WASHINGTON: Immigration protests in Los Angeles are proving a stern test of Gavin Newsom’s leadership of California, but the unrest also hands the ambitious governor a unique opportunity, say analysts, as he weighs a presidential run in 2028.
Rarely a shrinking violet, the 57-year-old chief executive of the country’s largest and richest state has eagerly taken up the Democratic Party’s cudgel against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Newsom spent the weekend attacking his Republican opponent, accusing him of deliberately stoking tensions by deploying California’s National Guard to downtown LA.
A presumed frontrunner for the Democratic leadership, Newsom has made no secret of his political ambitions and appears to be relishing his chance for a public showdown with Trump.
As the latest front in Trump’s immigration crackdown played out on the streets, the Democrat was brawling on social media, vowing to sue Trump over a “serious breach of state sovereignty”.
“Every political crisis is a political opportunity,” Jeff Le, a former senior official in California state politics who negotiated with the first Trump administration, told AFP.
“In California, where President Trump polls at 30 per cent, it’s a potential gift for the governor to showcase stark differences between the two.”
Those differences were all too apparent as Trump upbraided the Democrat for a “horrible job”, while the president’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Newsom over any interference with deportations.
