"He's lost it": Inside Newsom's attack on Trump's mental fitness
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Trump. Photos: California Governor's Office; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced a new attack line in his ongoing showdown with Donald Trump: The president — who turns 79 on Saturday — is slipping.
- "He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable of even a train of thought," Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, told Fox LA. "He's lost it."
Why it matters: Newsom, who was among the many Democrats who repeatedly attested that Joe Biden was sharp and ready to serve another four years, is now among those suggesting that Trump — the oldest president ever inaugurated — is showing signs of not being up to the job.
- Newsom's jabs at Trump's age are part of a barrage of criticisms he's tossed at Trump in the past week. He's called Trump a threat to democracy who is putting the U.S. on a road to authoritarianism.
Driving the news: Throughout Newsom and Trump's public spat over Trump sending troops and Marines to Los Angeles in a show of force against immigration protesters, Newsom repeatedly has mocked Trump for mangling dates and words.
- "Trump doesn't even know what day it is," Newsom wrote on X after Trump said he'd spoken with Newsom on Monday, when their conversation actually had been two days earlier.
- Newsom's office made fun of Trump for mistakenly saying "primarily" before Trump corrected himself to say "primary."
With a concerned look on his face, Newsom also noted that Trump had stumbled up the steps to Air Force One over the weekend.
- In 2024, Trump's campaign frequently used video of Biden tripping up those stairs to argue that Biden, then 81, was no longer fit to be president.
Reality check: Newsom didn't express similar concerns about mental acuity when Biden was in the White House, even as there were increasing public signs the Democratic president was struggling to be coherent.
- "It's because of his age that he's been so successful," Newsom said of Biden in February 2024, in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Hur's report that concluded a jury would be unlikely to convict Biden of mishandling classified documents because he was a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
- Newsom added that Biden's "masterclass" record meant that he was "all-in" on Biden serving another four years in the White House, which Newsom said would be a "gift ... for the American people."
White House communications director Steven Cheung told Axios that Newsom's attacks on Trump are "rich, coming from Gavin Newsom, who in this past election tried to gaslight and lied to the American public about Joe Biden's decline."
- "Gavin Newsom will never be president, even as he tries to peddle these lies," Cheung added.
Zoom out: Trump is much more accessible to the media and appears more vigorous than Biden, but there are still questions about his health.
- Trump wasn't transparent about his full medical history during the 2024 campaign.
- His White House released a three-page summary of his most recent physical in April, which included some more information and declared that he was in "excellent health" but was still a limited report.
That's similar to what recent presidents, including Biden, have provided. The White House isn't legally obligated to provide information about a president's health.
- Biden's White House physician had claimed that Biden was in great shape for a man of his age.
Trump has had other slips in recent months, such as repeatedly mixing up the Japanese car company Nissan and the Japanese steel company Nippon.
- During the 2024 campaign, he also repeatedly mixed up countries and names — like when he talked about GOP primary rival Nikki Haley when he meant former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D).
- Trump has long had a rambling and at times difficult to follow speaking style, which he has dubbed "the weave."
- Democratic and Republican rivals both tried to make Trump's age a key issue in last year's campaign but were ultimately unsuccessful.
What they're saying: Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson (Texas), who previously was Trump's physician, told Axios that Trump "is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen."
- He added that Newsom, "like most Democrats, needs to look himself in the mirror and answer this: Where was the concern when the cognitive disaster, Joe Biden, was president?"
- A spokesperson for Newsom declined to comment further.
