Wednesday hasn't been a great day for Gavin Newsom, California governor and one of the leading Democrat contenders for 2028. He's been in Davos for the last few days, buddying up to Alex Soros and hoping to reach into the deep pockets of the world's global elite to prop up his chances of winning the White House.
He was having so much fun being the belle of the Davos ball; the parties, the media attention – oh, it was swell. That is, until Team Trump came to town. The fun, indeed, seemed to come to a screeching halt for Newsom once President Trump and members of his Cabinet descended upon the snowy ski town in Switzerland.
It all started when Newsom was asked if he had any advice for those in the international community who had concerns over Trump's plans for Greenland. This led to a non-response from Newsom, who, while channeling his inner Kamala Harris, went on an extended ramble about backbones, Nobel prizes, and T-Rexes. Oh, and he also called U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent "smug."
Bessent, when taking to the stage at Davos on Wednesday, quickly reduced Newsom to a quivering mass of jello with an absolutely withering line of fire. Here's bit of what Bessent said, from our earlier reporting:
I think it's very, very ironic that Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris. He's here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is a perfect place for a man who – when everyone else is on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having thousand-dollar-a-night meals at the French Laundry – and I'm sure the California people won't forget that.
And, my message to Governor Newsom is the Trump administration is coming to California. We are going to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.
Yowza, that definitely left a mark.
During his remarks, Bessent noted that Newsom was supposed to give a speech at Davos, but wasn't going forward with that plan because Newsom is "too economically illiterate to know anything." More Bessent:
And I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he's not speaking because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California. A gigantic budget deficit. The largest homeless population in America. And the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down. He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless.
Shame on him. He is too smug, too self absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.
Fresh from that humiliation, Newsom found out that not only wasn't he speaking at Davos, he was barred from entering the USA House pavilion. The pavilion was set up to "celebrate the 250th anniversary of America in Davos in 2026, building on more than a decade of experience that Stromback Global brings to hosting independent gatherings in Davos and other global convenings."
Newsom wasn't best pleased at the freeze out, claiming USA House sponsor Fortune had bowed to pressure from the Trump administration.
BREAKING: Under pressure from the White House and State Department, USA House (a church acting as the official US pavilion) is now denying entry to @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom to speak with media after Fortune — the official media partner — invited him to speak.
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) January 21, 2026
As of this writing, the Trump White House had not commented on the USA House development. We're left to wonder what other humiliations await Gavin Newsom in Davos has he avoids his duties in California.
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