President Donald Trump was once “wounded” by a fiery speech delivered by a Democratic governor who would later become one of his top foes.
Gavin Newsom, 58, revealed that Trump’s feelings were hurt when he called out the White House during his inaugural speech as California governor in 2019—just months after they had a chummy interaction when the president visited the blue state and even gave him a tour of Air Force One.
In his book Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Newsom recounted that he first met Trump in November 2018, when the president flew to California in the wake of the wildfires that ravaged the town of Paradise.
Earlier that year, the California governor-elect and Republican president had traded barbs over immigration policy, with Newsom calling Trump a “small, scared bully” over his border wall plans and Trump branding Newsom a “clown.”
“There was no use pretending. California was at war with the Trump administration. No other state in the union had a more antagonistic relationship with the White House occupant,” Newsom wrote.
But he joined Trump and then-California Governor Jerry Brown on a Paradise tour anyway, and was surprised to find that the president was “thoroughly accommodating.” Newsom described Trump’s “smiling, engaged, generous” demeanor as “his shtick.”
Months later, after Newsom was sworn in for his first term as California governor in January 2019, he took swipes at Trump in his inaugural speech.
“Here in California, we will prove that people of good faith, and firm will can still come together to achieve big things,” he said at the time. “We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people.”
Newsom wrote that “a wounded Trump called me on the phone” after his remarks made it to national television.
“Gavin, hey, you know, I had to explain to Melania because she asked me, ‘Did you hear this?’ I thought that was a little tough. I thought you and I had something,” he quoted Trump as saying, adding that the president “sounded truly hurt.”
Trump went on: “I get it. It’s politics… That’s what I told Melania.”
The president then praised Newsom’s family, who joined him onstage for his inauguration, and threw in an awkward comment about his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
“Hey, Gavin, hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this, but that wife of yours is pretty hot. And the kids. Beautiful family,” Newsom quoted Trump as saying.
The phone call ended with both officials assuring each other, “We’re good.”
“It had not been my intention, upon accepting the invitation to share a day with the president, to explore the mind of Donald Trump,” Newsom pondered. “That said, our first curious encounter became a prelude to a rather extraordinary relationship between the leader of red-state America and the leader of the biggest and bluest state in the union.”
The White House responded with an attack when reached for comment on Newsom’s account.
“Gavin Newscum is the worst governor in America, and he also may be the dumbest,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to the Daily Beast on Wednesday.
