Trump slams Newsom but mostly ignores DeSantis at California GOP convention

ANAHEIM, California — Former President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) while barely discussing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), his top 2024 Republican rival, during a speech at the California GOP convention on Friday.

Along with Newsom, who has emerged as a chief surrogate for President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign, Trump lobbed several criticisms of other California Democrats, including Rep. Maxine Waters, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Adam Schiff. But the lack of repeated attacks against DeSantis is another sign that the former president is moving beyond the GOP primary and acting more as a general election nominee.

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At Trump’s first mention of Newsom, the crowd of Republicans erupted in loud boos. “He did a great job as mayor of San Francisco,” Trump mocked Newsom.

Trump later directly referenced Newsom’s role this week surrounding the second Republican National Committee debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, which Trump skipped. Newsom spoke in the spin room before and after the debate, where he championed Biden’s administration and slammed Republican “extremism.”

“Gavin has become crooked Joe Biden’s top surrogate, I think, because he doesn’t think he’s gonna make it,” Trump said.

He also claimed that he heard Newsom on Sean Hannity’s show after the second debate state that “California is wonderful.”

“It was wonderful. They could be wonderful again, but right now, it is really a mess,” Trump said.

Trump later slammed Newsom’s support of environmental issues. “Gavin Newsom and the radical-left Democrats, extremists, the people that run the city in order to save an extremely unimportant, very little, and nonproductive fish in the delta,” Trump said.

Jae C. Hong/AP

The former president didn’t mention DeSantis until more than 75 minutes into his speech, where he touted beating the governor in national polls and recounted a campaign anecdote of how he came to endorse DeSantis’s first gubernatorial bid.

“The guy had no chance of getting elected governor. He came to see me with tears in his eyes,” Trump said of endorsing DeSantis. He also derisively referred to him as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

Trump leads all his Republican competitors in national polling, often by more than 40 percentage points. He currently has 57.1% of GOP support, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average. In comparison, DeSantis is polling at 14% while no other rival polls in the
double digits.

The comments came just hours before DeSantis was also set to address the convention.

DeSantis has increased his needling of Trump in recent months. The Florida governor took shots at Trump during the debate on Wednesday, including criticizing the former president’s decision to snub the event for a second time. “Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership. And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’s campaign and super PAC Never Back Down have pushed back against California’s GOP changing delegate allocation rules this summer, which they claim would benefit Trump. The state’s new rule awards the candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary all of its 169 delegates, more than any other state. If no candidate surpasses 50%, then delegates are proportionally awarded based on a statewide vote.

Trump received more than four standing ovations during his convention issues for his opposition to transgender children, support of shooting looters, his promise to ban vaccine mandates, and his support of Second Amendment rights.

“If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot,” Trump told the crowd, which erupted into loud cheers and chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

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Trump and DeSantis are two of the four candidates who are speaking at the GOP convention.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) also spoke at the convention on Friday, while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will address attendees on Saturday.