Gavin Newsom’s efforts to elevate himself as the leading opposition figure to Donald Trump just got an assist from the president himself.
After Newsom’s latest European jaunt provoked a harsh rebuke from Trump on Monday, advisers to the California governor were privately claiming victory. Goading Trump into an outburst about a new clean energy agreement between California and the United Kingdom — while not the official motivation for the governor’s trip — was a bonus.
“The more Trump takes the bait, the more attention you get in return,” said a Newsom adviser granted anonymity to speak about the political considerations of the trip. “But it’s much bigger than that. It’s about bringing attention to the fact that what Trump is doing is out of step and it’s not normal and it’s not the American view. It certainly does not reflect what the American people want.”
In his admonishment of British leaders against cozying up to the California governor — in which Trump, in a brief interview with POLITICO, called Newsom a “loser” who turns everything he touches “to garbage” — the president threw a high-wattage spotlight on Newsom’s recent travels abroad, including this past weekend’s Munich Security Conference. Newsom there had told international leaders that “Trump is temporary,” with a not-so-subtle subtext that the likely 2028 presidential candidate, one of several potential Democratic presidential contenders appearing in Munich, wants to be the next one setting America’s foreign policy.
“Donald Trump is on his knees for coal and Big Oil, selling out America’s future to China,” said Izzy Gardon, the governor’s spokesperson, in a statement. “Governor Newsom will continue to lead in his absence. Foreign leaders are rejecting Trump and choosing California’s vision for the future.”
He added, “We thank the President for his attention to this matter.”
While Trump and Newsom are frequent sparring partners, the unveiling of the deal struck by the governor and UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband appeared to particularly touch a nerve. The president said it was “inappropriate” for Newsom to enter such agreements and also lashed out at British officials, saying it was “inappropriate for them to be dealing with him.”
In a statement, a UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said the UK will “continue to work closely with the US government on a range of issues,” while calling out Republican-heavy states the UK has partnered with. “Today’s energy MoU is just one in a series signed at state level, including Florida and Texas, that will deliver jobs and growth in the UK,” the spokesperson said.
California has for decades used nonbinding climate-related agreements like the one with the United Kingdom to promote its own standing worldwide, including under former GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The agreements allow California to exercise soft power on the global stage, where the state can’t sign treaties but can tout its relative economic importance. And Democratic leaders in other states have taken up the model: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another potential 2028 contender, and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, for example, both signed agreements with the United Kingdom on trade and renewable energy last year.
Newsom himself has been a driving force behind a recent increase in bilateral pacts, his aides have said, including leading up to and at the United Nations climate talks in Brazil last year. There, he pitched California — and himself — as continuing climate action despite federal rollbacks and signed agreements with Nigeria, Chile and states within Brazil and Germany. While some of the pacts over the years were largely symbolic, others have led to substantial impact, from shared research to the exchange of firefighters to the spread of copycat climate policies across the world.
The agreements can double as personal leverage between world politicians; former California Gov. Jerry Brown sometimes required MOUs as a condition of meeting with the foreign officials clamoring for his time. “It’s a part of a building,” Newsom told POLITICO while in Brazil. “It’s about continuity. It’s about calling cards. It’s about relationships.”
The California-UK agreement reiterates the commitment of both partners to fully decarbonize by 2045 and 2050, respectively, and promises cooperation on renewable energy, including offshore wind, where the UK has far outpaced California.
The agreement was combined with the announcement that UK renewable energy tech company Octopus Energy would spend $1 billion in California, backing projects to remove carbon from the air using forests and grasslands, selling the carbon offset credits to large tech companies and acquiring a Southern California solar and battery plant expected to come online in July. Newsom toured the company’s London headquarters on Monday.
