By Ben Meiselas
Shortly after the Supreme Court dealt Donald Trump a devastating legal blow by ruling his sweeping global tariffs unlawful, I caught up with California Governor Gavin Newsom for an immediate reaction.
Trump’s response to the decision had already turned chaotic. But Newsom was unequivocal in his view of what the moment represents.
“There is no higher ruling,” Newsom told me. “There’s no ‘Board of Peace’ here. You can’t reestablish with $1 billion tithing, with 27 of your friends from overseas and create a new Supreme Court.”
Newsom’s remarks cut directly to the heart of the issue. The Court’s decision was not procedural. It was final. And for Newsom, it underscored a larger truth about presidential power.
“It’s time this guy start to understand that he cannot operate as an imperial president,” he said. “That he is subject to the rule of law.”
That framing is consistent with what Newsom and California’s Attorney General argued months ago when they became the first state to file suit challenging Trump’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That legal challenge, announced from a ranch in California’s Central Valley to highlight the harm to farmers and small businesses, warned that Trump’s unilateral economic actions amounted to an unlawful tax on working Americans.
Tthose warnings were validated by the Court.
“We did it in a ranch in the Central Valley because it was ranchers and farmers, small businesses, that were hurt most with this regressive tax,” he said. “It taxed the average American family by over $1,750. It’s time to return that money immediately to the American people.”
The Trump administration has already suggested it may resist refunds and drag the issue through extended litigation. Newsom dismissed that approach.
“Sorry, guys,” he said. “We’ve all suffered many times on the other side of Supreme Court rulings.”
For Newsom, the ruling represents more than a legal defeat for Trump. It signals a weakening of his global posture.
Having recently returned from Davos, Munich, and meetings with world leaders including Germany’s Chancellor and Spain’s Prime Minister, Newsom described what he called a growing shift in international sentiment.
“There’s a reckoning happening,” he told me.
While early conversations abroad were marked by caution, Newsom said he increasingly saw a retreat from Trump’s influence. He noted that global financial markets, along with allied leaders, had begun pushing back against policies that threatened longstanding alliances.
“We need to be tougher. We need to be more united,” he said, describing the message he delivered overseas.
Trump’s reaction to those diplomatic efforts, Newsom said, revealed another dimension of the moment.
“He was threatening other world leaders not to even meet with me,” Newsom said. “He’s a weak, weak president. And that weakness is on display globally now.”
In Newsom’s view, tariffs were never simply economic policy. They were part of a broader system tied to self-dealing and political leverage.
“Don’t forget for a second these tariff policies are connected to the grift,” he said, pointing to Trump’s shifting tariff positions in countries where business opportunities aligned with political decisions.
Now, with the Court removing what Newsom called Trump’s “only card,” he believes the administration faces an unraveling economic narrative.
“His entire economic policy is mass deportations,” Newsom said. “That’s beginning to unravel.”
He also noted the broader economic context, citing slowing growth and manufacturing losses.
“He’s got nothing else left in his back pocket,” Newsom said.
I’ve said repeatedly that Trump’s conduct should not be viewed through a purely partisan lens. This is about basic human behavior and Donald Trump is behaving like a demented human being.
That theme of character carried into a discussion of Newsom’s new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry, which he described as an attempt to shed the performative armor often expected of political leaders.
“I’m sick of wearing the mask,” he told me.
The book, he explained, emerged from discoveries about his own family history and personal struggles, including dyslexia and the emotional impact of growing up in a fractured household.
“I struggled with learning disability,” Newsom said. “To this day, I don’t read speeches. You’ll never see me read a speech because I can’t read a speech.”
Writing the memoir, and recording its audiobook, was an intensely difficult process.
“That alone was 18 hours of pure hell,” he said.
Yet Newsom framed the vulnerability as intentional. He wanted to offer an alternative vision of strength rooted in empathy and self-awareness.
“It’s about empathy, care and compassion,” he said. “Those are the superpowers.”
He contrasted that with what he sees as a dangerous cultural model promoted by Trump and his movement.
For Newsom, the Court’s ruling and the broader political moment connect directly to this deeper question of leadership.
“Strength is defined in moral authority,” he said. “Not formal authority.”
In closing, Newsom reflected on the unfinished nature of both his personal journey and the country’s political struggle.
“We’re all works in progress,” he said.
But in his view, the Supreme Court’s decision marks an inflection point.
“His presidency de facto ends when Speaker Jeffries gets sworn in,” Newsom said, describing what he believes will be the eventual political trajectory.
Between now and then, he warned, vigilance will be essential.
“We have to be mindful of what he will do between now and November,” Newsom said. “And be more vigilant than we’ve ever been.”
For Newsom, the ruling was a reminder that the system still retains guardrails.
And in his telling, it was also a call to assert something deeper than policy or partisanship.
Conviction. Clarity. Purpose.
In his words, the pathway forward is simple.
“Call this guy out, no quarter, fight fire with fire,” Newsom said.
Watch my full interview with Governor Newsom above.
