California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) dialed up his criticism of Donald Trump on Thursday as he slammed the president’s claims that they spoke over the phone about deploying the National Guard to respond to protests in Los Angeles.
“He has quite literally made up components of that conversation. He’s been a stone cold liar about what he said we talked about. He never discussed the National Guard. Period, full stop,” Newsom said.
Newsom spoke to reporters in response to a federal judge’s order for Trump to return control of National Guard troops to his state, a ruling that was temporarily blocked by a federal appeals court just hours later.
Newsom said he last talked with Trump late night on June 6 (early morning on June 7 in Washington), a call he described as being about 20 minutes long and one where Trump wanted to discuss “all these other issues” instead of LA.
He told reporters that he’d “love” to share what the president and him “actually” discussed but he reveres the office to a degree where he won’t.
“It would send shivers up your spine,” Newsom said of the call.
He later added, “We discussed, for a nanosecond, Los Angeles and he immediately zigged and zagged into seven or eight other topics — some extraordinarily familiar and some extraordinarily remarkable, considering the world we live in.”
Newsom has repeatedly swatted down Trump’s claims about their call including one from Tuesday when the president — who’s faced questions about his cognitive ability — told reporters in the Oval Office that he last spoke to Newsom “a day ago” (or Monday).
“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
Trump tried to hit back at Newsom by sharing a screenshot of their call log with Fox News.
But the image, instead of corroborating Trump’s claim, aligned with Newsom’s account showing that they talked for about 16 minutes on June 7 (not Monday).
Newsom ripped Trump’s receipts on social media, writing, “If only he had shown the right ones… Trump doesn’t even know what day it is.”