Gavin Newsom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has opened a probe into whether the new U.S. version of TikTok is suppressing anti‑ICE and anti‑Trump content after users reported, among other issues, that messages referencing "Epstein" in connection with former President Trump were blocked. TikTok says the problems are technical glitches rather than deliberate political censorship, but the platform and its proposed U.S. joint venture are now under scrutiny and being watched for potential investor and market impacts.

Marcus Coleman, a California truck driver, says Gov. Gavin Newsom has never responded to his repeated calls and emails after his then‑5‑year‑old daughter Dalilah was left unable to walk or speak in a 2024 construction‑zone crash that federal officials blame on an undocumented Indian national, Partap Singh, driving an 18‑wheeler. According to DHS, Singh failed to stop in a construction zone and triggered a multi‑vehicle pileup that critically injured Dalilah, who spent three weeks in a coma and now, at 7, is nonverbal and relearning to walk with intensive therapy. Coleman tells Fox he has been denied Social Security and other public benefits for her care and says his family is "falling short" financially, accusing California leaders of prioritizing politics over victims and calling the state’s policies allowing foreign‑born truckers to obtain CDLs with what he describes as minimal oversight "gross negligence." The case has drawn national attention from Trump administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who blasted California’s "weak leadership" and tied the crash to broader concerns about licensing standards for non‑citizen commercial drivers. Coleman says the only acknowledgment from Newsom has been a social‑media post accusing Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of politicizing the tragedy, which he believes "totally neglected" his daughter’s suffering.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered more than 200 California state parks to waive vehicle day‑use fees on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19, 2026, directly rebuking the Trump administration’s decision to drop MLK Day, Juneteenth and National Public Lands Day from the 2026 list of fee‑free national park days. The new federal calendar instead adds dates such as Flag Day—which coincides with Trump’s birthday—Constitution Day, the National Park Service’s 110th anniversary and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. Newsom accused Trump of trying to "erase Dr. King’s legacy" and said California would "answer with light" by opening state parks, with the California State Parks Foundation—rather than taxpayers—covering the cost of free entry. Democratic allies framed the move as a way to keep access to public lands tied to civil‑rights history, especially as the country approaches the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. The announcement folds into a broader clash between blue states and Washington over how public institutions mark Black history and who gets affordable access to parks and monuments.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom walked back his earlier characterization of Minnesota ICE operations as "state‑sponsored terrorism," telling Ben Shapiro that "our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists" and acknowledging his rhetoric made politics worse. The White House blasted the reversal — spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called Newsom an "inauthentic slimeball" who smeared ICE and then threw staff under the bus, accused his language of risking incitement and said he "will never be ready for primetime."

Speaking Jan. 8, 2026 in Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State to say California has filed 52 lawsuits in a special session targeting about $168 billion in what he called “illegally frozen” federal resources for schools, hospitals and seniors, saying the state has won emergency relief in some cases. He framed the Trump administration as an “assault on our values,” highlighted state work on homelessness (saying unsheltered homelessness fell 9%), climate and health care, and pushed back against federal actions while responding to a federal probe into alleged fraud in California homelessness programs.