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President Donald Trump accused California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of lying Tuesday after the governor denied that the two had recently spoken by phone amid growing unrest in Los Angeles.
The clash erupted after Newsom said Trump fabricated a phone call in which the former president claimed he urged the governor to take stronger action to curb the riots in the city. In response, Trump shared a screenshot of a call log showing a 16-minute conversation with Newsom early on June 7 and sent it to Fox News’ John Roberts, who posted it on X.
“First call was not picked up. Second call, Gavin picked up, we spoke for 16 minutes. I told him to, essentially, ‘get his a** in gear,’ and stop the Riots, which were out of control. More than anything else, this shows what a liar he is – said I never called. Here is the evidence,” Trump said, according to Roberts.
Newsom had publicly questioned Trump’s mental acuity, suggesting the president “doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he had spoken with Newsom “a day ago” and urged him to do a better job responding to the violence.
“He’s doing a bad job causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death. If we didn’t send out the National Guard – and last night we gave him a little additional help – you would have, Los Angeles would be burning right now,” Trump said.
Newsom fired back on X, writing, “There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
Trump initially deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the weekend to protect federal immigration officers conducting operations in the city. Protests have since erupted into violence, with rioters burning vehicles, waving foreign flags, and damaging property.
The president also blasted Newsom in a Wednesday morning post, writing on Truth Social, “The INCOMPETENT Governor of California was unable to provide protection in a timely manner when our Ice Officers, GREAT Patriots they are, were attacked by an out of control mob of agitators, troublemakers, and/or insurrectionists. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”