Gov. Newsom Takes Trump Criticism To The Next Level: Terror On The Streets Of America
The Democratic governor decried Trump for causing "terror on the streets of America."
California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) condemned President Donald Trump for “hiding people because of their skin color” amid widespread and violent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
During his appearance on Saturday on the “All the Smoke” podcast, hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Mr. Newsom was asked how the country could “recover” from Trump’s mass deportation program.
Referring to the president’s escalating raids and expulsions of migrants, Mr. Newsom said: “We talk about tyranny, and people are asking, ‘What does that do here?’ For people like me, maybe not yet. But for the Black and brown community, are you kidding me?”
The Democratic governor lamented how immigrants are intimidated and prevented from performing everyday tasks like walking their dogs, going to the clinic, or attending family funerals, for fear of being targeted by ICE.
“It’s not just about skin color, it’s also about where people gather. It’s about language or accent. In the United States of 2025, people will disappear without any legal process,” he continued.
Newsom pointed out that “masked” ICE agents “literally jump out of the back of pickup trucks” without revealing their identities to arrest “Americans, tourists, some with papers, some without.”
In another part of the interview, Newsom spoke candidly about meeting a teenager in Ventura County, California, who said he was afraid to speak to him after his parents disappeared following an ICE raid. The politician said ICE “smashed their car window” and arrested them on their way to work at a “packaging plant.”
He added: “This is America in 2025—Donald Trump. Terror reigns in the streets of America.” “Using Black Hawk helicopters and forcing people down ropes [into their homes] and sitting there while children are in diapers and cribs.”
Newsom sharply criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for attacking people “naked and sleeping, literally pointing guns at them and restraining them” before “brutally throwing them into the street and onto the sidewalks.”
Newsom claimed that this is “happening right now in the United States,” continuing: “So this is serious, and it happened in [Los Angeles], the first city terrorized [by Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and ICE agents]… [and it] continues to this day.”
He added: “It’s now happened in Portland, and it’s happened in places like Illinois. They threatened San Francisco yesterday.”
Newsom’s comments come after he vowed last week to sue the Trump administration immediately if the White House proceeded with its plan to deploy the National Guard in San Francisco.
Newsom claimed that the plan announced by Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to send more than 100 federal immigration agents to the San Francisco Bay Area was part of their “authoritarian agenda,” alleging that they were “seeking” to “sow chaos.”
Trump and Newsom have clashed publicly on several occasions, with the latter repeatedly criticizing the president for his systematic targeting of immigrants.
The politician, who has condemned the use of masked federal agents, particularly during the Los Angeles raids, signed a bill last month banning law enforcement from wearing masks, a measure he told Barnes and Jackson he was “proud of.”
In recent months, the Trump administration has deployed federal agents to Democratic-led cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, where they have carried out violent raids and brutal arrests.
Watch Newsom’s appearance on “All The Smoke” below.
