Stone Cold Liar: Trump Incited Riot after Threatening to Cancel Funding for CA
Gavin Newsom is doing a fair amount of press as he monitors the response to the protests and conflict in Los Angeles. In a number of those interviews, including this MSNBC one, Newsom accused Trump of lying when he claimed the two discussed deploying the National Guard on Friday.
Gavin Newsom: We talked for almost twenty minutes. And he barely — this issue never came up. I kept trying to talk about LA, he wanted to talk about all these other issues. We had a very decent conversation.
Jacob Soboroff: When was this?
Newsom: This was late Friday night. About 1:30 plus, his time.
Soboroff: After the protests had started?
Newsom: After the protests. And he never once brought up the National Guard. He’s a Stone Cold Liar. He said he did. Stone Cold Liar. Never did. It was a very civil conversation. I’ve always wanted to approach engagement with the President of the United States in a respectful and responsible way. But there’s no working with the President. There’s only working for him. And I will never work for Donald Trump.
Soboroff: Did you mention to him in that phone call on Friday night the types of raids that were happening in your state on Friday. There were reports that and video of enforcement operations in ways that they haven’t traditionally. ICE officers [went] to Home Depots around Los Angeles and picking off day laborers. Did you bring that up with him?
Newsom: The conversation started with the frame of what’s happening in LA, he immediately pivoted to other things and other interests.
He went on to correct Soboroff’s comment that this was about immigration. After putting it in context with all of Trump’s other attacks on the Constitution, Newsom described, “It is a serious moment under the guise of immigration. but it’s much deeper than that.”
Newsom is giving these interviews in advance of suing Trump to end the National Guard deployment (by the time he sues, some Marines that Pete Hegseth is readying may already be deployed). We may learn more specifics about the time and content of the conversation the two men had on Friday night via that lawsuit.
But as he describes it, Newsom spoke to Trump — in an attempt to talk about LA — in the wake of reports, relying on White House sources, that Trump was threatening to cut funding from CA.
The Trump administration is preparing to cancel a large swath of federal funding for California, an effort that could begin as soon as Friday, according to multiple sources.
Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. Sources said the administration is specifically considering a full termination of federal grant funding for the University of California and California State University systems.
“No taxpayer should be forced to fund the demise of our country,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement Friday afternoon, criticizing California for its energy, immigration and other policies. “No final decisions, however, on any potential future action by the Administration have been made, and any discussion suggesting otherwise should be considered pure speculation.”
Newsom spoke to Trump late on Friday, wanting to talk about LA. Trump kept pivoting to “other things and other interests.”
And out of that, Newsom stated, “there’s no working with the President. There’s only working for him. And I will never work for Donald Trump.”
Obviously, Newsom is right: As I noted the other day, Stephen Miller loves the racism, but immigration is also one tool of his authoritarianism. The defunding makes clear that the pretext of antisemitism is another.
But this assault on California is an expansion of a pattern.
Trump asked law firms to work for him. Some capitulated, and they’re increasingly paying a price. Others refused and, thus far at least, have survived.
Trump asked Ivy League universities to work for him. Columbia capitulated, and they’re paying a price. Harvard refused and, thus far at least, has survived.
Trump is now seeking to bring California to heel using some of the same tools used with law firms and universities.
California’s governor refused.
And then Trump sent in the Armed Forces.
While I have no doubt that Convict-1 / Krasnov / TACO fully intends to cut CA off, I’m not sure what mechanism Newsom can use to cut off the feds. Most of the people have their taxes pulled out of payroll, so is that aggregated somewhere that the state can divert away from DC? I’m pretty certain that’s not possible.
Add to that the problem of CA losing a court case about this, for example who pays if the funds aren’t in escrow pending disposition? The taxpayer (again) or the state (which knowing our lege will have spent the money)?
With that said, Newsom is right to not knuckle under and he needs to provide daily counterpoint to Faux News. Gavin has the evidence noted in the post above in front of him about playing ball (the source of the for / with distinction) and while frequently tone deaf he’s not stupid. Not only is CA a net donor state to DC budgeting, it’s also a key component of the agricultural system, especially in winter (even something as banal as rice) and I’m fairly sure ‘inspection fees’ in some form will replace tariffs as a sledgehammer to drive that point home.
“Stone Cold Liar” will become a meme, if it hasn’t already.
That interview is very eloquent summation of the broad-scale, manufactured catastrophe we’re being subjected to. Good for Newsom…finally; he may have just jumped the ’28 Dem-POTUS queue, and he won’t be encumbered by his current job in the two-year runup to that race — but the question of whether the USA will even still exist at that point is as tenuous now as it has been since the Civil War.
I’ve been casting about for a poster slogan for this Saturday’s “No Kings” nationwide protest, and “Stone Cold Liar” just got the nod. My wife, a very cautious and non-confrontational person, is going to be there as well.
https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/
Correction:
Marcy’s compendium at the bottom of her post, added to this interview, is an eloquent summation of our catastrophe.
