California Governor Gavin Newsom at the Vogue World: Hollywood Announcement at Chateau Marmont on March 26, 2025 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
Sacramento, California – California turned 175 this year, and Gov. Gavin Newsom used the moment to send a message. Instead of standing at the podium in Sacramento for the traditional State of the State address, Newsom wrote a letter to the legislature and paired it with a video—an unconventional format that doubled as both celebration and warning.
He opened by praising California’s resilience, particularly in the face of this year’s wildfires, but much of his focus was on a familiar adversary: Donald Trump. Without using his name, Newsom described a “relentless, unhinged California obsession” coming from Washington. He accused the Trump administration of dismantling public services, punishing allies abroad, and treating the rule of law as disposable.
The video message drove the point home with imagery. Clips of federal officers moving through a Los Angeles park were paired with images of protests that followed Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and active-duty Marines to quell demonstrations sparked by immigration raids. “There’s reason to be optimistic on this anniversary,” Newsom said over the footage. “So many people are asserting their moral authority and raising their voices to stand up for the ideals this country was built on.”
This isn’t the first time Newsom has broken with tradition. For several years now, he’s avoided the formal, in-person address that governors typically deliver. Republicans in Sacramento see that as political theater of its own, and they didn’t hold back. Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher released his own video, accusing Newsom of chasing a national spotlight instead of dealing with California’s budget deficits, its homelessness crisis, and crushing housing costs. Gallagher also took aim at Newsom’s push for a new congressional map—a move Democrats argue is a defense of voting rights, but which Republicans see as a raw power grab to tilt the House of Representatives.
California has been a flashpoint throughout Trump’s second term. The state has filed 41 lawsuits against the administration, battling over everything from environmental rules to immigration. Newsom noted that lawmakers set aside $50 million this year for the state Department of Justice and outside legal groups to defend California’s progressive policies. He highlighted the fight to preserve the state’s ban on new gas-powered cars, protections for transgender students in school sports, and funding for the University of California system, which the administration has threatened to cut.
But Newsom’s message wasn’t all resistance. He pointed to California’s $4.1 trillion economy, the return of Hollywood productions thanks to a tax credit program, and the mobilization of tens of thousands of young volunteers as proof that the state isn’t just surviving—it’s leading. He described a California that rebounds quickly from disasters, one that remains a hub for green energy, technology, and higher education.
“It would be a mistake to think California is cowering in the face of this onslaught,” Newsom wrote. Instead, he cast the state as the counterweight to a federal government he described as “incompetent and maliciously ignorant.”
