California Gov. Gavin Newsom pulled no punches at the COP30 local weather talks in Brazil on Tuesday, calling President Donald Trump an “invasive species” and a “wrecking ball” throughout discussions concerning the US absence from global climate action.
Newsom, a Democrat extensively considered as a possible presidential candidate in 2028, is essentially the most high-profile US political determine attending the talks in the Amazon metropolis of Belém. The Trump administration made the unprecedented resolution to not ship a high-level delegation to the annual talks — the newest transfer in its sharp draw back from world local weather motion.
Trump has spent the previous yr tearing up local weather insurance policies, in search of to strangle clean energy projects, pushing different international locations to purchase US oil and gasoline and withdrawing the US from the Paris local weather settlement. In a speech at the United Nations in September, Trump referred to as local weather change a “con job.”
Newsom, who has a historical past of sparring with Trump, seems to be utilizing COP30 as an alternative to set out a distinct imaginative and prescient for US local weather motion. “I do not want the United States of America to be a footnote on climate policy,” he mentioned at an occasion Tuesday.
He took sharp, private purpose at Trump for abandoning efforts to sort out the local weather disaster. “He’s an invasive species. He is. He’s a wrecking ball president. And he’s trying to roll back progress of the last century … he’s doubling down on stupid,” Newsom mentioned.
Trump’s stance is handing victory to China, he added. China is dominating clear vitality provide chains and manufacturing “because they understand the great economic opportunity,” Newsom mentioned.
Newsom was additionally requested concerning the Trump administration’s reported plan to open the California coast to grease and gasoline drilling, as reported in The Washington Post yesterday primarily based on a leaked draft map.
“It’s never going to happen. Over our dead body. Dead on arrival. Period. Full stop,” Newsom mentioned. He requested the viewers to contemplate why Trump may be focusing on California. “He has no interest in opening up oil drilling rigs right off the coast of Florida, across the street from Mar-a-Lago,” he mentioned.
The White House shot again with its personal fiery reply to Newsom’s feedback.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, despatched this in response to a request for remark: “Governor Newscum flew all the way to Brazil to tout the Green New Scam, while Californians are paying some of the highest energy prices in the country. Embarrassing! If Gavin Newscum’s support for the climate agenda was sincere, he would not be attending a climate summit that required chopping down thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest for a special purpose highway. It’s time for Newscum and other countries to drop the climate facade. President Trump will not allow the best interest of the American people to be jeopardized by the Green Energy Scam. These Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump’s commonsense energy agenda.”
The special-purpose freeway Rogers referred to is a four-lane highway constructed by means of the rainforest to Belém, which Brazilian authorities say was deliberate earlier than the town’s COP bid.
Newsom additionally spoke about the necessity to make the local weather disaster extra tangible. Talking about common world temperature rises and utilizing phrases like “greenhouse gas” makes local weather change appear “abstract,” he mentioned.
People can see local weather change unfolding earlier than their eyes, he added, referring to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January, which scientists say had been made bigger and extra intense by planet-warming air pollution.
Newsom additionally talked concerning the want for the Democratic social gathering to reframe local weather motion round affordability in upcoming elections, pointing to rising vitality prices as Trump pulls away from clear vitality and an insurance coverage disaster unfolding in the US as excessive climate turns into more and more harmful.
“We have to talk in terms that people understand … it’s about people, it’s about places, it’s about lifestyles, it’s about traditions,” he mentioned.