Gov. Gavin Newsom unveils his 2025-2026 revised budget on 5/14/25 (Photo: ca.gov.ca)
The Los Angeles Riots threaten Gavin Newsom in 2028
The riots are a reminder to the rest of the country that California is a disaster under Newsom
By Matt Quan, June 20, 2025 8:00 am
The Los Angeles Riots are the latest failure of Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and threatens Newsom’s political ambition to run for President in 2028.
For eleven days from June 6-17, riots erupted in Los Angeles City and other Los Angeles County communities in response to immigration enforcement by ICE, as well as pre-planned protests “No Kings” against President Donald Trump. The protests and riots resulted in vandalism and looting of Downtown Los Angeles, the shutdown of the U.S. 101 freeway, one of the busiest in the country, and over 500 were arrested. Thousands of Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Sheriff Department, and California Highway Patrol officers were mobilized, dozens injured and several vehicles damaged or destroyed. Press, protestors, and rioters were also hurt.
By the fifth day of chaos, Bass declared a curfew for all of Downtown Los Angeles and Newsom gave an emergency address to the nation. Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines, which Newsom and Bass opposed because it confirmed their failure. While Newsom and Bass pretend to be in control, and paradoxically also the victim, their actions and data show otherwise.
According to Google Trends, Newsom has had five major news cycles in the last year: former President Joe Biden’s debate against Trump in June (good); Biden dropping out in July (mixed); Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November (good); the Palisades and Eaton Fires in January (bad); and the controversial launch of his podcast “This is Gavin Newsom” with Charlie Kirk in March (bad).
Since he was formally passed over in July, Newsom has unsuccessfully tried to introduce positive news cycles to argue he is the Democrat frontrunner for 2028 – he is not. The fires that destroyed over 16,000 homes in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena, negatively eclipsed everything, followed by the rebuke of progressives for his political duplicity on transgenders to masquerade as a “moderate.” The riots in June are worse than that, a reminder to the rest of the country that California is a disaster under Newsom.
Further evidence that the riots are bad, rather than good, for Newsom and Democrats is they are in damage control. Spin such as “if you [the rest of America] aren’t from here, it’s not all of Los Angeles,” or “it’s ‘only’ one square mile,” or “it’s no different than when a sports team wins” – it’s not happening, it’s not that bad, and actually it’s a good thing. Also, Downtown Los Angeles is six square miles and is an obvious tell of media mouthpieces parroting the same erroneous talking point, and who have reduced coverage altogether. Newsom’s attempts to reverse the narrative have failed as he drops out with the news cycle.
Newsom and Bass pleaded with protestors-turned-rioters, “don’t give Trump what he wants” – stop making them look bad. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi made a rare appearance, along with other House Democrats, cautioning against “exuberance” and “anarchy.” This is in contrast to Democrats co-opting the Black Lives Matter riots in 2016 and 2020, the latter resulting in the successful opposition of Trump. This also suggests Pelosi believes the riots threaten her legacy and flipping the House one last time.
Worse, Newsom again failed his responsibilities as governor and more critically for a prospective president – when to activate the National Guard and lead the U.S. military as Commander-in-Chief. In January, Newsom’s timeline of actions show he waited two days to mobilize the National Guard, and it occurred three times that he didn’t know what was needed, and always came up short. The Pentagon, not Newsom, activated the National Guard. At least nine additional fires, including in the Hollywood Hills, were because of arson and lack of security. There was still looting in Pacific Palisades and Altadena four months later. The fires and the riots were one of many tests that Newsom failed to “meet the moment.”
Los Angeles and California are a disaster, because Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, couldn’t organize a picnic, let alone manage a city or state, or lead law enforcement or the military. Instead of focusing on California and doing his job, Newsom’s priority is “misinformation” with a national audience, whether it is with CNN’s Anderson Cooper or MSNBC’s Jen Psaki or Jacob Soboroff. Newsom only makes the news, when it is bad news, because he is a failure and it’s why he will never be President of the United States.
- Gavin Newsom Will Lose South Carolina in 2028 - July 9, 2025
- The Los Angeles Riots threaten Gavin Newsom in 2028 - June 20, 2025
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That’s the least of the reasons Newsomlini will NEVER be president. The biggest reason is the bankruptcy of CA by his edicts and his cabal in Sacramento, not to mention working on behalf of hoodlums, criminals, and illegal aliens instead of hardworking CA taxpayers. Here is another example of his idiocy: https://tinyurl.com/4vm7vstz
What is the point of showing the Jimmy Schmeel monologue? He is leftist lackey his entire career (short of “The Man Show”). Only thing I can figure is Jimmy Schmeel’s inaccurate depiction of the illegals as regular, law abiding folks when they are not. What is scary lot of people get their perceptions built upon discourses such as we see in the video that is part of this article. Didn’t need 11 minutes of this garbage and still don’t get why you would think anyone would watch the entire clip. I am curious why you posted the video please explain yourself Matt. Love the Air Force, as a son of B-17 pilot I have special respect for your service.
