Gavin Newsom continues to spark rumors he’s running for president in 2028 as he heads to South Carolina for a ‘meet and greet’ this weekend.
Newsom, 57, was among the Democrats’ most articulate surrogates last year, even as he brushed off speculation he was seeking the White House and made the case to reelect President Biden.
Now, the Democrat governor who has spent the past month feuding with the Trump administration over anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, has made his clearest move yet that he’s testing a 2028 run.
The South Carolina Democratic Party has invited Newsom for a two-day visit this weekend.
He will meet with victims and communities who have suffered natural disasters and ‘speak to the urgent need for federal support and investment’ from Washington.
In 2024, the southern state was moved to second in the nation behind only New Hampshire after its voters delivered the nomination in 2020 to Joe Biden.
Newsom was also active in the state during the 2024 race as a surrogate for Biden’s failed, eventually aborted re-election campaign.
‘For two days, Governor Newsom will listen to local concerns, share proven solutions on jobs, health care, and rural infrastructure, and spotlight South Carolinians who are already driving progress in their hometowns,’ the state party said in a press release.
Newsom is considered one of the contenders for the Democrat nomination in 2028, alongside 2024 loser Kamala Harris and 2020 reject Pete Buttigieg.
Trump himself suggested Newsom should run, despite having clashed with a number of Trump policies.
‘I’d love him to run for president on the other side,’ Trump said of Newsom in May.
He brought up Newsom in a backhanded way, once again turning his name into an insult by calling him ‘Gavin New-scum’ while seated alongside new Canadian PM Mark Carney, at an event where Trump softened his push to make Canada the 51st state by saying it ‘takes two to tango.’
Trump started tearing into a high-speed rail project that California voters approved back in 2008, with costs ballooning to an estimated $100 billion.
As Trump described it in the Oval Office, it is a ‘little train going from San Francisco to Los Angeles that’s being run by Gavin New-scum, the governor of California.’
‘He has got that train is the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen. It’s like totally out of control,’ Trump said.
He complained that it’s ‘hundreds of billions of dollars for this stupid project that should have never been built.’
Newsom was the one Democratic candidate Trump feared when running against Biden – and later Harris – in the 2024 race, according to Alex Isenstadt’s book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power.
The ex-president worried that Biden could drop out of the race cuing a Democratic primary.
Instead Biden dropped out of the race so late that the party quickly got behind Harris.
‘One person he had been worried about was California Governor Gavin Newsom. Always fixated on visuals, Trump thought the handsome, hair-gelled governor was “slick” and the future of the Democratic Party,’ Isenstadt wrote.
Trump was also annoyed that Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity woud keep having Newsom on his primetime show, Isenstadt said.
But in November of 2023, Newsom debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was running against Trump in the Republican primary.
Trump, reportedly, wasn’t impressed.
He thought Newsom had ‘bombed,’ Isenstadt wrote.
‘Ron’s an idiot, he doesn’t have what it takes. But I thought Newsom would be better,’ Trump said at the time, according to Isenstadt’s account.
Newsom was consistently questioned as to whether he wanted to run after Joe Biden’s debate disaster in June of 2024.
He consistently declined any presidential ambitions and remained behind Biden until he eventually dropped out.
The California governor has been attempting to reach out to conservatives of late, interviewing the likes of Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon for his podcast, ‘This is Gavin Newsom.’