Barack Obama lashed out at Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) after she anointed Kamala Harris as the Democrats' nominee in the summer of 2024, according to a new book on last year's tumultuous presidential election.
Obama felt that Pelosi was blowing up his delicate plans to manage Joe Biden's chaotic exit from the race, which was orchestrated by Obama and other party elites who lacked confidence in Biden's ability to beat President Trump.
It has long been suspected that Obama lacked confidence in Harris as well, and he was not happy when Pelosi followed Biden's rapid endorsement with her own.
"The Obamas were not happy,” a Pelosi confidant told Jonathan Karl, author of Retribution, according to an excerpt obtained by the Daily Mail.
“This person summed up Obama’s message to Pelosi as, essentially, ‘What the f–k did you just do?’”
An Obama source disputed that characterization and said Obama gave Pelosi a "good-natured ribbing," but a Pelosi source said he sounded “genuinely irritated."
Whatever his tone may have been, there's no question that Obama saw Harris' nomination as a disaster - and, whatever you think of Obama, he was right about that.
According to the book, Obama assumed that he and Pelosi were in quiet agreement that a competitive process should play out to find a new nominee.
It wasn't just Obama who had that impression. Harris was also told by Pelosi that the Speaker wanted a miniature primary instead of a coronation, according to Harris' memoir 107 Days.
Five days before he reluctantly endorsed Harris, Obama expressed "confidence" that the party's leaders would select an "outstanding nominee."
But within 24 hours of Biden dropping out, Pelosi shared her endorsement expressing "full confidence" in the bumbling vice president. When Obama called Pelosi to complain, she explained that the horse had left the barn with Biden's endorsement.
“That train has left the station,” Pelosi told Obama during the call.
Some have speculated that Biden's quick endorsement of Harris was his way of getting back at Obama, who had played a shadowy role in forcing Biden to end his campaign.
Feelings of resentment have continued to fester, with Biden's son Hunter telling Karl that he was angry at Obama for leading Joe off stage at a re-election fundraiser.
“I almost jumped up on the stage and said, ‘Don’t ever f‑‑‑ing do that to the president of the United States again — ever,” Hunter added.
Leftist bomb thrower Ilhan Omar (D-Mn.) isn't known for showing grace to her enemies - so it comes as quite a surprise that she reportedly defended President Trump during a trip to Europe.
On a recent podcast, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fl.) recounted watching Omar clash with a Belgian diplomat who insulted the House delegation, the Hill reported.
The diplomat commented that Trump does not "respect" Congress and sees lawmakers as a "joke," Luna recalled.
“This, like, blew me away. … She [Omar] looks at the guy, she goes, ‘You might not like what our president is doing and you might not agree with our foreign policy, but when we’re here, you will respect our president," Luna said on Thursday’s “PBD Podcast.”
“She was talking about Trump,” she added.
Luna's story is sure to be surprising to many, given Omar's reputation. The Minnesota lawmaker frequently faces calls for her removal from the United States over her incendiary rhetoric and ingratitude toward her adopted country.
Omar faced more backlash in September for disparaging Charlie Kirk after his assassination, calling him a "hateful" figure.
Her callous comments spurred President Trump to suggest deporting Omar back to her native Somalia, although Trump joked that her homeland doesn't want her.
Luna acknowledged that the show of unity in Europe, while "pleasantly surprising," was only a fleeting moment.
“There’s always this push and pull in politics, and politics is messy, but I didn’t expect that being on a delegation with a foreign government,” she said on the podcast.
“But [Omar] said that. And I think at that point in time, when you have that type of unified front, especially in dealing with the EU, it was pleasantly surprising,” Luna added.
“I don’t agree with her, and politics is not about trust," she said.
“It’s about, and you don’t ever want to make friends in politics, especially this game, because ultimately you realize that it’s a very transactional field,” she added. “But in that instance, I appreciated that she provided a united front to … the jerk.”
Yes, it's shocking that Omar defended Trump, if it is true.... but it's nothing to be impressed by.
There is very, very little that Republicans have in common with a radical figure like Ilhan Omar, who has expressed pure hatred over and over for ICE, for Trump, and for America as we know it.
