California Gov. Gavin Newsom alleged Wednesday that the Trump administration barred him from addressing attendees at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, claiming the White House pressured organizers to block his scheduled appearance at the USA House, the official U.S. pavilion at the annual global gathering.
Newsom’s office said the governor had been slated to speak as part of an event hosted by Fortune magazine but was denied access at the last minute. “California was just denied at the USA House,” Newsom wrote on X. “Last we checked, California is part of USA.”
The claim sparked a round of public sparring between the Democratic governor and the Trump administration, which dismissed the complaint and accused Newsom of seeking international attention while neglecting problems at home.
“No one in Davos knows who third-rate governor ‘Newscum’ is or why he is frolicking around Switzerland instead of fixing the many problems he created in California,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to the BBC.
The apparent snub came just hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized Newsom during his own address at USA House. “The Trump administration is coming to California to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse,” Bessent said, using his remarks to highlight what he called the state’s “spiraling dysfunction” under Newsom’s leadership.
“He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything,” Bessent added, drawing applause from the largely pro-business crowd.
The remarks followed a report detailing Bessent’s comments and his focus on California’s mounting fiscal and social crises — including homelessness, urban decay, and post-pandemic economic stagnation.
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Newsom’s office accused the White House and State Department of intervening directly to keep the governor off stage. “USA House denied his entry under pressure from the White House and State Department,” a spokesperson wrote on X.
“How weak and pathetic do you have to be to be this scared of a fireside chat?” Newsom added in a follow-up post.
Critics of the California governor quickly seized on the incident as evidence that Newsom’s global travels have overshadowed his responsibilities at home. Fox News host Laura Ingraham blasted the Democrat, saying, “Newsom’s not governing — he’s auditioning.”
Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow offered a similar assessment, “He thinks winning means flying around the world with rich donors, not fixing California. Half of L.A. burned. Homelessness off the charts. Nineteen miles takes an hour and twenty minutes. High-speed rail? A grift. The surplus? Blown.”
Marlow went on to suggest that Newsom’s proximity to Alex Soros, who attended WEF events this week, symbolized “exactly who’s been bought off,” adding, “Just check Alex Soros’s Instagram.”
The episode marks another in a string of high-profile political dustups between Newsom and Trump administration officials. In recent months, the governor has positioned himself as a leading Democratic foil to the president, traveling overseas to promote climate initiatives and tout California’s progressive policies on the world stage — trips that have increasingly drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in his state.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has ramped up federal oversight of California’s finances and regulatory practices. Treasury Secretary Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have both pledged to investigate alleged misuse of federal funds tied to homelessness programs and environmental spending.
For his part, Newsom has framed his trips abroad as efforts to “defend democracy and the planet,” even as critics accuse him of neglecting California’s mounting budget deficit and deteriorating public services.
Whether the Davos dustup damages Newsom’s political standing remains to be seen.
