‘Arrest me’: Newsom should join Los Angeles protesters on the front line | Opinion
When President Donald Trump was re-elected in November, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to lead the resistance against him, calling a special legislative session in the immediate wake of Trump’s win to set aside state funding for legal battles with the Trump administration.
Now, Newsom has a rare opportunity to walk the walk.
The governor should join his people on the front line of the Los Angeles protests, sending a clear message to the Trump administration that California will not tolerate the president’s attacks on California communities or on our First Amendment right to lawfully assemble.
Newsom should stand — literally — with protesters. It would send a message to the nation that he supports their cause and that California will not tolerate the Trump administration’s mass deportation threats, nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on our soil.
Californians want a governor who will lead the Trump resistance. That’s what Newsom promised, but so far it’s just been words, words, words. Championing a resistance means taking a page from the book of great leaders like Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Dolores Huerta and César Chávez. They got into the streets, walked with protesters and showed the nation that they would not be intimidated by any bullies, including and especially those in power.
California has sued the president more than a dozen times in Trump’s first 100 days in office. But Newsom has also spent a lot of his time since then devoted to political moderation, kowtowing to right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast, and retooling himself as a centrist figure by abandoning transgender athletes in a transparent attempt to make himself more palatable to Americans if he runs for the presidency in 2028.
Such palatable and measured responses may have been the order of the day until recently, but since Saturday — when Trump deployed National Guard troops to quash protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Los Angeles — California needs more than just words.
The protests had been mostly peaceful to that point, so the president’s move was a dangerous escalation of the situation. In his decision, Trump also ignored Newsom’s direct request that the National Guard not be deployed.
“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” Newsom wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan warned that anyone — even public officials — risked arrest if they obstructed ICE agents. In response, Newsom tempted Homan to arrest him:
“Come after me, arrest me,” Newsom said on MSNBC. “Let’s just get it over with, tough guy.” Trump, on the lawn of the White House, said to reporters, “I would do it if I were Tom (Homan). I think it’s great.”
Well, governor, you threw the gauntlet and it’s been accepted. Let’s see you block ICE agents from arresting California residents with your body, not just your words. It’s time to become the resistance leader you promised you would be.