California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his final State of the State address to lawmakers Thursday in Sacramento, where he is expected to lay out his priorities for his last year in office as he eyes a run for president in 2028.
Newsom, a Democrat, is conscious of his legacy as he marches toward the conclusion of his eight-year run governing the nation’s most populous state, a position that often put him directly at odds with Republican President Donald Trump.
Over the years he has used the State of the State to tout California’s economic growth and technological innovation and defend the state against criticism of its high cost of living and largest homeless population in the country. He has jabbed at Trump and warned that his administration would threaten the state’s progressive policies.
This year the speech comes a day after the state marked a year since the devastating Los Angeles-area fires ignited, ripping through neighborhoods and killing 31 people.
In the months since, Newsom has asked Congress and Trump for billions of dollars in funding to help the region recover from the blazes, some of the most destructive in state history. Trump has not answered that call — one of the many disputes between him and the governor during his first year back in the presidency.
The two have sparred over everything from Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in L.A. to the federal government’s blocking of California’s first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.
The state has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times, and Newsom has called Trump a threat to democracy, leading a redistricting fight to improve Democrats’ chances of winning control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.
“I don’t for a second trust him,” Newsom said in a recent interview on MS NOW, adding that on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the president “tried to light democracy on fire.”
It would be a surprise if Newsom does not mention Trump in his final State of the State ahead of a potential presidential run, said Christopher Witko, executive director of the University of California Center Sacramento, which trains students for careers in public policy.
“He’s going to talk about Trump as a threat and probably how he’s been standing up to him,” Witko said. “It’s going to be an audience of people in the state, but an audience of Democrats outside of the state too.”
Newsom is also expected to talk about what he wants to get done in the rest of his second term. The governor has spent the past seven years trying to solve some of California’s most relentless issues, including the impacts of climate change, the state’s homelessness crisis, and its high gas and utility prices.
On Friday he is set to unveil his proposed budget for the next fiscal year after years facingbudget shortfalls.
This is the first time Newsom has delivered the State of the State to lawmakers in person since 2022. He has said he does not like formal speeches because his dyslexia makes it difficult to read from a teleprompter in live time.
Instead he has submitted a written address to lawmakers in the years since, fulfilling a constitutional requirement that he report to the Legislature in some form.
He also tried other approaches that have departed from tradition, including posting a prerecorded speech online and touring the state to announce policies aimed at tackling homelessness and mental health crises.
Under the state constitution, Newsom is barred from seeking a third term.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.