At the Munich Security Conference, California Governor Gavin Newsom used panels and interviews to push his climate-first message, call President Trump “temporary,” and position himself among Democrats shaping foreign policy narratives ahead of 2028. He highlighted California’s green ambitions, argued state leadership matters more than federal shifts, and repeated claims about the role of state incentives in corporate innovation while trading barbs about federal climate rollbacks. Other Democrats at the conference also sought to polish foreign policy credentials, creating a clear effort to signal priorities to international audiences. The event became a stage to debate America’s reliability abroad, the future of climate policy, and who will lead the party into the next presidential cycle.
A Washington stalemate over Homeland Security funding earlier in the week sent many Democrats to Munich, turning the conference into an opportunity to demonstrate leadership beyond domestic gridlock. It is a familiar pattern: rising politicians use international forums to test messages and broaden their profiles. For Newsom, the trip followed awkward moments in Davos and a continued push to prove relevance on the global stage.
On a climate-focused panel, Newsom made a bold claim linking California incentives to the existence of Tesla, framing state policy as the seedbed for major clean-technology players. He doubled down on California’s role as a model for low-carbon economic growth and sought to contrast state stability with national political turbulence. Those remarks fit a broader theme in which he framed state-level action as a permanent counterweight to shifting federal priorities.
The governor also used blunt language about the current federal administration, saying the president is only a temporary obstacle to global climate goals. He emphasized California’s permanence and reliability as a partner on environmental initiatives while criticizing recent federal regulatory rollbacks. Those lines are part of a strategy to reassure foreign leaders and investors that subnational actors can maintain long-term climate commitments.
“Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years,” said Newsom during a panel on climate change. “California is a stable and reliable partner in this space. And it’s important for folks to understand the temporary nature of this current administration in relationship to the issue.”
In an on-camera interview from Munich, Newsom repeated his assertion about the president’s temporariness and framed states like California as the durable institutions that will carry climate policy forward. He criticized the administration’s move to rescind the endangerment finding, calling it a rollback of decades of progress and arguing it set back the fight against carbon pollution. His language painted the federal action as a step backward toward industrial-era thinking rather than forward into a green economy.
“We saw what Trump just did with the endangerment finding, completely rolling back progress of the last half century, wants to recreate the 19th Century,” Newsom said. “And we want to transform our economy. We want to dominate in the next great global economy, low carbon, green growth. And I’m reminding world leaders of that.”
When asked whether the world still views the United States as a reliable leader, Newsom was blunt about the damage to America’s image. He said many foreign officials now see the U.S. as unreliable and feared that reputation could be permanent without political change back home. He tempered that view by suggesting that trust can be rebuilt, but only if national leadership shifts and Democrats reassert international commitments.
No. They see us as a wrecking ball. They see us as unreliable. And — and a lot of them think irrevocable, they don’t think we’ll ever come back to our original form.
Newsom argued that the political process after the midterms will help define the Democratic approach to 2028 and that President Trump himself reshapes the path forward by being the central obstacle. He described a political moment in which opposition to Trump informs Democratic strategy and said that once the party has the chance, it can “undo” and “shape-shift” policy direction. That view frames federal elections as the hinge point for restoring America’s global credibility.
I’m not as convinced of that. Whatever happens, we can undo, we can shape-shift (ph), we can fix it. And while trust is difficult to re-establish, there’s too much at stake in a multinational — from a multi-international perspective that we have a lot of work to do once Trump’s done. And I think it can — it’s not going to be undone permanently, from my perspective.
On questions about the Democratic Party’s ideological direction, Newsom offered a cautious, measured take about competing wings of the party. He acknowledged progressive policies work in certain places while suggesting it is too early to lock in a single path for 2028. His remarks kept the door open for multiple strategies and signaled a desire to balance resistance messaging with pragmatic governance.
Well, I think, you know, we’ll see where things end up. I mean, at the moment, that’s the zeitgeist. I mean, you know, we’re in this resistance mindset. People want us to be strong. People want us to push back, hold the line, call it out, call balls and strikes. And certainly what I’ve been doing. And progressive policies have worked in certain parts of the country. But we’ll see. Again, it’s a little too early to figure that out.
When pressed about a possible presidential bid, Newsom did not commit, saying he does not want to live with regrets and wants to keep testing opportunities on the national and global stage. He described his current focus as doing the work of governing while staying alert to the demands of leadership beyond California. Those comments reflected the balance many ambitious governors try to strike between state duties and national aspirations.
Look, I honestly don’t know. I really don’t. But I am trying to be accountable to the world I’m living in. I don’t want to live with any regrets. I don’t want to say I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve and been on some panel or go on your show as one of those, you know, ex-politicians.
I’m putting that all on the line. I want to run 110-yard dash as governor. You saw that last year with Prop 50. You see that on our social media, the work we’re doing every day back home.
But, look, this moment requires, I think, leadership. It requires a counter-narrative. Trump does not represent the majority of Americans. He’s the most historic president in our lifetime — historically unpopular. And the rest of the world needs to understand that.
Other Democrats at Munich similarly used the platform to criticize U.S. policy and to present alternatives to the current federal approach. Those appearances reinforced the conference’s role as a proving ground for foreign policy arguments and signaled a coordinated effort to project a more stable, climate-focused vision internationally. The exchanges in Munich underscored the divide between state and federal approaches to climate and the broader debate over America’s place in the world.
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