Gavin Newsom DOGE is just a ‘promo stunt’

Newsom said during a Monday press conference in Redding, CA, “We've been working, I don't know, before DOGE was DOGE,” calling the new agency “a promo project.”

The liberal governor also claimed, “We've been doing civil service reform in this state, we've been consolidating job classifications, we've been updating job descriptions in this state…”

Pundits were quick to point out California’s $45 billion budget deficit under Newsom’s leadership despite a $100 billion surplus only three years ago.

In April, a state audit revealed that Newsom’s California spent over $24 billion in the last five years to try and address the Golden State’s massive homelessness problem but did not track the results or the effectiveness of its efforts. Despite the massive spending, California’s number of homeless increased by at least 30,000 during that time period and is currently home to at least 30 percent of the people living on the streets in the US.

Some of the homeless programs, that received over $9.4 billion since 2020, could not even be assessed due to a lack of data.

Additionally, since Newsom's $20 minimum wage law took effect in April, over 10,000 jobs have been lost from the state's restaurant industry as struggling franchises have been forced to cut labor and spike prices to survive the costly wage increase that has resulted in mass layoffs.

Newsom’s high-speed rail project has also been a spending disaster. DOGE’s X account posted in November, “Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: -Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion -Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed -Received $6.8 billion in federal funds -Requesting $8 billion in additional federal funds.”

On Monday, Politico reported that Dana Williamson, who was Newsom's chief of staff, left the governor's office and was replaced by Nathan Barankin, who was a political consultant and adviser to Kamala Harris, fueling speculation that Newsom is eyeing a run at the White House in 2028 and that Harris may be seeking the California governor's mansion.