DAVOS, Jan 21 (Reuters) – California Governor Gavin Newsom, an outspoken Democratic critic of President Donald Trump, said he was blocked from speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos on Wednesday, accusing the White House of interfering with his planned event.
“California was just denied at the USA House. Last we checked, California is part of USA,” Newsom said in an X post, referring to the official U.S. venue in Davos.
“How weak and pathetic do you have to be to be this scared of a fireside chat?” added Newsom, who has publicly mulled seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Newsom’s office blamed pressure from the Trump administration, without providing evidence.
“Under pressure from the White House and State Department, USA House (a church acting as the official U.S. pavilion) is now denying entry to @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom to speak with media after Fortune — the official media partner — invited him to speak,” Newsom’s press office said on Wednesday.
Newsom’s press office said that Fortune had invited him earlier this month for a fireside chat and that Newsom accepted the offer.
Fortune did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Newsom have clashed repeatedly since Trump took office for his second White House term a year ago, including over the Republican president’s deployment of National Guard troops to the state over the summer. Trump regularly refers to the governor as “Newscum.”
“I know Gavin was here,” Trump said during his Davos address. “I used to get along so great with Gavin.”
Newsom could be seen in the room during Trump’s speech, later telling reporters, “It was remarkably boring. It was remarkably insignificant. He was never going to invade Greenland. It was never real.”
Earlier Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set the stage with his own mocking critique of the California governor, saying Newsom “strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken,” referring to, respectively, a fictional serial killer and a popular male doll that is Barbie’s counterpart.
“He is too smug, too self-absorbed and too economically illiterate to know anything,” Bessent said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Davos and Christian Martinez in Los Angeles; Editing by Andrea Ricci )
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