Newsom unleashes withering attack on Trump over Kennedy Center

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, often mentioned as a likely Democratic presidential contender in 2028, seldom misses an opportunity to troll President Donald Trump. And during a Sunday, February 22 conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Newsom attacked Trump over something the president often brags about: his real estate and construction background.

During his second presidency, Trump has demolished the White House's East Wing to make way for a lavish ballroom — and he is closing Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for two years for renovations. Trump boasted that he is a "builder," adding, "I have been doing it all my life."

But Newsom, during the February 22 event, told fellow Democrat Dickens, "Breaking things is not strength. Tearing things down is not strength…. Any jack--- can tear down a barn, but it takes a skilled carpenter to build one. Tearing things down is not strength. Trump is not a builder. He's a jack---."

Newsom was quoting the late House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) during the event, which was promoting Newsom's new book "Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery."

Daily Beast reporter Janna Brancolini described Newsom's latest attack on Trump as "fighting words" in an article published the following day.

Brancolini observes, "Newsom has spent much of the last year as a thorn in the side of the Trump administration, trolling Trump in the president’s own rambling, all-caps communications style and calling out various members of his Cabinet, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Political insiders say his mix of viral trolling and high-profile policy speeches offers an alternative vision to Trump’s, and makes clear that he's gearing up for a presidential run in 2028, though the governor says he hasn't yet decided whether he will run."