Trump trashes Newsom in latest NYP exclusive.
President Trump said he is “amazed” California Gov. Gavin Newsom is weighing a White House run, arguing the Democrat’s record in Sacramento would be a major liability on a national stage.
“I’m amazed Gavin wants to run for office,” Trump told The California Post on Friday during an Oval Office interview, conducted after his administration sued California over sanctuary policies, accused the state of fraud, and moved to claw back federal funding.
Trump, who owns a golf course in California, said the state’s image has diverged sharply from its reality under Newsom. “People love the dream of California, but they hate what’s happening to them,” Trump said.
The state needs “proper leadership,” he added, arguing it is not getting it with its current governor.
“Gavin’s incompetent,” he said.
Newsom has increasingly adopted Trump’s combative social media style as he builds a national profile, and he currently leads polling for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, according to RealClearPolitics survey averages.
Newsom holds 24% support among Democrats, ahead of former Vice President Kamala Harris (21%), former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (11%) and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (8%).
Trump predicted Newsom’s record governing California would follow him into any campaign, singling out the state’s long-running high-speed rail project that was intended to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“He has the train, the train to nowhere, that was supposed to be a simple train that went from San Francisco to Los Angeles,” Trump said. “It’s the greatest cost run over that I’ve ever seen.”
“I could have built that thing, and I could have built that thing in one year,” Trump added.
The rail project, now estimated to cost $135 billion, is the most expensive train project in U.S. history.
Newsom touted the effort as “back on track” in his State of the State speech earlier this month.
“Speaking of tracks, we’re finally laying them,” Newsom said, pointing to more than 60 miles of guideway poured in the Central Valley, land acquisitions, and environmental clearance for most of the route.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 2020. The latest target is sometime in 2030, though that timeline would cover only a partial Central Valley segment between Bakersfield and Merced — far from the state’s major coastal population centers.
The project has also faced repeated funding challenges, with billions in federal dollars pulled, restored, and pulled again over the years, leaving California taxpayers responsible for keeping construction moving.
Read the full interview over at The New York Post:
Trump says he’s ‘amazed’ Gavin Newsom’s running for president, issues withering two-word insult https://t.co/3AEuTyhKWj pic.twitter.com/ZkuGKuA2Jw
— New York Post (@nypost) January 26, 2026
