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Newsom Roasts CEOs to Their Faces for Bending the Knee to Trump

The California governor suggested they buy kneepads in bulk for all their “groveling” to the president.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted a roomful of CEOs, university presidents, and world leaders for bending the knee and “selling out” to President Donald Trump.

During The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit, journalist Aaron Sorkin asked the outspoken Trump critic about his “Newsom Kneepads.”

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Newsom’s Patriot Store website lists fictional MAGA-red kneepads emblazoned with Trump’s signature for “all your groveling Trump needs.”

Although the items are not real—they’re meant to parody the president’s baffling array of branded gear, including his Trump Bible—site visitors can “purchase” them and make a donation to Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy.

“By the way, they’re available today,” he said. “Some of you may need to buy them in bulk, but we have the new Trump Signature series kneepads on my Patriot site, which is an actual real site.”

The kneepads, he continued, “were sold out, just like our universities were selling out, just like our law firms were selling out, just like a lot of CEOs were selling out—selling out this country, our future, our republic. Selling my kids, your grandkids.”

The New York Times’ annual summit brings together several hundred leaders in business, politics, and the arts from across the political spectrum.

This year’s conference featured the CEOs of Coinbase, BlackRock, General Motors, Palantir, Anthropic, Bayer, Major Food Group, Nordstrom, PayPal, Southwest Airlines, Mattel, Under Armour, Pinterest, Victoria’s Secret, and others, according to the New York Times.

The presidents of Oberlin College, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins University, Vanderbilt University, the University of San Diego, and Stanford University were also slated to participate.

At one point, Newsom warned that if Democrats don’t take control of the House of Representatives, “You will not have a free and fair election as we know them today in the United States of America.”

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Instead, the U.S. will have competitive authoritarian-style elections like in Russia, Turkey, and Hungary, he said.

“That’s the model for Trump,” he said. “I don’t think that, I know that, on the basis of a lot of evidence and fact.”

He cited the president’s efforts to interfere with California’s statewide election in November, including dispatching tactical Border Patrol units to Dodger Stadium to “chill election turnout,” saying the election had been rigged before a single vote had been cast, and sending the Department of Justice to monitor a statewide election.

“It is code red. And I’m sure a lot of you are fine with it because a lot of people have figured it out,” he said. “They know the game. State capitalism, crony capitalism, the great grift. A lot of you are doing extraordinarily well.”

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“But one of the things I’m trying to do better is express my concern, highlight that with more conviction and clarity,” Newsom added.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Newsom “ought to stop fearmongering to score political points with the radical left flank of the Democrat party that he is courting ahead of his doomed-to-fail presidential campaign.”

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