Republicans should remember that and not allow feel-good sentimentality to cloud their vision.
A story New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani shared about his aunt and her struggles to "feel safe in her hijab" after 9/11 hit a snag when it was revealed that he probably lied, Breitbart's John Nolte reported. The Democratic socialist frontrunner only has one aunt who does not wear a hijab and was not in New York City at the time.
"I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab. In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, it seems that Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement," Mamdani said. Nolte pointed out that the candidate fought through "fake tears" to make that revelation that turned out to be absolute nonsense.
Greg Price shared the clip to X, formerly Twitter, showing Mamdani stopping himself several times during the statement to appear as if he was choked up. "Zohran through tears: 'My aunt stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.' Yes, she was the real victim of 9/11," Price captioned it.
Zohran through tears: “My aunt stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.”
Yes, she was the real victim of 9/11
pic.twitter.com/aILr4JtVvF— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 24, 2025
Predictably, it now appears that Mamdani is another leftist liar who made up this story for clout. "The overall context was Mamdani defending himself against claims of anti-Semitism and an affection for Jew haters and Islamists," Nolte explained.
"Although all of that is true of Mamdani, what he’s doing here is pulling the trick perfected by Barry Obama, where you declare any criticism, even accurate and valid criticism, racist. Except…Mamdani lied," Nolte charged.
"Turns out Mamdani has only one aunt, a woman named Masuma Mamdani, who does not wear a hijab and who did not live in New York or even America during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks," Nolte pointed out. When confronted later, Mamdani tried to explain this away, saying he was "talking about his father’s cousin, a woman who is not his aunt and who cannot verify Mamdani’s tale of post-9/11 woe because she’s dead," Nolte said.
The leftist candidate tried then to pivot from the issue at hand. “I was speaking about my aunt, I was speaking about Zehra Fuhi — my father’s cousin, who sadly passed away a few years ago,” Mamdani said.
"For the takeaway, for my more than 10-minute address about Islamophobia in this race and this city, to be the question of my aunt tells you everything about Andrew Cuomo," Mamdani said, blaming his opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Nolte sees this as yet another sign that "New York City is so screwed."
Nolte went on to explain that Mamdani is sure to get elected due to the city's "foreign-born population," whom he claims have "obviously not been assimilated thanks to the Democrat Party, and now New York will become Paris, Dublin, and London — an Islamized foreign country hostile to its host country," he warns. "What a shame. New York really was a great city at one time, probably the greatest in the world," Nolte added.
"This is how extreme the Democrat Party has become. They are alright with this and Nazi tattoos," Nolte said, referring to another radical leftist candidate, Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. Senate in Maine.
"In their demented minds, anything is better than Donald Trump, who is basically a Bill Clinton-style Democrat in terms of policy. One great difference between America and the lost continent of Europe is that we have 50 mostly sovereign states, the First Amendment, the Electoral College, and two U.S. Senators representing each state regardless of population size," Nolte went on.
"Our Founding Fathers understood history and put together a brilliant system to hold tight to our republic. It’s not foolproof. Nothing is. But for now, at least, we can all watch New York burn from the comfort of MAGA America, which is already everything Democrats claim they want America to be: clean, safe, and tolerant," Nolte concluded.
Mamdani represents the worst of Democratic politicians in the fact that he's anti-American, pro-Communist, and a liar to boot. As Nolte and many others are predicting, Mamdani will likely become the next mayor of New York City, and the people there will get precisely what they voted for. RIP New York City.
The Pentagon has moved to allow swift terminations for civilian employees, allowing managers to fire workers with "speed and conviction" if they're underperforming, The Hill reported. The directive came from a Sept. 30 memo issued by Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata, which was made public on Tuesday.
"Supervisors and human resources professionals are directed to act with speed and conviction to facilitate the separation from Federal service of employees performing unsuccessfully," the top personnel policy officer wrote. Tata further informed the managing supervisors that they would be held accountable if they failed to take appropriate action on employees who weren't up to snuff.
This memo has stripped civilian personnel of previously held protections against such action, and some worry that this will become an excuse to dispense with those seen as disloyal to President Donald Trump. However, this was something Trump warned about before Democrats decided to allow funding to run out and the government to shut down.
