Newsom, the California governor Trump wants to arrest

BarcelonaGavin Newsom has gone from being among the favorites list to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for the presidential elections to be one of the main targets of Donald Trump's operation in Los AngelesIn June of last year, the California governor was considered one of the former president's closest allies and one of his last remaining supporters as others prepared for his departure. A year later, Newsom returns to the media spotlight amid the crossfire with Trump.

Newsom is an old acquaintance of the US president. Since Trump's first presidency, the California politician has established himself as a countervailing power in the blue state. His policies are diametrically opposed to those of the Republican. When he took office in 2019, Newsom pushed through several aid packages for immigrants, such as new family reunification services and legal representation for asylum seekers. The governor also declares himself a defender of the LGBTIQ+ community and abortion, and signed a moratorium on the death penalty.

With the immigration raids in Los Angeles, Trump has turned the page in just forty-eight hours. the crusade against Elon Musk and has now focused the battle on Newsom, one of his most common targets.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) director Thomas Homan, Trump's strongman on border control, threatened on Saturday to arrest anyone who hinders immigration enforcement efforts in California. He didn't hesitate to point the finger at Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

In an interview on NBC News, the governor challenged Homan to arrest him: "He knows where to find me." A constant tension that Trump further inflamed when he was asked if he would arrest the governor, and he replied that he "would do it too."

The conflict between the governor and the president highlights the tension between the two levels of governance in the United States. A US president's decision to deploy the National Guard without the consent of the state governor has not occurred since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights protesters in Montgomery, Alabama.

Newsom has called Trump's decision unconstitutional and criticized the president for using the marinas of the US politically. In a post on X, the governor stated that he has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration "to stop the illegal control of the National Guard, which has escalated chaos and violence in Los Angeles."

The relationship between the two men seemed to have improved in recent months, after Newsom welcomed Trump at Los Angeles Airport last January amid the devastating wildfires in California.

Shift to the center-right

The Democratic governor had also come close to some of the Republicans' postulates, proposing, for example, limiting health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally or criticizing the presence of trans women in sports competitions. In a podcast he founded, the liberal politician has interviewed controversial figures from the MAGA movement, such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, something that has not pleased the progressive wing of the Democrats.

Some analysts, such as Adam Nagourney in New York Times, believe that Newsom may have attempted to move toward the center of the Democratic Party to position himself in the 2028 presidential race. The Californian would like to shed his reputation as a radical and is seeking his own path, in which he says he needs to understand the concerns of many voters who supported Trump.