California governor says he will consider running for president

HOUSTON, United States

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he will consider a run for the White House in 2028, calling President Donald Trump "a wrecking ball."

"Yeah, I'd be lying otherwise," Newsom, 58, said in an exclusive interview with Robert Costa for CBS Sunday Morning regarding throwing his hat into the ring in the race for the presidency. "I'd just be lying. And I'm not — I can't do that."

His second term as California governor ends January 2027, and due to the state's term limits, he is prevented from running again.

Newsom emphasized that an official declaration to run for president is likely a few years away.

"Fate will determine that," he said, referring to when he might make that decision.

The matter at hand right now is Newsom's push to redraw congressional maps in California that could add up to five new Democratic seats.

The move comes in response to the state of Texas approving a redistricting bill that could add five new Republican seats of its own, with the goal of keeping the Republican majority in the US Congress during the 2026 midterm elections.

Republicans currently hold a slim majority of 219 seats in the House of Representatives and of 53 seats in the Senate.

Whereas Texas implemented the new congressional maps as law through the state's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and its Republican majority in both state government chambers, Newsom placed Proposition 50 on the California ballot for a Nov. 4 election to let the voters decide.

Newsom is one of the few political leaders, Democratic or Republican, to stand up to Trump in the public arena, unafraid of the political backlash the president dishes out to his political enemies.

"He's a wrecking ball," he said of Trump in the interview. "He's wrecking alliances, truth, trust, tradition, institutions."

"He's an invasive species ... for the country, for the world," he said after he was asked if Trump's federal immigration raids in California were an incentive for him to possibly run for president.

Newsom said his focus is on getting Proposition 50 passed in November to give Democrats a chance to fight back against what many critics have called a fascist and authoritarian government under Trump.

"We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across this country. We're giving the power to the people," he said.

"I think it's about our democracy, it's about the future of this Republic. I think it's about, you know, what the founding fathers lived and died for, this notion of the rule of law, not the rule of Don," he added.

The goal of Proposition 50, the governor said, is not just about changing congressional maps to even out the playing field between Republicans and Democrats but to balance the powers of the federal government which the Constitution has followed for centuries and not allowing President Trump to make the executive branch supersede the legislative and judicial branches of government.

"Finally, you have rebalanced this system, a co-equal branch of government begins to assert itself, it appears again," Newsom said of passing Proposition 50.

Because the fear, Newsom continued, is Trump rewriting the rules of law and finding a way to sidestep the constitutional two-term limit of the US president.

"If you have a (Republican House) Speaker (Mike) Johnson, you may have a third term of President Trump. I really believe that. "