So far, 334,900 civilian employees, which represents about half of that category of military workers, have been furloughed due to the shutdown. The longer it goes on, the greater the chance these cuts will become permanent, as Trump promised.
The left is attempting to frame these cuts as something nefarious, but cleaning house and saving on payroll budgets is exactly in line with Trump's priorities that he laid out during the campaign. Similarly, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been tightening up the ranks to rid the military of those who oppose the president's agenda for a stronger military.
"The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. Personnel is policy," Hegseth said last month to an audience of generals and admirals during a meeting he called of top military brass to the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Earlier this year, Hegseth cut the Pentagon's payroll by 60,000 people, or about 8% of the workforce, through attrition or buyouts. Now, the memo has streamlined the process for managers, giving them the "flexibility to address performance issues swiftly and effectively," Tata wrote.
Managers use the Douglas Factors, the criteria for evaluating federal workers, to decide whom to cut. "This approach empowers supervisors to act decisively when performance undermines [Defense Department] objectives, reinforcing a culture of excellence," the memo touted.
This will ensure that all civilian employees who fill military roles unsatisfactorily will be weeded out, "so deficiencies in any role can warrant strong action." The employees fired under this change can challenge the decision and unfavorable review within seven days.
This action is part of Trump's promises, including his pledge to use a government shutdown to eliminate jobs. On October 8, just a week into the shutdown, Trump said he had a "substantial" number of government jobs that could be eliminated permanently, Fox News reported.
"We have a lot of things that we're going to eliminate and permanently eliminate," Trump told the press at a White House meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "I'll be able to tell you that in four or five days if this keeps going on… If this keeps going on, it'll be substantial. And a lot of those jobs will never come back. But you're going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget, actually," Trump said at the time.
Meanwhile, Trump blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats for their failure to act to avoid the shutdown which is now nearly a month long. "I look at your leadership. I don't know who to speak to," Trump said of the Democrats.
"I'll tell you what, I'm getting calls from Democrats wanting to meet. I never even heard their names before... the Democrats have no leader," he added.
The American people voted for Trump to clean up the problems in Washington, D.C., including the dead wood in the military and those opposed to its mission. What's happening now is simply the fulfillment of that, and it's all being facilitated by the spineless Democrats who refuse to agree to funding to reopen the government.
The White House on Tuesday fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that, among other duties, would oversee the ballroom being built after the demolishing of the East Wing last week.
The commissioners were appointed by former President Joe Biden to advise on architectural projects on public land in D.C., and their terms were set to expire in 2028.
President Donald Trump said he will replace them with new members more "aligned" with his policies and goals.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” a White House official said in a statement.
Besides the ballroom, which will be financed by private donors and not with taxpayer dollars, Trump also plans to build an archway close to the entrance of D.C. across from Arlington National Cemetery.
The commission began in 1910, but its scope has grown since then.
Critics of the East Wing's demolition have said that Trump didn't get proper permits for the project, but the White House said it wasn't required to get approval from the National Capital Planning Commission because it didn't involve new, vertical construction.
The NCPC is now full of Trump allies anyway, so there won't be opposition when the plans for the ballroom are submitted.
Trump has fired and ousted a number of board members and administrators since taking office, one of his strategies to overhaul the deep state that so strongly opposed him during his first term.
So far, he has largely gotten away with it, since the president is given some latitude over firing federal workers at various agencies.
When these commissioners and board members are working with Trump and not against him, it's far easier to get things done and Trump can spend his energy elsewhere, like battling Congress to get his legislative priorities passed.
Trump may have started a trend that will continue, with each successive president from the opposite political party cleaning house after the transfer of power.
While some argue that the deep state provides stability during times when power transitions, there's no reason why term limits wouldn't benefit these positions as much as they do the presidency.
Such housecleanings would help government better reflect the will of the people at a given moment in history, and may help move things along faster than has happened in recent years.
Hold the phone—former President Barack Obama was reportedly floored when Rep. Nancy Pelosi jumped the gun to endorse then-Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the New York Post reported.
