As Donald Trump and his allies torch the federal government and imperil millions of lives at home and abroad, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a first-class member of the #Resistance to Trump’s first term, really only has one mission now: To piss off progressives. And he’s good at it. His latest success came Thursday on the debut episode of his podcast, when he announced that it was “deeply unfair” for trans girls in high school to participate in girls’ sports.
For many of those who are eager to win the Democratic nomination in 2028—and no one is more eager than Newsom, who has seemingly been prepping such a run for over two decades—there is no more valuable commodity to carry into the contest than the anger of the left. Party Brahmins, despite having watched Kamala Harris lose a presidential election after campaigning with Republican war hawk Liz Cheney, lecturing pro-Palestinian activists, and generally running significantly to the right of where she (and, for that matter, nearly all of her party) was four years ago, have concluded that Democrats are too woke. The key to winning back the presidency, according to this blinkered line of thought, is to prove to voters that the party is done with stuff it barely ever did, like land acknowledgments and gender-neutral pronouns, and go back to being firmly part of the center-right.
And so, Newsom started a podcast (called This Is Gavin Newsom—who else would it be?), invited 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk to be the first guest, and proceeded to throw a tiny, vulnerable population under the bus for no reason other than to possibly boost his own prospects several years in the future.
Asked about AB Hernandez, a transgender woman who is a star triple jumper in California, Newsom said, “I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is completely legit,” in a Romney-esque moment that gives off “How do you do, fellow kids” vibes. “And I saw that—the last couple years, boy did I [see] how you guys were able to weaponize that issue at another level.”
Newsom is correct that the right has successfully weaponized the issue of trans athletes. It’s an issue affecting a remarkably small number of people, which has nevertheless become a political hot button thanks to grifters like Kirk. It takes some of the most vulnerable people in the country—trans teenagers—and dehumanizes them for political gain. Newsom could have said that. Instead, when Kirk challenged his use of the word “weaponize,” Newsom bent over backward to appease him.
Newsom took back “weaponize.” Instead, agreeing with Kirk, he said the word “highlight” was more appropriate. Newsom did push back some, noting that the transgender people he was currently vilifying as a threat to the sanctity of high school sports were also “more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression.” He—breaking from Kirk—would “hold ... both things in [his] hand.” It wasn’t clear what precisely he meant, and he didn’t say. On the one hand, trans teenagers are far more likely to kill themselves. On the other, some polls say demonizing those kids might provide a slight political advantage. What is a Democratic presidential aspirant to do?
Newsom, of course, wasn’t there to argue with Kirk. He was there to capitulate, to show his willingness to further marginalize trans people because, having stuck his finger to the wind, he thinks that will help him become president in four years. “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness—it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said to Kirk about allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ high school athletics. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
Newsom idolizes Robert F. Kennedy—the slain father of the current crackpot secretary of health and human services—because he sees himself in him. Like RFK, Newsom’s career has been a more or less frictionless upward ascent. He is the scion of a powerful, politically connected family but likes to think he has a common touch (he doesn’t).
Over the course of his 20-plus years in politics, his ambition has always been his sole animating force. Sometimes this is for good. As mayor of San Francisco, in 2004, Newsom started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, prompting a national outcry—and, ultimately, successfully shifting the conversation on gay marriage. And during Trump’s first term, responding to the #Resistance appropriately, he signed a series of progressive laws in California—including bills that strengthened protections for the state’s trans residents.
Not that he wasn’t also slimy and cringey. But even when Newsom tried to promote himself as an avatar for Trump-era progressivism, as he did by posting pictures of himself “reading” books like Beloved and To Kill a Mockingbird amid attempts to ban them, you could shrug it off. Did it matter that Newsom was doing the right things for the wrong reasons? In the grand scheme of things, maybe not.
But the definitive moment of Newsom’s political career is still the one that nearly ended it. In November 2020, with most parts of the country, very much including California, still under lockdown restrictions, he was photographed dining at the ritzy Michelin-starred restaurant French Laundry with several lobbyists and health care executives. This is, ultimately, the Newsomian spirit: Hypocritical to his core, he will let others suffer as he glides effortlessly along. That moment led to a recall effort that ultimately failed. But the ultimate takeaway—that Newsom doesn’t really believe in anything other than his own political destiny, and will do anything to reach his ultimate goal—is truer now than ever. That’s why he’s now throwing trans teenagers to wolves like Kirk.
Newsom may be reading the electorate correctly. It’s possible that Democratic primary voters are tired of all the woke stuff—even though mainstream Democrats never actually embraced it—and are ready for someone who will tell supposedly hard truths in the form of cynical right-wing talking points. It is possible that, two years from now, we will look back and see this as the moment that finally established Newsom as what he has always wanted to be: a Democratic presidential candidate.
It is undoubtedly true that Newsom has gotten exactly what he wanted from telling Kirk, of all people, that he was right about something. Progressives and LGBTQ activists are very mad, understandably so. Newsom has poked the hornet’s nest that is online leftists. He has created a moment he can always point to as proof that he is not a pinko.
But Newsom has also provided yet another reminder of who he is: a slick but spineless politician. Four years from now, he’ll still be explaining why he decided to flip-flop on trans issues and, most likely, a host of others. Or maybe public opinion will tack back as the Trump administration finds ever crueler ways to treat trans people, and Newsom will be explaining yet another position on this issue. Regardless, he’ll still have the same problem. He’ll still be Gavin Newsom, a hideously ambitious politician who believes in nothing but himself.
