California Gov. Gavin Newsom is using the Davos forum as somewhat of a global showcase, inserting himself into international economic and political conversations in a way that increasingly resembles a shadow presidency — and a direct counterweight to President Donald Trump.
From meeting with Democratic mega-donor Alex Soros to fireside chats and high-profile media appearances, Newsom is trying to position California as a global power center and using the World Economic Forum to contrast his vision with Trump’s nationalism on trade, climate, and democracy.
The strategy echoes Newsom’s earlier attempt to play global statesman at COP30, where he similarly bypassed Washington to engage world leaders directly.
Newsom’s Davos blitz is escalating into an international proxy fight with Trump.
As Trump spoke Wednesday at the forum, cameras repeatedly cut to Newsom, who appeared largely disengaged. At one point, Trump, who routinely derides the Democrat as “New-scum,” abruptly softened his tone, calling the governor a “good guy” and saying the two once got along.
Newsom, however, has shown little interest in returning the favor. Speaking with reporters in Switzerland this week, he urged European leaders to push back against the sitting U.S. president, delivering a blistering assessment of Trump’s global approach.
“This is diplomacy with Donald Trump?” Newsom said. “He’s a T-Rex. You mate with him, or he devours you. One or the other.”
He accused world leaders of “complicity,” adding, “I should’ve bought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders. I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world stage.”
But the biting remarks cut both ways, and at least one Trump official is disconcertingly pushing back.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tore into Newsom for calling him “smug” the day before.
Bessent spoke on a panel at the WEF, where he said some parents may be buying “five, 10, 12 homes” for retirement. Newsom reshared a clip of the remarks on social media, writing: “Could this smug man be more out of touch?”
Bessent responded, comparing Newsom to “American Psycho” serial killer Patrick Bateman and Ken, also known as Barbie’s clueless boyfriend.
“Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” Bessent said. “He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros.”
Bessent, who has worked for Alex Soros’s father, George Soros, twice, once in the 1990s and then again from 2011 to 2015, claimed Newsom was “too self-absorbed and too economically illiterate to know anything.”
There are also allegations from Newsom’s office that the State Department pressured USA House, the U.S. government’s official headquarters at Davos, to cancel a fireside chat he had scheduled with Fortune.
Politico, which first reported the development, said USA House informed Newsom’s team it had decided not to include any U.S. officials in the session, which was set to focus on CEOs and other business leaders.
Des Moines, not Davos
Back home, Newsom’s high-risk global posture has drawn an uneven response, with some saying it strengthens his 2028 ambitions, while others knock him for acting more like a president-in-waiting than California’s governor and warn his visit may not play well to voters.
“I’m not sure I understand the strategy behind Governor Newsom going to Davos in preparation for his inevitable 2028 presidential campaign,” Mike Hahn, president of digital at Frontline Strategies, told the Washington Examiner. “Instead of meeting with real Americans in Iowa or South Carolina, he followed President Trump to Davos like a fan girl to make clear he will put Globalist First if he is ever president. He gained no votes doing this. The 2028 election is in America, not Switzerland.”
Sam Mirejovsky, West Coast radio host of “What’s Right Show,” told the Washington Examiner that Newsom has already “made himself look silly.”
“Newsom wants to be the shadow president, but he risks overexposure and looking small next to the REAL president, who arrived on a red carpet to a packed house,” he said. “It’s hard for Newsom to ‘look presidential’ when he has neither the actual nor the personal gravitas to sell it. His visit could backfire and actually damage his presidential ambitions.”
Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff also wondered whether the visit would ultimately prove counterproductive.
“At first, I thought it was a strong play,” he told the Washington Examiner. “What folks like about Newsom is that he goes toe to toe with Trump, he is a fighter, he is willing to make risky plays. What came out of it — a headline/sound bite of him once again making his quip about (this time international) leaders ‘needing knee pads’ just underscores the shallowness in his approach.”
While there is a tendency to treat any high-profile Democratic governor on the world stage as if they’re “freelancing foreign policy,” Adin Lenchner, founder of Brooklyn-based Carroll Street Campaigns, insists Newsom has earned the right to be at Davos.
“In reality, Newsom is the governor of the fourth-largest economy in the world, and Davos reflects that,” he told the Washington Examiner.
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Political expert Jeff Le noted that governors have fewer opportunities to “showcase and expand on their foreign policy chops,” and that Newsom, considered a Democratic front-runner in 2028, rightly took advantage of the situation.
“Governor Newsom is utilizing his Davos moment as an opportunity to both solidify himself as a credible foil and steward for a global growth policy alternative,” Le said.
