foil as he aggressively pushes a crackdown on immigration. The images of burning cars and masked men waving Mexican flags form the perfect backdrop for the “law and order” message the Trump White House says it will impose on the nation.
And the images are weapons to use in Trump’s argument that Democrats are too soft and unable to keep cities safe from violent unrest.
There are opportunities for Newsom, too, as the battle provides a chance for the high-profile Democrat to stand up to Trump in a way that could bolster his standing the liberal grassroots.
“The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America,” Newsom posted Monday on the social platform X shortly after Trump’s comments about arresting him.
“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”
Yet there are clear risks for Newsom as well if voters see him as too soft on those committing criminal acts in Los Angeles. Team Trump on Monday pushed its argument that the California leader and other Democrats cannot be trusted to keep the peace after Newsom said his state would sue the administration over its decision to send the National Guard to LA without the approval of local officials.
“Gavin Newsom’s feckless leadership is directly responsible for the lawless riots and violent attacks on law enforcement in Los Angeles. Instead of filing baseless lawsuits meant to score political points with his left-wing base, Newsom sho/uld focus on protecting Americans by restoring law and order to his state,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
If there is a risk for Trump, it is likely a familiar one to past presidents in both parties: overreaching.
Trump is beginning the week by becoming the first U.S. president to send the National Guard to a state without the approval of local officials since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, who at the time was seeking to protect civil rights protesters in the segregated South. At the end of the week, Trump plans to hold a full military parade.
Both decisions feed into the Democratic narrative that he is a dangerous president with authoritarian impulses, an argument Newsom leaned into Monday.
“This is a real battle for both of them,” said one Democratic strategist before turning to the potential risks for the president.
“Trump thinks this is politically helpful for him and he’s marginally right, but he has a tendency to overreach,” the strategist said.
On the other hand, Newsom, the strategist said, “is trying to balance this kind of reshaping of his public narrative as not your average San Francisco liberal. He’s trying to position himself as a national liberal. Shaking off some of that image is showing a stiff upper lip in a situation like this.”
Trump and Newsom have been political rivals for years, with the dynamic vacillating between fierce criticism and occasional displays of collegiality.
Even on Monday, Trump called Newsom a “nice guy” who he liked before adding that the Californian was “grossly incompetent.”
Newsom has praised Trump during times of crisis, including early in the coronavirus pandemic and during natural disasters that have impacted his state. The two men had a friendly exchange on the tarmac in January when Trump visited California to tour wildfire damage, and Trump hosted Newsom at the White House in February.
But their dynamic has more frequently been marked by animosity.
Trump and his allies have for years painted California as a symbol of everything wrong with liberal governance, pointing to high taxes, government regulation and issues with homelessness and immigration. Trump frequently berates the governor as “Newscum” and has threatened to withhold federal funding from the state.
Newsom has used his perch as governor of the most populous state in the nation to aggressively criticize Trump and his policies. Democrats and Republicans alike viewed Newsom’s emergence as a top Trump critic during the Biden administration as setting himself up for a White House bid of his own.
The current situation in LA is a perfect storm for Newsom, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of public affairs and history at Princeton University.
“He has a genuine policy crisis on his hands, a rapid escalation of tensions within Los Angeles and with the president. He is dealing with serious issues of overextension of presidential power,” Zelizer said.
“At the same time as a possible candidate for president, everything is handled through a political prism: If the president turns this against him, makes him look like a candidate who cannot protect law and order, it could be extremely damaging to his own political career.”
Trump on Monday would not rule out deploying Marines to California, which would further escalate the situation, though he signaled things seemed to be cooling down.
“We’ll see what happens. I think we have it very well under control. I think it would have been a very bad situation,” Trump said at a White House event. “And we hope to have the support of Gavin, because Gavin is the big beneficiary as we straighten out his problems.”
Garry South, a prominent Democratic strategist based in California, said the idea of sending troops to the Golden State is dangerous.
“Newsom is doing the right thing both substantively and politically — by pushing back on Trump’s unprecedented militarization of domestic policy,” he said. “It’s a fraught moment for our democracy, for a president to turn troops loose on the American people.
“Like everything Trump does, it’s all for political benefit, to make himself look like a tough guy to his MAGA base by taking on California, but it’s just another warning sign that we could end up being Chile under Pinochet if he is unchecked,” South added.