Gavin Newsom landed in New Hampshire on Thursday evening and wasted no time doing what he came to do: run for president while pretending he isn't. The California governor, fresh off stops in Nevada and Los Angeles, used a book tour event in Portsmouth to declare victory over the Trump administration following the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"Donald Trump is in retreat," Newsom told the crowd. "Today is a perfect example — the first firing of a high-profile Cabinet member."
According to Fox News, he then posted "BYE GIRL!" on social media, because that's apparently the level of discourse a two-term governor of the nation's most populous state considers appropriate.
But Newsom wasn't just there to gloat. He was there to campaign. And New Hampshire, which for a century has traditionally held the first presidential primary, is the place you go when you want everyone to know it.
Newsom quickly pivoted from celebrating Noem's departure to naming his next target: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a longtime top Trump advisor dating back to the 2016 campaign.
"The dark heart of the administration is not Kristi Noem, it's Stephen Miller."
Newsom referenced Trump's 2025 move to send National Guard troops to California in response to immigration protests, claiming the operation bore Miller's imprint. He told the audience:
"It had Noem's fingerprints all over it, but it was Stephen Miller's handbook, and he needs to be next."
This tells you everything about what Newsom's 2028 pitch will look like. He's not running against Trump's results. He's running against Trump's personnel, because the results are harder to argue with. Secured borders and deported criminal illegal immigrants don't make great Democratic talking points, so Newsom needs villains instead of policy debates.
The White House noticed. Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson responded to Fox News Digital with characteristic directness:
"While Newscum flails around on his third-rate book tour, President Trump continues to deliver for the American people — whether it be securing the border, deporting criminal illegal aliens, or a host of other key policy promises fulfilled, President Trump is doing what Newscum could only dream of."
Newsom isn't the only Democrat treating New Hampshire like a second home. The state has become a revolving door for presidential hopefuls who swear they're just passing through.
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll from February tells the early story of the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination race: Buttigieg leads at 20%, with Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tied at 15%. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona sit at 10% each, with everyone else in single digits.
That's a field where nobody commands loyalty and everybody smells opportunity. Democrats lost in 2024 with Kamala Harris, their chosen successor, and now every ambitious figure in the party thinks they can do better. They're probably right that they can do better than Harris. Whether any of them can actually win is a different question entirely.
The book tour hasn't been a clean operation. Newsom spent part of Thursday evening cleaning up remarks from prior stops that generated what he dismissed as "MAGA-manufactured outrage."
At a March event in Atlanta, Newsom made comments about the ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the deaths of many of Iran's top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His attempt at clarification didn't exactly simplify things:
"I'm very angry about this war with all due respect, not because I'm angry the supreme leader is dead, quite the contrary. I'm not naive about the last 37 years of his reign, 47 years since the '79 revolution."
Then came the critique of the commander-in-chief during wartime:
"I'm also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of, why, why? Now, what's the end game?"
He also addressed controversy over remarks at a Los Angeles book event, explaining that his use of the word "apartheid" was a reference to a column by nationally known political commentator and author Tom Friedman regarding the direction Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank.
This is the Newsom playbook in miniature. Say something incendiary at a friendly venue. Wait for the backlash. Then reframe it as persecution by the right while doing just enough cleanup to avoid alienating moderates. It works on the coasts. Whether it works in a general election against an incumbent party that can point to a secured border and fulfilled promises is the gamble he's making.
Newsom told the Portsmouth crowd that "Donald Trump is the leader of the get out the vote for the Democratic Party," pointing to Tuesday's Texas primaries, where, he claimed, Democratic turnout surged to record levels.
There's a familiar rhythm here. Democrats spent 2017 through 2020 telling themselves that opposition to Trump was a governing philosophy. It worked exactly once, in a pandemic year, and then collapsed spectacularly in 2024. Now Newsom wants to run the same play again: define yourself entirely by what you're against, and hope the anger carries you.
The problem is that anger isn't a platform. California, under Newsom's leadership, became the case study for progressive governance that voters in swing states looked at and rejected. Homelessness, crime, cost of living, and an exodus of residents and businesses. Those aren't Republican talking points. They're outcomes.
Newsom can call Stephen Miller "the dark heart of the administration" all he wants. He can post "BYE GIRL!" every time a cabinet official departs. He can tour New Hampshire with a hardcover book and a smile. But at some point, someone will ask him what he actually built in California, and no amount of anti-Trump rhetoric will answer that question for him.
New Hampshire will be watching. It always is.