As the world watches American leadership falter on the global stage, one voice is cutting through the noise with clarity, conviction, and courage. Rep. Jasmine Crockett has thrown her full support behind California Governor Gavin Newsom, praising his unapologetic stand against Donald Trump’s climate denial and calling his leadership a blueprint for America’s future — while Trump, she argues, is dragging the nation backward.
Speaking bluntly and without political varnish, Crockett framed the moment as more than a policy disagreement. This, she said, is a battle between progress and regression, between science and spectacle, between global leadership and national embarrassment.
“Let’s be honest,” Crockett declared. “While Donald Trump is doubling down on ignorance, Gavin Newsom is doubling down on reality. And right now, reality matters.”
Crockett’s remarks came in the wake of Newsom’s headline-grabbing appearance at a global climate summit in Brazil — a summit conspicuously ignored by the Trump administration. While the White House stayed home clinging to the tired myth that climate change is a ‘hoax,’ Newsom showed up, spoke forcefully, and made it clear that America’s future cannot be held hostage by fossil fuel interests and political cowardice.
“Leadership isn’t hiding,” Crockett said. “Leadership is showing up. And that’s exactly what Gavin Newsom did.”
She echoed Newsom’s scathing assessment of Trump’s agenda, calling it reckless, economically illiterate, and dangerously out of step with the rest of the world. Trump’s push to revive offshore drilling, roll back environmental protections, and isolate the United States from global climate cooperation isn’t just harmful to the planet, Crockett argued — it’s catastrophic for American competitiveness.
“China isn’t waiting for us to argue about whether science is real,” she said. “They’re building. They’re investing. They’re dominating clean energy markets while Trump is stuck in the last century, worshipping oil rigs and coal plants like relics of a dying economy.”
Crockett praised Newsom’s two-pronged climate strategy — protecting the planet while strengthening the economy — calling it “the most common-sense approach Washington has refused to embrace.” Clean energy, she emphasized, isn’t a sacrifice. It’s an opportunity.
“When Newsom talks about low-carbon growth, he’s talking about jobs, infrastructure, supply chains, and American innovation,” Crockett said. “Trump talks about drilling because he doesn’t understand the future — or refuses to.”
She was especially sharp in her defense of California’s outright rejection of offshore drilling along its coastline, a plan Trump has attempted to revive despite overwhelming public opposition.
“California’s coastline is not for sale,” Crockett said. “And it sure as hell isn’t a playground for Trump’s fossil fuel donors.”
Calling Trump’s drilling proposal “dead on arrival,” Crockett framed Newsom’s resistance as an act of protection — not just of natural beauty, but of public will.
“This isn’t partisan,” she added. “Republicans, Democrats, independents — Californians don’t want drilling. Trump doesn’t care. Newsom does. That’s the difference.”
Crockett also took aim at Trump’s broader posture toward the world, condemning what she called his “middle-finger foreign policy” — a mix of tariffs, walls, and isolationism that alienates allies and empowers competitors.
“You can’t lead the world while turning your back on it,” she said. “Trump thinks arrogance equals strength. Newsom understands that cooperation equals power.”
Her most emotional remarks came when she spoke about the real, lived consequences of climate change — wildfires, toxic air, record heat, and ecosystems disappearing within a single generation.
“This isn’t abstract,” Crockett said. “This is parents who can’t take their kids where their grandparents once took them. This is communities choking on smoke. This is oceans warming and reefs dying while one man tweets that it’s all fake.”
For Crockett, Newsom’s willingness to name the problem — and name Trump as part of it — is exactly what Democrats have been craving.
“We don’t need more timid leadership,” she said. “We need leaders who are willing to call destruction what it is and stand in its way.”
She concluded with a message that sounded less like commentary and more like a warning: the era of denial is ending, whether Trump likes it or not.
“The future belongs to leaders who respect science, understand economics, and aren’t afraid to stand up to bullies,” Crockett said. “Gavin Newsom is showing us what that looks like. Donald Trump is showing us exactly why we can’t afford to go backward.”
And in that stark contrast, Crockett made her position unmistakably clear: one man is clinging to the past — the other is already building what comes next.
