California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom chastised President Donald Trump for claiming he recently spoke with him to discuss his decision to deploy 700 Marines to Los Angeles, in addition to the 4,000 National Guard troops he is sending. A portion of L.A. has been besieged by anti-deportation protests.
Asked by reporters in the Oval Office when the last time was that he spoke to the Governor, Trump paused before replying, “A day ago, called him up to tell him, got to do a better job.”
“He’s doing a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death,” Trump alleged (video below). There do not appear to have been any deaths due to the Los Angeles protests.
“If we didn’t send out the National Guard, and last time we gave him a little additional help, you would have Los Angeles would be burning right now. Los Angeles would be not a lot different than what you saw, take place in California, and Los Angeles, just a little while ago.”
But the California Democrat disputed Trump’s claim.
“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” he wrote on social media.
“Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,” said Newsom, leveling charges that appeared to reinforce claims—primarily from the left—that President Trump’s mental competence is in question.
Newsom did speak with Trump, he said over the weekend, but the two did not discuss the National Guard.
“Newsom said he and Trump spoke late on Friday night—about 1.30 a.m. Saturday in D.C.—but Trump never brought up the National Guard,” The Daily Beast reported on Monday.
“We talked for almost 20 minutes and he barely, this issue never came up,” Newsom said on MSNBC. “I tried to talk about L.A., he wanted to talk about all these other issues. We had a very decent conversation.”
But “Newsom slammed Donald Trump as a ‘stone-cold liar’ in an MSNBC interview on Sunday, insisting the president’s angry public posturing doesn’t match the tone he struck during a Friday phone call.”
Others also weighed in.
“This is concerning. Who did Trump think he was speaking to?” asked The Lincoln Project.
“Two very different stories here,” observed NBC News Senior National Political Reporter Natasha Korecki.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Reporter: When is last time you spoke with Governor Newsom?
President Trump: A day ago. Called him up to tell him, got to do a better job, he's doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and potential death pic.twitter.com/BXa7PUUZCk
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 10, 2025