California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday said he doesn’t think President Trump doesn’t want another election in 2028 as he urged Americans to “wake up” to threats he said are posed by the administration.
“I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” Newsom said at Politico’s “The California Agenda” summit in Sacramento. “I have two dozen ‘Trump 2028’ hats his folks keep sending me.”
Trump, who is serving his second term, can’t run for another term under constitutional limits for the presidency. But he’s repeatedly floated the possibility – saying at one point that he was “not joking” about the prospect, though Republicans have interpreted it that way.
Earlier this month, Trump chuckled as he said he would “probably not” seek a prohibited third term.
“I’d like to run. I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” Trump added on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Later that same day, though, Trump acknowledged that Vice President Vance is “most likely” the heir apparent to the party in 2028, despite saying it’s “too early to talk about it.”
The Trump Organization started selling “Trump 2028” hats on its website this spring.
Newsom, who has repeatedly raised concerns about threats to democracy under Trump, said on Wednesday that he doesn’t think the 2028 comments are in jest.
“People actually think this guy’s serious about having another election? You think he’s joking about 2028? You think when he brings foreign leaders to the Oval Office, and he goes to the White House store – have you seen this? Anyone? Is it just me? – and he shows ’em the 2028 hats? He’s not being serious? Wake up. You will lose your country.”
The governor pointed to Trump’s plans to build a massive ballroom on the White House campus, asking, “Who spends $200M on a ballroom and moves out of their house?”
Newsom, who himself is serving his second term as governor and cannot run for a third, has long been considered a top 2028 contender for the Democrats. A Morning Consult survey this week found Newsom’s hypothetical 2028 primary support had climbed 8 points since June, the only prospective Democrat who made “significant” gains in the poll.
Newsom clashed publicly with the Trump administration over immigration protests in California earlier this year, and has drawn the president’s ire over a just-passed plan to redraw the Golden State’s congressional lines in response to Trump-backed redistricting in Texas. Trump has promised a lawsuit against California to stop the plan.
And as the redistricting fight revved up in recent weeks, Newsom took to trolling Trump on social media, sending out social media posts from his office in a style mocking that of the president’s Truth Social missives.
He told the Politico summit crowd on Wednesday that he has a “kill switch” for posts, but that he vetoes “less every day.”
“I’m on the other side of giving a damn about people’s feelings about this moment. I will express myself more clearly and more concisely, because I see the threats in very vivid terms, in ways I never saw before,” Newsom said.
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