Jetsetting California Gov. Gavin Newsom is spending the weekend rubbing elbows with foreign leaders and business elites in Germany Munich, leaving critics at home to wonder: Who’s running the show?
Along with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Newsom is one of three top Dems with presidential aspirations heading to the Munich Security Conference.
While the governor immediately attacked President Trump during a talk on climate change Friday — accusing the POTUS of “doubling down on stupid” — Newsom’s European sojourns have sparked their own backlash in the Golden State.
“There’s something seriously wrong with Gavin Newsom,” Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who’s running for California governor as a Republican, told The Post.
“Just weeks after humiliating himself at Davos, he flies back to Europe so he can lecture everyone about climate change while attacking our president and undermining America’s reputation. And for what?
“To pander to a bunch of foreign leaders and left wing activists back home who can’t get enough of Newsom’s anti-Trump preening.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who’s also running for governor on the GOP ticket, accused Newsom of sidestepping the hard work of fixing California’s many crises by globetrotting his way into an expected run for president in 2028.
“We know that’s what he’s doing, but honestly for us here in California, we’re probably better off with him gone,” Bianco told The Post. “He can go to another country and that means we are saved from him for the moment.”
State legislators who are in session crafting bills in the second half of a two-year session also took issue with Newsom’s hobnobbing with foreign leaders.
“Once again, at a time when families here at home are being crushed by a cost-of-living crisis and businesses are struggling to stay afloat, the governor has chosen to leave the state for another overseas conference,” state Republican Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares told The Post.
“California families don’t have the luxury of walking away from their problems, and neither should their governor. Leadership means being present and accountable, not chasing headlines and higher office.”
Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio of San Diego — one of the governor’s fiercest critics, who earned a shout-out in Newsom’s low-energy State of the State speech last month — also panned the Munich trip.
“California is a complete mess with high cost of living, budget crisis, the worst job market, and a homelessness epidemic,” DeMaio told The Post.
“But instead of fixing the problems he created back home, Gavin Newsom is running around the world to suck up to foreign leaders. Newsom should stay home and clean up the mess he’s created.”