According to a revealing new book by Jonathan Karl titled "Retribution," Obama was caught off guard by Pelosi’s rapid support for Harris after President Joe Biden stepped back from his re-election bid, a move that clashed with Obama’s preference for an open nomination process.
This bombshell story unfolds with Biden’s sudden withdrawal, a moment that shook the Democratic establishment to its core.
Less than 24 hours after Biden’s announcement, Pelosi was already singing Harris’ praises, calling her “brilliantly astute” and expressing “full confidence” in her ability to take on Donald Trump.
But let’s be real—such glowing words seem more like a polished press release than a battle-tested conviction, especially when the party’s biggest players were supposedly on the same page about taking a slower approach.
Obama, a titan of Democratic politics, had been in regular contact with Pelosi before this moment, and both had reportedly agreed to hold off on any immediate endorsements.
So, imagine Obama’s surprise—nay, irritation—when Pelosi went rogue, prompting a heated phone call where his reaction was summed up as, “What the f–k did you just do?” as per Karl’s account.
That blunt question cuts through the political niceties, revealing a rare crack in the usually polished facade of party unity, and it’s hard not to wonder if Obama felt blindsided by a trusted ally.
Sources close to the situation paint a mixed picture—one describing the exchange as “good-natured ribbing,” while another sensed genuine frustration in Obama’s tone.
Pelosi, however, wasn’t backing down, reportedly telling Obama, “That train has left the station,” a clear nod to Biden’s own swift endorsement of Harris, as noted in Karl’s book.
Translation: the decision was made, and Pelosi wasn’t about to derail it, even if it meant ruffling some very prominent feathers.
Even her husband, Paul Pelosi, seemed taken aback by the move, questioning, “Kamala?” only to be met with a sharp “Don’t start with me” from Nancy, per Karl’s reporting.
Behind closed doors, the tension was palpable—Karl writes that Obama and Pelosi, two of the most influential figures in the Democratic sphere, had privately agreed Harris shouldn’t get a free pass to the nomination.
Yet, with other prominent Democrats and potential challengers quickly lining up behind Harris, Pelosi apparently felt cornered, believing she “had no choice” but to join the chorus of support.
While Obama waited days to offer his own endorsement, whispers from Biden’s camp suggest he harbored serious doubts about Harris’ ability to clinch a victory, a sentiment that adds another layer of intrigue to this Democratic drama.
Let’s not sugarcoat it— this episode exposes a messy underbelly of Democratic strategy, where even the biggest names can’t seem to sync up when the stakes are sky-high.
From Obama’s push for a fair process to Pelosi’s abrupt pivot, it’s a stark reminder that unity is often just a talking point, not a reality, in the cutthroat world of politics.
For conservatives watching from the sidelines, this kind of disarray might just be the chink in the armor needed to challenge a party that often preaches cohesion but struggles to practice it.
President Trump has dismantled a controversial State Department agency that played a key role in Democrat-led efforts to censor conservative speech in the name of "our democracy."
Paul Sperry, a senior investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations, confirmed that the Global Engagement Center (GEC) has officially closed down, Breitbart reports.
During the Biden era, the center came under close scrutiny from Republicans as left-wing efforts to track and censor "disinformation" went into overdrive.
Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced in April that he was shuttering the GEC, which was founded in 2016 by President Obama, nominally to combat foreign propaganda.
"Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist.
The GEC originated as the Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications (CSCC), which was meant to track propaganda from terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Rubio said.
In Obama's final year as president, the group was rechristened the Global Engagement Center and given a broad mandate to match its vague title.
It was likely no accident that Obama's point man at the GEC, Rick Stengel, is an advocate of "hate speech" restrictions who has compared Trump to ISIS and Vladimir Putin, Rubio noted.
Long after Obama left the White House, the GEC was a useful tool in progressives' censorship toolkit.
Under the Biden administration, the GEC played a vigorous role in pressuring social media platforms to censor Americans on topics like the 2020 presidential election and the COVID pandemic, Rubio noted, often by tying them to foreign entities.
The center's efforts extended to sending U.S. taxpayer money to foreign think tanks like the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which targeted conservative news outlets on an infamous blacklist that named popular outlets like the Federalist and New York Post as vectors of disinformation.
