Treasury Secretary Bessent calls Newsom ‘economically illiterate’ at Davos

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling him “economically illiterate” and accusing him of prioritizing world elite conferences over the state’s mounting funds, housing and homelessness crises.

Talking on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, Bessent used the high-profile assembly to ship blistering criticism of Newsom’s financial report and management.

“I used to be instructed he was requested to make a speech about his signature insurance policies, however he says nothing as a result of what have his financial insurance policies achieved? Out-migration from California, an enormous funds deficit, the biggest homeless inhabitants in America, and poor folks within the Palisades who’ve had their properties burned down,” the Treasury Secretary mentioned.

“He is out right here messing with the worldwide elite whereas his Californians are nonetheless homeless. Disgrace on him. He’s too smug, too self-centered and too economically illiterate to know something.”

NEWSOM is praising California’s quite a few authorized battles with the Trump administration within the state’s backside line

California Governor Gavin Newsom attends the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, January 20, 2026. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)

Bessent additionally responded to Newsom’s characterization of him as a “smug man,” saying the governor “strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Seashore Ken,” referring to the fictional serial killer from “American Psycho” and the flamboyant doll character from “Barbie.”

“[He] would be the solely Californian who is aware of much less about economics than Kamala Harris. He is right here this week together with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is the proper place for a person who, when everybody else was cooped up, when he had folks arrested for going to church, he was consuming $1,000 a dinner on the French Laundry,” he added. “And I am certain the folks of California will not neglect that.”

The Cupboard official mentioned the federal government would additionally take steps to sort out what he referred to as “waste, fraud and abuse” within the state.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks on the 56th annual assembly of the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, January 20, 2026. (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)

Newsom, who’s attending the Davos summit in Switzerland, hit again on the White Home on Tuesday by directing his criticism at President Donald Trump and his feedback on the Greenland takeover.

“America’s allies and enterprise leaders want to know this: There isn’t any diplomacy with Donald Trump. Get in your knees and develop a spine,” he wrote on X.

NEWSOM PRAISES CALIFORNIA’S NUMEROUS LEGAL FIGHTS WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IN THE LAST STATE OF STATE

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He later instructed reporters on the sidelines of the annual assembly that Trump was to a ‘T. rex’ is. ‘You both be a part of him or he’ll devour you. One or the opposite,” Newsom mentioned.

“It is time to stand tall and regular. Get a spine. I am unable to stand this complicity – folks rolling over,” he added. “From an American perspective, it is shameful.”