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‘Whaddya Think About Newscum?’: Gavin Newsom Recalls Trump Phone Call

Gavin Newsom in San Francisco on Jan. 29. — Gavin Newsom in San Francisco on Jan. 29.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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By Francesca Maglione

January 30, 2026 at 4:19 PM UTC

It was the night before Donald Trump was set to dispatch federal troops to Los Angeles, and Gavin Newsom was on the phone with the US president.

The subject of their conversation was anything but the military deployment.