Gavin Newsom Claims His Trump ‘Kneepads’ Rant Was a Hit With World Leaders

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) told CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins that world leaders have told him they appreciated his rant about distributing “kneepads” for those who capitulate to President Donald Trump.

Newsom was in the audience when Trump delivered a lengthy and rambling speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

But a day earlier, it was Newsom who spoke out at Davos in a rant to reporters in which he called those who capitulate to Trump “pathetic” and said, “I should have brought a bunch of kneepads for all the world leaders.”

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s The Situation Room, Collins caught up with Newsom just minutes after the speech ended. She asked what the response has been since he made those comments, and Newsom said he’s been hearing good things.

Newsom told Collins, “They needed to hear those comments”:

KAITLAN COLLINS: You criticized world leaders when you got here, saying that some of these European leaders have capitulated to the president–.

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): In the past, by all sides.

KAITLAN COLLINS: You said you should have brought knee pads. What have you heard from them since then?

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I heard a surprising number say, glad you made those comments. The exact opposite of what you might expect. They needed to hear those comments and to know that people in America have that point of view and perspective. And so I was very…

KAITLAN COLLINS: Do you want to name names?

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Absolutely! But I’m not.

But I would like to, and and I thought yesterday’s comments by Prime Minister Carney were effective, and Macron’s comments and the EU president’s comments were effective and they helped shape.

But the markets more so. What Trump said today and how Trump said it.

It’s it’s not even– it’s all of this is so simple, so basic. It’s not complex. And yeah, so you know, markets are back. Gold is still running higher, so there’s some medium and long-term uncertainty.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Last question for me. You think that he changed, talking about military force in Greenland, because the markets were affected?

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): No, I don’t think the military force was ever real in the first place. But I think the tone reflected deep anxiety here, Besant, you know, talk about him, reflecting the anxiety heard from everybody, and all the business leaders reflected in the markets when they opened, reflected in comments of the leadership here yesterday, and three critical speeches, I think reflected the tonality of this speech. And so in every way it didn’t surprise me at all, except for how… Just redundant it seemed to be with what he always says.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Thank you Governor.

Watch above via CNN’s The Situation Room.

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