White House border czar Tom Homan criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, after the Democrat governor accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of serving as President Trump’s “private police force.”
“Newsom is an embarrassment to the position he holds. Hard stop,” Homan told reporters. “If he had an ounce of integrity, he’d be calling President Trump and thanking him for making LA safer. He’d be calling the head of ICE and thanking them for the thousands of criminals, public safety threats they’ve taken off the streets of California.”
Homan was responding to comments Newsom made Wednesday at a Politico Summit where the governor slammed ICE for what he interpreted as displaced loyalty. “When they’re done with this – all that funding and that ‘big beautiful betrayal’ allows more resources for this private police force that increasingly is showing a tendency not to swear an oath to the Constitution, but to the president of the United States,” Newsom said.
Trump and Newsom have long had a rocky relationship, which escalated during protests in June over ICE raids in Los Angeles, after Trump ordered the National Guard into the city to restore order. As the war of words escalated over the summer, Trump told reporters that if he were Homan, he’d arrest Newsom. “I’d do it if I were [border czar Tom Homan]. I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity,” Trump said. “He’s done a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom. He’s a nice guy but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows.”
“The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,” Newsom wrote on X in response to the president’s comments. “I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation – this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”
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