The Trump Administration’s no-holds-barred appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos produced plenty of fireworks this week—but one of the most memorable moments came courtesy of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who delivered a brutal and hilarious takedown of California Governor Gavin Newsom that had conservatives cheering.
During a Wednesday, January 21 event in Switzerland, Bessent unloaded on Newsom for what he described as staggering economic incompetence, accusing the California governor of abandoning his own state’s citizens to chase applause from global elites. While President Trump confronted mass migration and cut strategic deals, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismantled globalist dogma to its face, Bessent reserved his sharpest barbs for the Golden State’s slick-haired governor.
Bessent opened by noting that Newsom, despite his fondness for self-promotion, was conspicuously silent about his own “signature policies.” The reason, Bessent suggested, was obvious.
“I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies,” Bessent said. “But he’s not speaking—because what have his economic policies brought?”
The answer, according to the Treasury Secretary, is a catalog of failure.
“Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit, the largest homeless population in America,” Bessent continued, “and the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down.”
That was just the warm-up.
Bessent went on to blast Newsom for jetting off to Davos to mingle with billionaires and bureaucrats while Californians struggle under soaring housing costs, collapsing public services, and tent cities stretching for miles.
“He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless,” Bessent said. “Shame on him. He’s too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.”
The Treasury Secretary also responded to Newsom’s earlier jab, in which the governor reportedly called Bessent “smug.” Bessent fired back with a line that quickly went viral, quipping that Newsom looks like “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken”—a comparison that perfectly captured the governor’s polished arrogance and hollow substance.
But Bessent wasn’t finished.
In a line tailor-made for the MAGA base, he tied Newsom to left-wing megadonor networks, suggesting the governor’s worldview is shaped less by working Californians than by billionaire benefactors.
“He may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” Bessent said. “He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros.”
Bessent also reminded audiences of Newsom’s infamous COVID hypocrisy—when everyday Californians were fined, arrested, and shamed for attending church or seeing family, Newsom was enjoying luxury dinners at the French Laundry.
“Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown… was having $1,000-a-night meals,” Bessent said. “And I’m sure the California people won’t forget that.”
Newsom, predictably, responded not by addressing California’s crises, but by attacking President Trump. In a post on X, he urged European leaders to “grow a spine” and confront Trump—confirming, yet again, that his priorities lie overseas rather than at home.
As California sinks deeper into crisis, Bessent’s message was unmistakable: leadership isn’t about virtue-signaling in Davos—it’s about putting your own people first. And on that score, Gavin Newsom is failing spectacularly.
