Trump vs. Newsom an ugly skirmish that benefits both politicians

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom called President Donald Trump a 'dictator.' On Monday, Trump called for Newsom's arrest. On Tuesday, Newsom's office posted a mocking video comparing Trump to one of the most evil Star Wars villains.
After starting the year with remarkable civility working together in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, the president and the governor of the country's most populous state are now locked in a very public battle that, while acrimonious, offers political opportunities for both men.
After months of increasing tension, Trump started the latest fight on Saturday night when he used protests over his immigration crackdown as justification to send the National Guard into Los Angeles over the governor's objections.
The escalating civil unrest, spurred by the deployment, has shifted the national conversation from Trump's foundering budget proposal and provided him an opportunity to rip one of his favorite foils: California. Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant who has long been critical of Trump, said he thinks the president deployed the National Guard to distract from the economic fallout from his tariffs and his embarrassing public fight with Elon Musk. He said the move has focused the nation on immigration.
'This is a fight directly instigated by the White House,' Stutzman said. 'Trump was desperate.'
After many Democrats had criticized him for being too cozy with MAGA-world, the situation has a potential upside for Newsom, too. The rift with Trump has elevated him into the national spotlight as the Democrat leading the charge against a president reviled by his opponents.
In January, after Trump was sworn in, Newsom kept his rhetoric about Trump measured, even as other Democrats excoriated the president as a threat to democracy. In the days after his inauguration, Newsom said Trump was cooperating with fire recovery efforts and praised the president for his work with California during the height of the COVID pandemic.
'We had a partner, not a sparring partner, a working partner, in President Trump during those years,' he told reporters. 'I'm firmly focused on building that partnership.'
In need of assistance from the president, Newsom held news conferences amid the rubble in Los Angeles and praised Trump for cooperating with the state to clean up the debris.
But as the year wore on, Newsom became more and more critical. He made some especially fiery remarks in April when he sued over the president's tariffs.
'Donald Trump is betraying the people of the Central Valley,' Newsom said, standing in front of a warehouse at a Central Valley farm where he announced the lawsuit. 'He is betraying the people that supported him.'
Over the weekend, Newsom's rhetoric against the president escalated further.
Trump, who has always criticized Newsom and often calls him names, has also escalated his threats against the governor, including calling for him to be arrested.
'He's doing a bad job,' Trump said of Newsom at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump criticized Newsom for not doing enough to quell the protests, and echoed his past blame of the governor for the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles at the start of the year.
In many ways, the situation is politically advantageous to both men, Stutzman said. The president's arrest threat, in particular, could help the governor.
'That's almost like a gift to Newsom,' Stutzman said. 'Newsom has no choice but to fully engage it, but at the same time it becomes the opportunity for him to legitimately be elevated within his party as the guy on the frontlines fighting Trump.'
The optics of the protests, with images of cars burning and foreign flags flying in the streets, have played to Trump's advantage so far, said Gabriel Lenz, a political science professor at UC Berkeley. But he noted that if the administration continues to aggressively pursue immigration raids in workplaces and target people without criminal history, that could backfire for Trump. It remains to be seen how the drama in Los Angeles will help or hurt either politician.
'There's a real opportunity to win that public opinion battle,' he said.