The California governor told a global climate conference that the Trump administration was “doubling down on stupid.”
BELÉM, Brazil — California Gov. Gavin Newsom excoriated President Donald Trump in plenary remarks at a United Nations climate conference in Brazil on Tuesday.
“He wants to bring us back and try to recreate the 20th, maybe even try to recreate the 19th century,” Newsom said. “They’re doubling down on stupid as it relates to climate policy in my country, but not in my state.”
Newsom’s speech to an at-capacity room of local government representatives from around the world came during his first appearance at the annual climate talks, held this year in the Amazonian city of Belém, and underscored his effort to position California — and himself — as a counterweight to the Trump administration’s dismantling of climate policies at home and abroad. The total absence of any federal government officials at the talks only amplified the spotlight on Newsom, who was by default the highest-ranking government official from the U.S. there.
“I’m here representing a state that’s the most un-Trump state,” Newsom told conference attendees.
Newsom arrived in Brazil days after celebrating a decisive win in his Proposition 50 campaign to redraw congressional maps in Democrats’ favor ahead of the 2026 midterms, a victory that has rocketed him to the top of presidential primary shortlists.
On climate, Newsom’s attempts to stand alone sit well within the California tradition. Former Govs. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger — the Democrat and the Republican who preceded him — both made international climate diplomacy central to their legacies. Earlier on Tuesday, Newsom renewed a climate pact with the automaker-heavy German state of Baden-Württemberg that Brown had inked during the first Trump administration as a way to promote state-level climate action.
“Donald Trump is temporary,” Newsom said. “California’s commitment is strong, and we’re in this for the long haul.”
The California governor arrived in Belém after a series of investor meetings in São Paulo, where he said his team was fielding a “disproportionate number of calls” for meetings on the sidelines of the summit.