The California governor has leaned into opposing Trump’s actions in Los Angeles. The politics are tricky for potential 2028 presidential candidates.

I can’t tell you whether events in California this week will end up making the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, the national spokesman for a revitalized Democratic resistance or a symbol of runaway immigration and social unrest. Like most things political these days, it could tip either way.

When President Trump unleashed the troops on the streets of Los Angeles, his actions had an unintended consequence. Gov. Gavin Newsom was suddenly in the spotlight, a forceful adversary.

President Donald Trump claimed that California Governor Gavin Newsom should be grateful to him for "saving his a--" with Los Angeles amid an ongoing wave of anti-ICE protests. In a fiery post on his social media platform Truth Social,

A fresh confrontation with Donald Trump gives the high-profile California governor the chance to reset his relationship with angry Democratic voters.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has sounded the alarm on Trump’s use of the National Guard in a nationally televised speech, warning that California may only be the first place out of many where such force may be used.

Gavin Newsom’s political future seemed like a slow fade into irrelevance. Poll numbers were down. Progressives were grumbling. His own