Gavin Newsom is reading the room.
On the California governor’s new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” which launched earlier this month, Newsom distances himself from some of Democrats’ most controversial ideas like trans-identifying men in women’s sports, tax dollars paying for prisoners’ transgender surgeries, and even the term “Latinx.”
With no context, a listener might never imagine Newsom himself has pushed those very progressive policies on California over his nearly 30 years in elected office.
In his first podcast episode, Newsom shocked his fellow Democrats by calling biological men competing in women’s sports “deeply unfair.”
“Would you say no to men in female sports?” Newsom’s conservative guest, Charlie Kirk, founder of TPUSA, asked him.
“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom answered. “It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair.”
However, as far back as 2014 when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he celebrated California’s new law allowing trans-identifying male students to compete in girls’ sports. He celebrated again when conservative groups failed to repeal that law.
The Trump campaign’s most successful ad last year highlighted Kamala Harris’ support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for detained migrants, telling viewers, “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
“‘Trump’s for you, she’s for they/them,’” Newsom said on his podcast, referencing the ad. “Devastating. And she didn’t even react to it, which was more devastating … people that are incarcerated and illegal and illegal incarcerated individuals getting taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery. That is a 90/10 not an 80/20.”
But back in 2020, Newsom signed a bill allowing trans-identifying male prison inmates to be housed in women’s prisons. The new law resulted in a 52-year-old male inmate being transferred to a women’s facility and allegedly raping and impregnating several incarcerated women.
The law also implied some trans-identifying inmates would need taxpayer-funded hormones and surgeries, stating that “some transgender” people experience “gender dysphoria that requires medical treatment.”
California also already provides taxpayer-funded surgeries and hormones to illegal migrants thanks to the state’s 2015 Medicaid law, which was expanded by Newsom in 2021.
Meanwhile, Newsom has repeatedly used the term “Latinx,” a gender-neutral term to replace Latina or Latino.
“Not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx,” Newsom claimed on his podcast.
“Where did that even – I just didn’t even know where it came from,” he said, calling the term an “out-of-touch fixation.”
Newsom’s podcast has featured other conservative guests as well, including Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House strategist.
Some conservatives have warned about Newsom’s apparent attempt to rebrand as a moderate, cautioning that he may be trying to set himself up for a presidential run in 2028.
