Gavin Newsom on Tuesday recalled having had “many interesting” telephone conversations with President Donald Trump, including one that prompted California’s Democratic governor to declare: “You can’t make this up.”
The Trump-trolling potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show to ostensibly promote his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.”
During the interview, Newsom recalled a call with Trump the night before the president mobilized the National Guard to Los Angeles, an exchange during which Trump later claimed he’d read the governor “the riot act.”
Newsom, though, said the conversation actually went very differently:
“Here’s how it went. It was about 10:30 my time, 1:30 his time. And he goes, ‘Hey, Gavin. Gavin, what do you think of Newscum? What do you think of Newscum?’ It’s his nickname for me. I said, ‘What are you talking…?’ He goes, ‘It’s pretty original, right?’ I said, ‘Actually, it’s not. There was like an eighth grade bully that did that when I was a kid.’ And then he goes, ‘Well, MAGA is pretty good.’ I’m like, ‘Are we serious?’ I literally said, ‘Are we having…’ He goes, ‘Well, how many hats you think I sold last month?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘Like 211.’ I said, ‘That’s impressive.’ So, it was literally conversation like that. These are the conversations with Trump. You can’t make this stuff up. And about 12 hours later, he said he had read me the riot act and then moved forward with the federalization of the guard.”
“It’s a hell of a thing,” Newsom said later of Trump’s telephone manner.
Watch the full interview here:
