Somehow Zohran Mamdani can meet with President Donald Trump, but Gavin Newsom can’t — or won’t.

Newsom’s office continues to make excuses for the governor’s refusal to work with the White House. 

In Newsom’s telling, it’s all Trump’s fault.

If Mamdani — a socialist who campaigns against the president — can play nice with Trump, then Newsom can do the same. AFP via Getty Images

He tried to sell that story this weekend, after former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Bill Maher that Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass should give the president a call.

In Bass’s defense, she was once very hostile to Trump, but the mayor traveled to meet with him in April to discuss federal aid for rebuilding after the LA wildfires.

But Newsom has made a point of attacking Trump, often in obscene terms, on social media.

Newsom’s office claimed that the governor met with Trump for a full 90 minutes in February 2025, but then the president tried to order the National Guard to California to fight crime, over the governor’s wishes.

What that leaves out is the fact that Newsom signed a law in January 2025 authorizing $50 million in new funding to fight the Trump administration in court.

Half of that money was set aside to defend illegal migrants. The other half was to file broader lawsuits against the administration.

Newsom’s office continues to make excuses for the governor’s refusal to work with the White House. AP Photo/Reba Saldanha

Newsom has said that the money was well spent, because it defended state interests, such as the continued flow of federal funding that the White House tried to block.

But there are other cases in which Newsom has tried to challenge national policies that have little to do with California — such as the firing of certain federal employees. 

The courts rightly threw out that case for lack of standing. But the damage that Newsom did to the state’s relationship with the White House continued.

Newsom also continued his profane rants against Trump, which bombed once he took his act overseas.

No one in Davos, for example, understood why the governor was selling kneepads on his website to mock Trump. When they didn’t laugh, he said he “should have brought a bunch of kneepads for all the world leaders.”

Ha, ha. 

The least the American people can expect from elected leaders is that they work with one another. 

If Mamdani — a socialist who campaigns against the president — can play nice with Trump, then Newsom can do the same.

Instead, he chose to insult Trump, hoping to impress Democratic presidential primary voters.

It isn’t working. All Newsom did was hurt California.