California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that he will decide in early January whether or not he will seek the presidency in the 2028 election.

“I’ll make the determination at the beginning of the year, so we’ll spend the next few weeks with the family and make a decision early January,” Newsom told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.

The Democratic governor called the midterm elections a “rebuke” of President Trump.

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Newsom’s remarks elevate yet another international trip in which he praised California’s environmental policies and attacked Trump’s retreat from global climate pacts.

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The outgoing governor met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss expanding California’s climate partnership with Brazil, and also finalized a new climate agreement with Portugal, according to the governor’s office.

The governor and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom also visited a forestry training center to exchange wildfire lessons, and he joined governors and mayors — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and London Mayor Sadiq Khan — at a gathering convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Newsom’s international globetrotting this year has generally been paid for by wealthy benefactors who fund the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit that has paid for Newsom’s travel expenses instead of taxpayer money.

According to recent polling, Newsom is among the favorites in the Democratic presidential primary.

However, Newsom previously said he would not run if Kamala Harris entered the race.

“I don’t know if she runs but we’ll see,” Newsom previously told Jake Tapper.

“But I wouldn’t run if she ran,” he added.

Tapper seemed perplexed by Newsom’s statement.

“If she runs, you will not,” Tapper said.

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“Of course not. Why would I?” Newsom said.

“I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t waste everyone’s time. Who needs that?” he continued.

Democrat Governor Says He Will Not Launch 2028 Presidential Campaign If Kamala Harris Enters Race

Fox News shared further:

Newsom also suggested during the interview that spectators would feast on the "mutual-assured destruction" among Democrats competing for the nomination.

"I mean, you do whatever you want. I don't care," Tapper told Newsom. "But [the] counterargument would be, like, you know, she had her shot. And you've never run, and she's run twice."

"Yeah," Newsom responded. "I mean, that'd be the approach to the campaign, certainly. That'd be the case you'd make. Pretty good one, actually. That's objectively true."

Newsom, who is term-limited after 2026, outlined his political timeline just over a week after Republicans suffered sweeping defeats in the midterm elections, losing control of both chambers of Congress and several traditionally Republican strongholds.

Newsom said he was "particularly pleased with the outcome of the election."

"Donald Trump's presidency, as we know it, ended last week in the U.S.," he said. "It was a historic rebuke of his tenure, and now it's incumbent upon those that were successful to govern and to lead my party. The Democratic Party now has to set forth a positive alternative agenda to Donald Trump."

 

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