‘Dictator!’ Newsom Lashes Out at Trump After Arrest Threat in Blistering Rant
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) tore into President Donald Trump in a scathing response to Trump’s threat to have him arrested amid an immigration crackdown that has escalated to include a military contingent.
Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sparked protests in Los Angeles over the weekend with a series of raids at workplaces like Home Depot and the garment district. The raids came amid intense media attention to the bombshell blow-up between Trump and Elon Musk, as well as the high-profile return of wrongly-deported migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The situation escalated when Trump ordered the deployment of 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 active-duty Marines. Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have each said that Newsom should be arrested over the protests, which have included violent clashes between police and protesters.
Newsom responded to Homan over the weekend, and lashed out in direct response to Trump on Monday night’s edition of the Meidas Touch podcast.
Host Ben Meiselas asked Newsom about Trump’s arrest threat, which the governor likened to the actions of a “dictator”:
BEN MEISELAS: Donald Trump earlier today echoed what his borders czar Tom Homan said, which is that they want you arrested.
Trump was asked why he wants you arrested, he says, because you’re the governor and you won election. That’s one of the reasons he wants your arrested. So what’s your response to that?
GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Was that said by Erdogan?! Who was that said by?!? Was that some dictator, some authoritarian in the history books? Or was that said by the President of the United States?
I’ve never thought, honestly, and I don’t want to be hyperbolic, act like a victim and all that. I honestly literally never thought in my life I’d hear those words uttered from the President of United States threatening the arrest, directing the arrest of a political opponent that quote unquote “won an election.”
And happens to be governor of the largest state in our country. And for what? Not only winning the election, but it’s really about having the audacity to call him out on his unconstitutional actions and to call out what this is all about.
This is about the erosion of the rule of law. This is about a system of checks and balances, popular sovereignty, co-equal branches of government. We lost a full branch of government, it’s gone.
And that’s Congress. There’s no oversight. There’s only one other branch outside the executive that may or may not be left. And that the branch he’s threatening with impeachment and he’s threatening as it relates to court actions that he may or might not follow depending on the rule of Don. And that is the courts.
And that what we’ve got left. And so we have to stand up, we have to call out what this is really about. We have crossed the red line. We can get into a Posse Comitatus. We can get into this unlawful action. But this is a national action that is occurring first here in the state of California.
The executive order and the mobilization order that came from the DOD impacts every state in the United States of America. Democrats and Republicans should wake up to what is happening currently in this country. And it’s happening here first. But we are just America’s coming attraction. This is a preview of things to come all across the country.
Watch above via the Meidas Touch podcast.
