Newsom accuses White House of blocking speech as US officials sling mud in Davos
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is accusing the U.S. State Department and White House of denying him a speaking slot that was previously scheduled to come after President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
According to Newsom’s spokesperson, Trump officials pressured event organizers to have Newsom removed from a slot at the U.S.’s event center for the conference, where the governor had been invited to speak in a series of onstage interviews hosted by the magazine Fortune.
White House officials did not deny they had blocked Newsom’s speech in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “No one in Davos knows who third-rate governor Newscum is or why he is frolicking around Switzerland instead of fixing the many problems he created in California.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly wrote.
On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent similarly insulted Newsom during his own Davos remarks. Newsom was “too smug, too self-absorbed and too economically illiterate to know anything,” Bessent said. The treasury secretary also alluded to Newsom’s no longer speaking at the event. “I was told he was asked to give a speech on his economic policies, but he’s not speaking, because what have his economic policies brought?” Bessent said.
Fortune staff had invited Newsom on Jan. 13 to speak at their event, according to the governor’s office. Newsom accepted the invite Jan. 19. On Wednesday, an event official told the governor’s staff the Fortune interview with him was canceled, and he would not be allowed to speak to the media in attendance at the USA House. The USA House plays hosts to events on the side of the official World Economic Forum, which draws global dignitaries and ultrawealthy businesspeople to Davos each year. The house, which is actually a Davos church, is the official headquarters for the U.S. government during the event.
Newsom still scheduled to speak Thursday
Newsom remains on the schedule for the World Economic Forum on Thursday morning, where he is speaking with the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Semafor. Newsom staff told reporters in California that unlike the Fortune event, they believe the WEF speech will not be subject to White House pressure.
Newsom begins his return trip to California after that event, a spokesperson said.
The governor attended the Davos conference to present California and himself as a counterpoint to Trump’s policies and what Newsom has labeled a pervasive culture of “crony capitalism.” He began his trip by accusing European leaders of being “complicit” in Trump’s increasingly authoritarian leadership style and telling European leaders to “stand tall and grow a spine,” when dealing with the president’s recent drive for the U.S. to take over Greenland.
The governor intended to use his remarks to rebut Trump’s hour-long address in Davos that morning — he planned to critique Trump’s heavy-handed economic policies as crony capitalism and accuse some of the global power-broker types who attend Davos of abetting the president to further their self-interest, according to a preview reported by Politico.
The president had spent much of that time deriding other world leaders, saying at one point that “without us, most of the countries don’t even work,” according to The New York Times. Trump said he would not send troops to seize Greenland — it’s not clear that Trump could declare war on a U.S. ally unilaterally — but continued to demand the U.S. acquire the island.
Using speaking time at Davos to deride the global elite appeared to be a theme for U.S. officials attending the conference this year. Though Bessent was himself in Switzerland and is believed to have a personal wealth approaching a billion dollars, he charged that Newsom was an elitist for whom Davos was the perfect place.
Bessent referenced Newsom’s infamous meal at a Napa restaurant during pandemic-era lockdowns to make his point. “Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having thousand-dollar meals at the French Laundry,” the Treasury secretary said. Newsom has apologized repeatedly for the pandemic transgression.
Newsom attended Trump’s speech, which was at the main event venue. The president spotted the governor in the audience and acknowledged him, saying “Gavin is a good guy,” according to USA Today. Newsom, however, called Trump’s speech “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant” in comments to a CNN reporter afterward.
This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 10:52 AM.