“With its multimillion-dollar budget, paid for by American taxpayers, GEC funneled grants to organizations around the world dedicated to pushing speech restrictions under the guise of fighting ‘disinformation,’” Rubio continued.
The GEC ran out of funding late in 2024 as Republicans in Congress refused to back it, but the group limped into the second Trump administration under a new name, Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI).
"The entire ‘disinformation’ industry, from its very beginnings, has existed to protect the American establishment from the voices of forgotten Americans,” Rubio wrote in his op-ed. “Everything it does is the fruit of the poisoned tree: the hoax that Russian interference, misinformation, and ‘meddling’ is what caused President Trump’s victory in 2016, rather than a winning political message that only he was offering.”
House Republicans have released a new report on Joe Biden's presidency that calls for many of his executive actions to be struck down, citing the former president's cognitive decline and a lack of documentation proving that he was aware of his decisions.
The 100-page House Oversight Committee report, from chairman James Comer (Ky.), declares that many of Biden's moves, including his sweeping pardons in his final days in office, are "null and void" without evidence that he himself authorized them, the New York Post reported.
“The authority to grant pardons is not provided to the president’s inner circle. Nor can it be delegated to particular staff when a president’s competency is in question,” the report notes. “Importantly, even if this authority could be delegated — which it cannot — it would have to be expressly delegated by President Biden himself.”
The report takes aim at "extremely loyal staff" who helped orchestrate an elaborate cover-up, with the Republicans noting in their report that "not one" of the committee's 14 witnesses admitted to having concerns about Biden's cognitive health.
The report takes special aim at Kevin O'Connor, Biden's White House doctor, who repeatedly vouched for Biden's health during his presidency despite never administering a cognitive test. O'Connor declined to answer the committee's questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. Deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and Jill Biden's chief of staff Anthony Bernal also refused to answer any questions.
The Republicans' report condemns political interference in medical decision-making concerning Biden, with top advisers admitting that they weighed the political risk of Biden taking a cognitive test as questions swirled about his fitness.
“We did not have any concern about his ability to pass those tests,” said top adviser Anita Dunn. "We did not think it would help politically.”
Democrats, after distancing themselves from Biden since their 2024 defeat, are defending him against the GOP's charges.
"Despite this sham investigation, every White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States. The testimonies also make it clear the former President authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen," House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement to ABC News.
In some of his final actions as president, Biden issued thousands of acts of clemency, including pardons for members of his own family and commutations for brutal killers on death row. Biden's blanket pardon for his son Hunter was one of the handful that he signed personally.
Biden admitted to the New York Times in July that he did not sign many pardons individually, instead leaving the details to his staff.
When asked by the Oversight Committee who controlled the autopen, Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients could not say - but he defended the integrity of the process, noting Biden would provide verbal consent "on occasion."
Without reliable documentation proving Biden's involvement, pardons that were signed with the autopen should be declared "null and void," Republicans said.
"This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency,” a spokesperson for Biden said in a statement. “There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing. Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown.”
Republicans have called on attorney general Pam Bondi to investigate Biden's executive actions - but since the pardon power is absolute, it is not clear what practical mechanism there is for Republicans to "void" Biden's decisions.
President Trump is shaking up leadership in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a feud escalates within the administration over enforcement priorities.
As reported by Fox News, ICE leaders in major cities are being forced out as frustration mounts with the pace of Trump's promised mass deportations. In an unusual move, Border Patrol officials are being tapped to lead interior immigration enforcement, which is usually ICE's job.
According to Fox, Department of Homeland Security insiders are divided over how broad Trump's immigration crackdown should be.
While ICE has focused on known illegal aliens, Border Patrol has cast a wider net, with agents making aggressive shows of force at target-rich locations like Home Depot.
“ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we’ve lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization,” one senior DHS official told Fox. “It’s getting numbers, but at what cost?”
The ICE directors in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, El Paso and New Orleans have all been sacked, Fox reported. As many as half of ICE's 25 field offices could be shaken up by the purge, NBC reported.
Insiders told Fox that Border Czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons want to target illegal aliens with criminal records - the so-called "worst of the worst."
