Newsom predicts Trump presidency ‘as we know it’ will end in November

California Governor Gavin Newsom has predicted that Democrats will win back the US House of Representatives in November, saying the outcome would mean Donald Trump’s presidency “as we know it” is over.

“We’re going to take back the House of Representatives. It’s a day of reckoning, a new day coming,” Newsom told AFP and two other outlets following a UN climate summit in New York.

“Trump’s presidency, as we know it, ends in November,” the 58-year-old Democratic governor said.

Newsom, whose second term as California governor is approaching its end, is widely regarded as a potential contender for the Democratic nomination ahead of the 2028 US presidential election.

He made the comments during a Wednesday interview held under the Covering Climate Now journalism initiative but stopped short of explaining exactly how a Democratic takeover of Congress would bring Trump’s presidency to an end.

However, Democrats gaining control of either or both chambers of Congress could limit the administration’s ability to advance parts of its agenda, although the president would continue to wield substantial executive authority.

Newsom also used the interview to argue that climate change should be presented to voters as an economic and national security issue rather than simply a “green” cause.

“People say ‘why the hell are you talking about that, you should be talking about the kitchen table,’ I said ‘I am!’”

He referenced the cost of beef and coffee, difficulties obtaining home insurance and mortgages, and the growing risks posed by climate change, including increasingly severe wildfires and coastal erosion worsened by El Nino.

California’s climate strategy

Newsom said politicians often avoid climate issues because they are uncertain about how to communicate them effectively.

He said those who previously addressed climate concerns were sometimes dismissed as “soft, weak, effete, green, hyperbolic.”

He admitted that “some of our language did get a little apocalyptic,” but said the message should instead focus on the economic and strategic consequences of climate policy.

The key, according to Newsom, is that “it’s not about electric power; it’s about economic power. It’s about statecraft.”

At the New York summit, he pointed to California as evidence that environmental policies can exist alongside economic expansion.

Newsom said California is the world’s fourth-largest economy and that its GDP has increased by 40 percent since 2019. He also said the state had used 100 percent clean energy for at least part of the day on 90 percent of days so far this year.

His administration has been in conflict with Trump and congressional Republicans over efforts to reverse California’s environmental rules, including the state’s planned phase-out of gasoline-powered vehicles and initiatives aimed at encouraging companies to abandon offshore wind projects.

“Donald Trump wants to recreate the 19th century,” Newsom said. “He’s doubling down on stupid. He’s putting America in reverse.”

He further declared: “Whoever the nominee is of the Democratic Party is going to be the next president of the United States.”

Newsom said Democratic contenders would be “exponentially better than a Rubio or Vance that have countenanced this corruption, this grift, this graft, this destruction of truth and trust and institutions.”

His comments referred to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, both of whom are regarded as potential Republican contenders for the 2028 nomination, although neither has announced a campaign.

Newsom discusses AOC and 2028

Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has attracted attention after telling The New York Times that she was considering a presidential run.

The Democratic congresswoman also questioned whether a Latina could win the presidency after female nominees lost presidential elections in 2016 and 2024.

Ocasio-Cortez, Newsom and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff are among the politicians being discussed on betting markets in connection with the 2028 race.

Newsom said Ocasio-Cortez could become the Democratic nominee and rejected arguments that a woman could not win the presidency.

“She absolutely could become the nominee of the party. That’s my assessment of electability. This notion that a woman can’t win is insulting,” he said, attributing the persistence of the idea to “punditry.”

“I’m done with people talking like that. Or that if you’re from California or you’re Jewish or you’re old or you’re too young — give me a damn break. Our politics is completely scrambled post-Trump. The old rules, they do not apply.”

While describing Ocasio-Cortez as a “generational talent,” Newsom did not exclude the possibility of running against her.

He had, however, said emphatically in an interview with CNN the previous week that he would not challenge Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, citing their long-standing relationship in California that predates their political careers.

“It’s a different framework,” he said. “I don’t have a relationship that goes back to before we were both in politics. I don’t have a relationship in the context of our base overlaying in remarkable ways.”

Newsom said his own decision on whether to seek the presidency would ultimately depend on whether he could demonstrate that he offers something distinct from other potential candidates.

He said he would need to be able to “look them and you in the eye and say I have something unique they don’t… voice, experience, perspective, capacity that is unique and distinctive.”

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