President Trump turned California’s two biggest Democratic stars into the punchline Friday night, unloading on Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris during a joke-filled White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner speech.
Trump mocked Newsom’s 2028 White House ambitions by claiming the governor had doomed himself with praise for Harris.
“Gavin Newsom has come out and said he will not be running for president, because nobody can say what he said about himself and survive,” Trump quipped.
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
“Newsom was in big trouble when he openly admitted that Kamala was smarter than him,” he continued. “If Kamala is smarter than someone, you don’t want that person to be President of the United States of America.”
Trump has repeatedly used the line after the governor previously discussed his dyslexia and the challenges of reading from prepared remarks.
The jabs come as Harris has opened an early lead in the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. New polling shows the former vice president holds a significant advantage over Newsom and the rest of the field, leading by comfortable margins across the 14 most recent major polls.
Trump continued to tear into the California governor.
President Trump: “Newsom was in big trouble when he openly admitted that Kamala was smarter than he was… If Kamala is smarter than someone, you don’t want that person to be President of the United States of America.” pic.twitter.com/TYpDTGMij7— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) July 25, 2026
“I heard Gavin Newscum recently said we will lose our country if we don’t fight fire with fire,” Trump said before taking aim at Newsom’s handling of California’s devastating wildfires.
“To be fair, there’s only one thing we know about Gavin, and that’s that he definitely doesn’t want to fight fire with water.”
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The president also blasted California’s policies, claiming the state is “enabling wildfires, paying drug addicts to be homeless, giving free sex changes to illegals, and telling rich people they’re going to take away, all your money is going to be taken away.”
The final remark referenced California’s controversial billionaire tax, which is set to appear on the November ballot.
“People are fleeing, they’re fleeing in droves and we can’t have that in this country,” Trump said.
The California Post reached out to both Harris and Newsom for comment.
Newsom’s office appeared to respond throughout Trump’s speech, posting three messages on social media that stated “Donald Trump is a son of a b—h,” “Donald Trump is a pig,” and an AI-generated image showing Trump looking into a mirror with the caption, “who’s the greatest slob of all.”Another post read, “Trump is cracking jokes about natural disasters while American families are still waiting for the disaster recovery dollars he promised.”
Trump is cracking jokes about natural disasters while American families are still waiting for the disaster recovery dollars he promised. https://t.co/RGChrGZEtA— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 25, 2026
Newsom’s office appeared to respond throughout Trump’s speech Governor Gavin Newsom
New polling shows the former vice president holds a significant advantage over Newsom. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The correspondents’ dinner was the first since April’s event was disrupted by an assassination attempt on the president.
Trump also used his speech to mock the media and other political rivals.
“This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time,” he cracked.
Recalling last month’s cage fight outside the Oval Office, Trump joked, “Before I came along, if you wanted to see someone lose consciousness on the South Lawn of the White House, all you had to do is ask Joe Biden a question.”
He also took a shot at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying he’d like to see the New York Democrat “have a rematch against an extremely simple question on a foreign policy from the Munich Security Conference,” referring to her widely criticized appearance at the event.
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