But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and Corey Lewandowski, Noem's chief of staff and Trump's former 2016 campaign manager, are pushing to round up as many illegal aliens as possible. Pressure to ramp up deportations has also come from Stephen Miller, Trump's White House deputy chief of staff and a famous immigration hawk, who set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day in May.
Bovino and Lewandoski have compiled a list of a dozen ICE directors who are facing reassignment as arrest numbers lag around 1,178 on average per day as of late September, NBC reported. The administration has downplayed reports of a rift.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “The president’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”
The increasingly prominent role of Border Patrol in ICE leadership suggests that the administration is shifting toward a more aggressive approach, as Trump's base demands more action to remove illegal aliens.
“The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done,” one of the DHS officials told NBC. “So CBP will do it.”
Bovino has been highly visible as the head of Trump's immigration crackdown in Chicago, Operation Midway Blitz, which has faced a violent backlash in the streets. A federal judge has ordered Bovino to appear in court every day to justify agents' crowd control tactics, including the use of tear gas. DHS officials have said Bovino was hit in the head with a rock.
Trump has frequently been accused of breaking a pledge to target the "worst of the worst," but Trump campaigned on carrying out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
As one agent put it to Fox News, “What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself — anyone in the US illegally is on the table.”
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signaled that he will announce his run for president in 2028 following the 2026 midterm elections, Breitbart reported. Newsom said this during an interview that aired on CBS's Sunday Morning last weekend.
During his sitdown with Robert Costa, Newsom tried on his best aw-shucks persona in order to win over red-state voters. Costa gushed over the California Democrat who shut down the Golden State during the coronavirus pandemic and now makes a name for himself by insulting President Donald Trump.
When Costa asked whether Newsom was considering a run for 2028 after next year's midterms, Newsom contended that he'd be "lying otherwise" if he didn't admit it was on his radar. "I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that," Newsom said.
The California governor is eyeing a presidential run after ruining California. He is term-limited and will therefore be without political power in 2027, just as Trump is heading into the last year of his term.
During COVID-19, Newsom bent over backwards to show how well he could cooperate with Trump, but that goodwill has since evaporated. Newsom has positioned himself as the anti-Trump candidate, and he has joined Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in seeing how low he can sink in his insults of Trump.
However, Newsom has the added distinction of being an absolutely abysmal leader in a state like California, which should be flush with cash but isn't; instead, it is entering its second year of a budget deficit. Meanwhile, he's engaged in fights over congressional redistricting and bailed out Planned Parenthood to the tune of $140 million.
There can't be a worse candidate who is less appealing to sane people outside of California, but that hasn't stopped him from trying. During the interview, Costa said he first got an inkling that Newsom had presidential aspirations after seeing him pull a political stunt by working as a barista, once again showing himself to be at once slamming Trump and trying to be like him.
"When I saw you slinging shots behind the coffee bar, I thought this guy might run for president," Costa said to Newsom. Of course, Trump did it better when he briefly worked the McDonald's drive-thru in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, but Newsom is desperate.
Newsom's act continued with some false humility that's supposed to make him more appealing to people turned off by his California slickback and smooth talking. "The idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary," Newsom said.
"Who the hell knows? I'm looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that's the question for the American people," he added.
As if that wasn't ridiculous enough, Newsom spun a tale about his impoverished childhood despite being featured as one of the "Children of the Rich" as a young man. His father was an attorney for the Getty family, but Newsom said in a now-viral clip that he was "payin' the bills, man" and making "Wonder Bread and Mac and Cheese sandwiches" as a boy.
Hip Hop Gavin!
Here's California Gov. Gavin Newsom debuting his new "street" persona on an NBA podcast - even though his father was an attorney for the billionaire Getty family:
"It was about payin' the bills, man."
"Hustlin."
"I raised myself."
"Wonder bread and Mac… pic.twitter.com/Ov9jCfAvC3
— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) October 26, 2025
Newsom is a fraud and will say or do anything to obtain more political power. He likely will try to run for president in 2028, and the Democrats, who have no talent waiting in the wings, will likely be stuck with this prevaricating politician and his tall tales.