Michael,
A part of the commentary was the propaganda and spin-control, which is why I included it for people to see for themselves. I heavily favored video sources because there is less interpretation about what happened.
I agree that Jimmy Kimmel was delivering Democrat talking points. I definitely didn’t watch the full segment because it was that predictable and not entertainment. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later came on as a guest; his motivation was as a local booster.
Contrary to what CA Dems think (or spin), except the anarchists, no one wants Los Angeles to burn and riot. I don’t enjoy Los Angeles and California for making national news for negative reasons. However, the riots and every other disaster are happening for a reason, and will continue if CA Dems and the media sweep it under the rug.
-Matt
Michael, the commentary is about propaganda and spin-control and I heavily favored video sources so people could see and judge for themselves. There is less interpretation.
I agree that Kimmel was delivering partisan talking points. I didn’t watch the full segment because it was that predictable. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came on later as a guest; his motivation is as a local booster.
Contrary to what CA Dems think (or spin), except anarchists, no one wants to see Los Angeles burn and riot. I don’t enjoy Los Angeles and California making national news for negative reasons. However these disasters are happening for a reason, and they aren’t going to stop just because CA Dems and the media try to sweep it under the rug.
-Matt
Matt Quan linked to this delicious video in his very good takedown Newsom article, but I love this horse’s ass of a Worst S.F. Mayor Ever interview with Hank Plante so much that I wanted to highlight it here in case readers neglected to click on the link. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy and be sure to stay until the end:
“Hank Plante and [S.F. Mayor] Gavin Newsom Testy Interview”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssAy0Cvfddg
Here’s another Gavin Newsom as Worst S.F. Mayor Ever favorite video:
“The Walkaway Mayor”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ1eE2BbXas
All just to show that NOTHING has changed with this guy.
If you can’t get enough of old embarrassing videos of SF Mayor Gavin circa 2007, want to see more, and maybe share them with friends, go to:
“GavinWatch”
https://www.youtube.com/@GavinWatch
Love it!
His “brilliance” on full display!😉
Oh yeah. Smug expressions, smirks, and temper tantrums galore. Same as ever.
You should read the comments about Newsom on SF Gate from 2009. Nothing has changed.
https://sfist.com/2009/11/20/newsom_talks_budget_doesnt_read_pre/
Matt, thank you for posting this. Some commenters see Newsom clearly but clearly are as eternally frustrated as we are now. Meanwhile some seem to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, which also seems to be true now. So yes, nothing has changed.
Knowing Newsom as we do, however, we don’t expect him to change. His (clinical) narcissistic personality disorder, for which there is no psychological treatment as a practical matter because the person who has it thinks there is no problem — it is only those around him who suffer — has remained in stone from at least his first dip into politics, was probably there before, and continues to affect and plague the largely sensible citizenry of California to this day under his self-serving rule.
He cannot be President and I also have faith that he won’t be, even as we continue to get the word about this guy as much as possible. Fortunately the rest of the country is catching on to Newsom FAST. And that is happening with the help of Newsom himself.
The problem is the public has a very short memory, and a large chunk of the population votes based on “feelings” rather than logic and facts. How else do you explain that Newsom, who has been a complete failure as a governor, was re-elected for a second term a Governor of California?
A rigged recall election and a rigged second term election?
“The thing speaks for itself.”
They named it “dominion” for a reason….
The PDF on the CA SOS website clearly states that open ports enable tabulation algorithms to affect the vote tabulation process, and then conveniently explains that glaring weakness away with platitudes about “good security practices” and other meaningless explanations.
And Padilla signed off on it before skating to the DC swamp….
thank you for being an honest up front reporter of what you see and believe. California needs a spotlight on this absolutely failure of a governor.
A year ago, Westside Current investigated empty Project Homekey hotel rooms. Now, a year later, they found not much has changed despite Los Angeles spending over $1 billion on homeless housing. Although the City of Los Angeles has spent about $820 million in Project Homekey funds to acquire approximately 1,237 units, 44 percent remain vacant. The conversion rate is even worse among the 32 Project Homekey properties the county paid $550 million to acquire. Of the 2,157 rooms purchased, 1,538—or 71 percent—remain vacant. T
Newsom and Bass should both be hauled before a court and be held accountable for their complete dereliction of duty?
(https://www.westsidecurrent.com/news/exclusive-la-poured-over-1-billion-into-homeless-housing-but-thousands-of-units-sit-empty/article_f459cfaa-f29c-4948-943e-402141481746.html)
No kidding TJ —– let’s hope U.S. Atty Bill Essayli has something to say (and do) about this and soon.
The homeless money-disappearing-act (billions) is one of the main jobs on his desk. Thus we may indeed see the a-holes you named above hauled before a court. As you know. We’ll see.