Gavin Newsom plays president at the UN kiddie table

President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Naturally, Gavin Newsom showed up at UN headquarters the next day to play junior president.

There was one small difference.

Trump stood at the famous green-marble podium in the massive General Assembly Hall addressing presidents and prime ministers.

Newsom spoke in a smaller chamber upstairs, on a climate panel with governors and mayors.

Trump was at the grown-ups’ table. Newsom was at the little kids’ table.

California’s governor held forth on American foreign policy, congressional elections, the Founding Fathers, global energy policy and America’s moral standing. He even told his international audience that “there’s probably nothing more important” than ending Trump’s presidency “as we know it” by electing a Democratic House in November.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom meets reporters outside United Nations Headquarters in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. Kyle Mazza/CNP/INSTARimages

Elon Musk departs after a welcome ceremony with President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, May 14, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

The subject of the event, incidentally, was climate change.

Newsom proudly announced that California is “the most un-Trump state in the United States of America.”

Well, except for 6,081,697 Californians who voted for Trump in 2024. Trump actually received more votes in California than in 47 other states. Only Texas and Florida gave him more.

But why let 6.1 million Californians interrupt President Newsom’s international debut?

Then came the California miracle.

Newsom told the UN that California “runs every day on two-thirds clean energy.” Not exactly. His own administration says 67% of California’s retail electricity sales come from clean sources.

Those retail sales exclude gasoline, diesel and natural gas. Apparently, none of that counts as energy when Gavin Newsom is explaining California to the world.

Newsom did himself one better, declaring that nine out of 10 days this year California “is run on 100% clean energy.”

Not quite.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom meets reporters outside United Nations Headquarters in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. Kyle Mazza/CNP/INSTARimages

A general view of a Tesla car dealership and Tesla vehicles is seen in Paramus, N.J., on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Christopher Sadowski

The state says clean electricity met or exceeded demand for only part of those days — an average of 6.3 hours a day, not 24. Newsom turned part of a day into an entire day. You know, the sunny part, before everyone gets home and starts using electricity.

Apparently solar power isn’t California’s only renewable resource. So is the English language.

Newsom also made the case for the regulatory state, even taking credit for creating Elon Musk: “There is no — forgive us — Elon Musk without California’s regulatory system, that created the certainty where he could make the investments that ultimately became Tesla.”

Musk was already rich, thanks to PayPal. Tesla already existed when he invested in it — and it was going nowhere, despite California’s “regulatory system.” Or maybe because of it.

You’re welcome, Elon.

Newsom confuses a regulatory system with the rule of law.

The rule of law creates certainty. Too many regulations create uncertainty. The rules become arbitrary and incomprehensible, and unelected bureaucrats act on whims.

California’s regulatory system is a big reason companies like Tesla leave. Tesla’s headquarters is now in Texas, home of cowboy hats and authentic barbecue.

Then came the economic miracle.

California, Newsom announced, has enjoyed 40% GDP growth since 2019, adding that “no jurisdiction in America” has grown faster.

Sure — if you don’t adjust for inflation.

That 40% is nominal GDP. So the soaring price of practically everything Californians buy isn’t merely a cost-of-living crisis anymore. Turns out we’ve been experiencing economic growth.

Congratulations, everyone.

But adjust for inflation and California looks considerably less miraculous. The Public Policy Institute of California reports California averaged 3% annual real GDP growth from 2020 through 2025.

Florida: 5.4%. Texas: 5%.

Perhaps Florida and Texas aren’t jurisdictions anymore.

At one point Newsom went full Kamala Harris: “If you don’t like the way the world looks when you’re standing up, stand on your head and go local.”

I’ve read that sentence several times. I still have no idea what the hell he was talking about.

Newsom also congratulated California for reducing man-made greenhouse-gas emissions by double digits.

There is one wildfire-sized asterisk.

California’s official greenhouse-gas inventory measures man-made emissions, so wildfire emissions aren’t included. A UCLA-led study estimated that the catastrophic 2020 fires alone emitted about 127 million metric tons — nearly twice what California had cut over the previous 18 years.

Apparently carbon is an existential threat when it comes out of your SUV. When millions of acres of California are on fire, it doesn’t make the spreadsheet.

California accounts for roughly 0.63% of worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions.

That’s it. Six-tenths of 1%.

Think about that the next time California politicians tell you your lawn mower, water heater or car must be sacrificed to save the planet.

Perhaps that’s why Newsom needs the United Nations. He’s running out of carbon molecules over which he has jurisdiction.

Newsom closed by promising to return with the “fresh air of progress” replacing the “stale air” coming out of Washington.

Of course he wants to come back. At the UN, Newsom gets to lecture the world about California instead of answering to Californians about California.

I wonder if there’s an even smaller chamber in which former governors speak?

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.

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