Newsom says US faces '5-alarm fire' and warns 'we won't have a country'

[Thiệu Ngô]

The governor said Trump will try to advance his agenda "by any means necessary."

By Ivan Pereira

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the country is facing a "five-alarm fire" as President Donald Trump tries to "win by any means necessary" to advance his agenda.

"I really am scared to death about what's going on in this country. I really believe it is Code Red. It's five alarm fire," Newsom told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.

"We won't have a country. We won't have an election that's fair and free if we don't stand up. We won't. There will not be a fair and free election. It'll be a Putin election. Was it 87% or is it 87.3%? That's what Trump wants."

"All the pardoning, all the, this, this great grift -- the biggest, most corrupt administration in history. Not just the $400 million plane, but the billion dollars of your tax money, as we're cutting food stamps to pay for the damn plane so he can take that toy home with his foundation when he's 93 or whatever he's done with his fourth or fifth term."

"I'm deeply concerned about it. And guys like [former Trump adviser Steve] Bannon, they're not screwing around. They're not screwing around."

"I'm afraid we're going to lose our country. And where the hell is everybody? Why aren't we standing up to principle?" Newsom asked.

"I'm disgusted what's happened in this country. I'm disgusted by the supine Congress. I'm disgusted by how the private sector is conducting themselves. I'm disgusted by universities selling their soul and law firms. I'm disgusted that people are not more outraged. Forgive me," Newsom continued.

Newsom contrasted the "childishness" of Trump to former President Joe Biden, who he called "one of the most successful presidents in the last century."

Newsom told Karl that while he did have disagreements with the former president on issues such as the border, the governor celebrated Biden's long list of accomplishments that he said are being wiped out by Trump.

"I will defend that to my grave in terms of the CHIPS and Science Act. The infrastructure bill, the work he did on the IRA. The fact that he had a worker-centered industrial policy, and the fact that those are the right policies for this country," Newsom said in the interview that aired Wednesday on ABC News Live.

The governor slammed Trump for his policy actions but expressed more anger at the trolling Trump has done on social media and in interviews

The two-term Democrat cited the president posting a photoshopped image of himself as the Pope and Superman and on Mount Rushmore as some of the wildest examples.

Newsom said he's countering the president by putting "a mirror up to Trump and his childishness" through his own social media trolling over the last few months. The governor has posted images on his social media accounts belittling Trump's appearance on a Time magazine cover, and another that depicted the president as Marie Antoinette.

"To put a mirror up to this absurdity to call people out for their complicity. I mean, this is the president of the United States. These are mirroring what he has done, and people have allowed this to be normalized," he said.

Newsom said he's not worried about retribution from the president, noting that Trump has already punished California by cutting back on federal funding for projects such as high-speed rail.

"He's gone after us like no other state, and that's when [his and Trump's] state of mind was collaborative," he noted.

Still, the governor said that he and Trump get along "extraordinarily well," particularly in past private conversations.

"He doesn’t want interpersonal confrontation. Rare is that the case," Newsom said.

"But he'll attack in public when you're not there," Karl asked.

"Yeah, and then he'll lie about things," the governor responded. "There's nothing except it's not. It's more the same."

Newsom reflected on how the Democrats lost last year's election and some of their missteps, including handling the border. The governor noted there was a "point of real friction" between the Biden administration and himself and other governors who saw an influx of migrants.

"As I was working with the Biden administration, I said, 'You need to wake up to what's going on,'" he said.

"Folks in Colorado, in Illinois and New York and elsewhere were expressing that frustration. I think we took the wrong lessons from the midterm where we overperformed, and that was a tactical mistake, but it's also wrong, period, on policy," he added.

Newsom remained confident about the future of his party, saying that it is "now appearing to be back on their toes, not their heels." He pushed other leaders to aggressively stand up to Trump as he continues to "attack every single institution of independent thinking."

"[Trump is] succeeding because we're still playing by the old set of rules. And so my party needs to focus first and foremost on recognizing that. And then we'll reconcile, be more culturally normal, more reform-oriented, talk about service and patriotism," he said.