Newsom: Crime is a larger problem in GOP-led areas than Democratic-led ones

At a news conference discussing the expansion of an existing crime suppression program in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) went after President Donald Trump for the “blatant hypocrisy” of surging National Guard troops and federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-led cities when, he says, there are higher crime rates in some Republican-run places.

Newsom called his expansion of a program that deploys the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to more cities to address crime a “consequential contrast” to what Trump is attempting to do.

“He’s doing things to people, not with people,” Newsom said Thursday. “ … He’s de facto militarizing American cities.”

The pushback from Newsom – who has taken to trolling the president on social media in recent weeks and is a potential 2028 presidential candidate – comes after Trump’s surge of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement agents to D.C., as well as his recent vow to send National Guard troops to Chicago. The president has largely cited the cities’ rampant crime as the reason for the deployments, even though violent crime has fallen in D.C. and Chicago in recent years.

Newsom is no stranger to Trump’s use of the military on American soil. Trump ordered about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles in June, as the White House looked to quell protests against immigration raids. Newsom said on Thursday that he expects a court decision soon on the issue of the deployment to L.A., a legal challenge that centers on a federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits U.S. troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement actions.

“I think its consequences will be profound and far-reaching,” Newsom said of the court’s upcoming decision, later adding that it could have significant “implications in terms of (Trump’s) authority to militarize American cities.”

The governor, seated at an executive desk and flanked by state law enforcement officers at Thursday’s news conference, held up fliers that displayed Republican elected officials – including House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana), Sen. Josh Hawley (Missouri), Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves – along with crime statistics for their states.

“Look at the murder rate that’s nearly four times higher than California’s – in Louisiana,” Newsom said, holding up the flier with Johnson’s face. “I want to present some facts to the president of the United States, and I imagine this is alarming to the president to learn these facts, particularly to Speaker Johnson, who has been such a strong partner and ally in these efforts. The carnage in Louisiana is well defined.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2023, the most recent year for which information is available, Louisiana had 19.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 people. California had 5.1.

“If the president is sincere about the issue of crime and violence, there’s no question in my mind that he’ll likely be sending the troops into Louisiana and Mississippi to address the just unconscionable wave of violence that continues to plague those states,” Newsom added.

Earlier this week, Newsom predicted that the deployments to Los Angeles and the nation’s capital are “a preview of things to come.”

Those federal law enforcement entities, he emphasized at an event with Politico on Wednesday, have seen a surge in resources thanks to the sweeping policy legislation Trump signed into law earlier this summer, and are “showing a tendency not to swear an oath to the Constitution but to the president of the United States.”

Newsom also signed on to a statement on Thursday with 18 other Democratic governors calling for an end to what they referred to as “chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard.”

“Instead of actually addressing crime, President Trump cut federal funding for law enforcement that states rely on and continues to politicize our military by trying to undermine the executive authority of Governors as Commanders in Chief of their state’s National Guard,” the statement said. “Whether it’s Illinois, Maryland and New York or another state tomorrow, the President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members.”

Ahead of Newsom’s news conference, the White House continued to claim that Democratic officials are resisting efforts to fight crime.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted “liberal Democrats across the country” for continuing to “double down on their failed soft-on-crime approach,” adding that “the American people, including local D.C. leadership, business owners and residents, are rallying behind President Trump’s crime crackdown.”

“President Trump’s approach of upholding law and order by letting our brave men and women in blue actually do their jobs to aggressively fight crime works. In just a few weeks, President Trump has done more for D.C. residents than Democrats did in 50 years,” she remarked, adding that the approach “can be replicated in other crime-ridden cities across the nation.”

Newsom on Thursday appeared to cast the expansion of CHP’s deployment into California cities as an example of how his state has effectively addressed crime without militarizing the state, and he repeatedly emphasized his willingness to partner with federal law agencies. He called federal partnerships with the Biden administration, including with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Justice Department, “incredibly important and impactful,” adding, “We continue to seek collaborative partnerships along the lines of what we enjoyed in the Biden administration and we continue to seek collaborative partnerships with local law enforcement agencies and local elected officials.”

Newsom said that he was “putting a mirror up to the lunacy” of the president’s behavior.

“It’s a question on all our minds: Is this America? Are we losing our country? Have we lost grip with reality?” he said. “The idea that the military can be out there in every street corner in the United States of America, that people that don’t look like me, the Black and Brown community, quite literally feeling like they’re racially profiled. … I think it’s important to build on what we’re doing, to extend that narrative, to expand our successful programs, to acknowledge we have work to do. I’m not suggesting otherwise. But [we also need to] acknowledge that this country needs to wake up to what’s going on – not just the authoritarian tendencies but the authoritarian actions by this president. This cannot be normalized.”