California Gov. Gavin Newsom won praise on Wednesday for his speech Tuesday night seen by a national audience, something many Democrats saw as a shot across the bow to President Donald Trump that they can fight Trump — and one that sparked new talk of Newsom as the party’s standard-bearer in 2028.
“The rule of law has increasingly given way to the rule of Don,” he said, blasting Trump for sending the military to quell protests in Los Angeles. “The founding fathers did not live and die to see this moment. It’s time for all of us to stand up,” Newsom said in his eight-minute highly produced remarks, flanked by the California and U.S. flags.
Newsom’s message to Californians — and Americans listening — was politically sobering, arguing that “Democracy is under assault before our eyes. The moment we’ve feared has arrived.”
“What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him,” he urged what might have been millions of viewers watching on cable news channels.
MORE: Protests live updates: At least 5 criminal cases related to LA protests, DA says
His rhetoric directly calling out Trump comes as Democrats are hungry for a leader to unite them as they try to rebuild from 2024 and other party losses.
“We want somebody to fight, and so he’s been fighting, and it’s been glorious to watch,” RL Miller, an environmental activist and Democratic National Committee superdelegate, told ABC News.
Miller thinks Democrats have spent too much time “navel-gazing” since the November election, wasting time and resources rather than looking forward.
“Newsom is going to be vaulting back into that top tier of presidential candidates with this,” she said.
His speech was just the latest in Newsom’s verbal combat with the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, he challenged Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, after he suggested that anyone who blocked the administration’s immigration crackdown should be apprehended, even Newsom, a comment he later walked back but Trump endorsed.
“Come after me, arrest me. Let’s just get this over with, tough guy,” Newsom told NBC News.
“That’s the energy we need in this moment,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Hannah Muldavian said of Newsom during the party’s new daily YouTube show.
Other national Democrats echoed that praise.
In a joint news conference Wednesday morning, top party brass, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw their support behind Newsom’s new war with Trump.
“All I add is President Trump is trying to intimidate Gavin Newsom,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “He has shown he’s not going to be intimidated, and we’re all for that, all for him and proud that he is refusing to be intimidated by Donald Trump.”
Newsom’s PAC, Campaign for Democracy, sent out fundraising texts asking supporters to donate to help Newsom “continue to fight back against the attacks and threats from the Trump administration.”
Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked with former California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Newsom was asserting authentic leadership for Democrats who have been “leaderless all year” and likely quite eager to see such a high-profile official “fighting back” to Trump.
“There’s resistance that often seems contrived, but these circumstances have given him an essential, authentic resistance footing,” said Stutzman.
Still, it remains unclear if Newsom can win on immigration, one of Trump’s central campaign issues and a top concern of many Americans. As a whole, Democrats have struggled to offer a singular message and response to Trump’s actions.
And the White House is continuously highlighting the unrest in California as a prime example of what is says is Newsom’s poor record. Trump blasted the governor on his social media platform Monday, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have “failed their citizens.” She said Newsom “owns” the images of violent protests.
Newsom, who is term-limited and has not ruled out a 2028 presidential bid, isn’t the only Democratic governor pitching themselves as tough on Trump. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently traveled to South Carolina to recap their record to voters, though both are adamant they are not running for the White House this time around.
Even still, Newsom seems to rise above the pack. In fact, some operatives in Trump’s orbit see Newsom transforming into the Democratic Party’s long-sought leader.
Former Trump political adviser Bannon told the New York Times that Newsom’s address was “a kickoff to his 2028 campaign.”
Newsom speech taking on Trump encourages Democrats looking for a leader originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
