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Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California argues that President Donald Trump’s ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is the latest sign of decline for the Republican president.
“Donald Trump is in retreat,” Newsom said Thursday evening in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the latest stop on his national book tour. “Today is a perfect example — the first firing of a high-profile Cabinet member.”
The firing of Noem, a one-time MAGA rock star and close ally of the president who was steering Trump’s centerpiece policy of mass deportations as part of the White House crackdown on illegal immigration, rocked the nation’s capital and the political world.
Trump’s move to remove Noem from the top spot at the Department of Homeland Security came amid mounting criticism of her performance not only from Democrats, but also among some Republicans and members of Trump’s political circle.
Newsom, a vocal Trump critic who is likely to seek the presidency in 2028, hours earlier took to social media after the news about Noem broke to write “BYE GIRL!”
At his New Hampshire stop, Newsom claimed that “the dark heart of the administration is not Kristi Noem, it’s Stephen Miller,” who is White House deputy chief of staff and a longtime top Trump advisor dating back to the president’s first White House run in 2016.
SOMETHING DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS AGREE UPON – FIRING NOEM
“It had Noem’s fingerprints all over it, but it was Stephen Miller’s handbook, and he needs to be next,” Newsom said, as he referred to the 2025 move by Trump to send National Guard troops to California in response to immigration protests.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for reaction to Newsom’s comments but had not received a response at the time this story published.
Newsom’s latest book tour stop came two days after Democrats’ turnout in Tuesday’s primaries in Texas surged to record levels, a promising sign for the party out of power ahead of this year’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
“Donald Trump is the leader of the get out the vote for the Democratic Party,” Newsom emphasized, as he discussed this week’s primary elections.
NEWSOM PREDICTS TRUMP IS ‘TOAST,’ WILL DRAG GOP INTO MIDTERM WIPEOUT
Newsom’s stop in New Hampshire, the state that for a century has traditionally held the first presidential primary in the race for the White House, fueled further speculation about a 2028 run by the two-term governor of solidly blue California.
The tour also recently took Newsom to South Carolina, and he stopped in Nevada on Wednesday. Both states, along with New Hampshire, hold crucial early voting presidential primaries in the Democratic calendar and all three are vying for the top spot in the party’s 2028 nominating schedule.
Newsom’s book tour for his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” has not been without controversy.
At a book event in Los Angeles recently, Newsom stirred controversy by comparing Israel to an “apartheid state.”
On Thursday, he explained that he was referring to a column by nationally known political commentator and author Tom Friedman, amid the ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. The weeklong strikes have resulted in the deaths of many of Iran’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Newsom said, “Tom used that word apartheid as it relates to the direction that Israel leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally, ‘is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank.’”
NEWSOM SUGGESTS ISRAEL IS AN ‘APARTHEID STATE,’ NETANYAHU INFLUENCED TRUMP’S ACTIONS IN IRAN
“I’m very angry about this war with all due respect, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead, quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign, 47 years since the ’79 revolution,” the governor said.
But taking aim at Trump, Newsom added, “I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of, why, why? Now, what’s the end game?”
Newsom’s memoir chronicles his life from a childhood where he coped with dyslexia to his current role as California governor and a high profile national politician.
At a book tour event in March in Atlanta, Newsom’s remarks about his low SAT test scores and his difficulty reading speeches were pummeled by many on the right as being racially insensitive to Black people.
The governor pushed back, calling the criticism “MAGA-manufactured outrage.”
BUTTIGIEG, NEWSOM, AOC TOP THREE IN NEW 2028 POLL IN KEY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE
Newsom is the latest potential Democratic 2028 presidential contender to stop in New Hampshire.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who finished a close second to Sen. Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary, made a three-day swing through the state in February.
And Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who stopped in New Hampshire in autumn 2025, returns this weekend. Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another likely White House hopeful, also just returned to the Granite State.
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The most recent poll in the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination race in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state, conducted in February by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, indicated Buttigieg at 20% support, with Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York at 15%.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 nominee, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona each stood at 10%, with everyone sampled in the survey registering in single digits.
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