California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks on during a bill signing event related to redrawing the state’s congressional maps on Aug. 21, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Newsom had criticized the Trump administration for what he considered federal overreach in the mass arrests of Californians, while also saying that people should retain their First Amendment right to speak freely and criticize their government.
He, however, has also been criticized by conservatives for the about-face on masking-up in public, only a few years after his administration implemented public mask mandates during the coronavirus pandemic.
On CBS, Newsom recounted the detention of a teenager outside a school, describing it as "men jumping out of unmarked cars. People disappearing. No due process. No oversight. Zero accountability: Happening in the United States of America today."
NEWSOM BANS LAW ENFORCEMENT FROM WEARING MASKS, TAUNTS ICE AGENTS: 'WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?'
"People ask: ‘Well, is authoritarianism you being hyperbolic?’ Bulls--- we’re being hyperbolic… These are not just authoritarian tendencies, these are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government," Newsom told host Stephen Colbert.
"ICE: unmask – what are you afraid of?" Newsom asked rhetorically at a press conference earlier this week announcing the first-in-the-nation law banning law enforcement from obscuring their identities.
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He previously blasted Trump and the Department of Homeland Security during a spate of immigration raids in Los Angeles earlier this summer.
The architect of those raids, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, has since shifted his focus to Chicago, where leaders are echoing Newsom’s criticisms of the feds.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a recent press conference that the U.S., under Trump, looks as if the Confederacy had won the Civil War.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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