Sadly in this day and age Memes are a strategy that some think are useful to counter violence by the tRumps criminal state. These action were premeditated and were specifically created to declare a false national emergency so he can further his wanna be king like tendencies. Who knows it may be mildly effective since everyone is glued to their 3 x 6 screens. Violence by the state, specifically by this SC court criminally sanctioned presidency, really has only one response that will succeed and that is the mass mobilization of people in the streets. This criminal organization cobbled together by his evil sycophants will and has already used violence against American citizens . Massive numbers of people peacefully protesting in direct confrontation ,will yes cause further intentional violence upon themselves, by this criminal state. Only when people see on their hand held screens people be beaten gas and shot by their on government, of course after seeing the meme, maybe they will get off their asses and move to the streets. Images the harken back to Selma Alabama, Vietnam protest and Kent State that did in fact propel Americans to act. The time to act is now especially in LA where there is a concentration of 10’s of million of people that can gather quickly as I believe they will do. Forget your memes for they are laughable and for entertainment not for quelling government viloent over reach.
I may be wrong but may be if Hegseth sends Marines to kill American citizens then may be then white America will stop being lethargic and allowing this racist fuck wad to continue his actions of violence against innocent people. Massive civil disobedience need to continue in every city now and up threw his sickening military parade to ruin his ego stroking piece of shit birthday.
We need to learn from the women that gather in mass numbers after TACO boys first election. About a million women gathered and it was effective.
[Moderator’s note: double check your Name/Email fields before hitting “Post Comment”; you entered your email address in the Name field, triggering auto-moderation. /~Rayne]
If you’re counting on the Internet masses to save your ass, dialing down your condescension might be helpful.
The proper term for the events on the 14th should be “No Felons”.
Proposed text of the 28th Amendment:
———————–
No person shall be a candidate for the office of President, or elected to the same, who has been convicted by a jury of felony criminal activity, in a court of the United States or of the Various State and Territorial Criminal Judiciaries thereof.
A subsequent exoneration from such a conviction, however achieved, will not annul this proscription from Office.
Whoever shall be the President at the time of the Inception of this Amendment, shall Themselves be subject to its Proscriptions, and their Vice President shall assume the Office of President, if violation this Amendment is found to be supported by Court records.
The Supreme Court will rule those records either Valid or Invalid if the President in question contests their applicability, and they shall convene immdediately upon the presentation of such records following this Amendment’s formal inclusion into the US Constitution, to make such a ruling if the necessity arises.
—————————————
It could be called The People’s Impeachment Amendment.
The Governor or Maine stood up to Trump and survived. The world is standing up to Trump over tariffs. The lesson is that if you want to survive, you must stand up to the bullies. As more and more leaders and organizations stand up to him, his perceived power will diminish.
And that is part of what is going on here. Trump is losing battles in other spheres and being exposed as weak in the process. So he is redirecting public attention by upping the ante.
I am no Mills fan, and my opinion of Newsom has been the same: centrists straddling the fence to the point of neutering themselves. But both of them acquitted themselves when push came to shove.
“We’ll see you in court” and “Stone cold liar” pair nicely. Newsom should take heart in the fact that Trump lost that ME legal battle, in very short order.
https://www.k12dive.com/news/maine-usda-rollins-title-ix-victory-trump-administration-transgender-athlete-policy/747181/
Marcy asked on Bluesky about why Twentynine Pines and not Pendleton Marines…
People are saying it might be logistics, but I wonder if it could also partially be about:
Veterans lead demonstration at Camp Pendleton against potential LA military deployment Veterans urge Marines to consider the legality of potential orders during a demonstration at Camp Pendleton following a weekend of turmoil in Los Angeles.
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/demonstration-at-camp-pendleton-against-potential-la-military-deployment/509-459e0fb3-6bf8-4258-aacf-ca7bf38ad7b7
Elizabeth Sanchez Published: 7:02 PM PDT June 8, 2025
As a former resident of San Diego, I have some thoughts to add.
There is a dual factor at work here IMHO, going to the effectiveness of protests at the base, and the morale question relating to the demographics of the base and the surrounding areas.
The Marine Corps generally has ~11% Latino personnel (the highest in US Military) And there is reason to imagine, given its recruitment region (West of the Mississippi) that the proportion of Latino’s recruited via the Marine Corps Recruitment Depot San Diego might be higher.
21k Marine recruits pass through MCRD SD per year.
Camp Pendleton population
42k+ active duty personnel
38k military families members
added to which are significant numbers of civilian personnel.
Over 77,000 retired military personnel live within a 50 mile radius of the base.
In San Diego County 16 Military installations belonging to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard, are located throughout the County where 110,000 Military personnel are employed locally, in addition to over 118,000 family members and over 240,000 Veterans who reside in the County.
On Camp Pendleton military dependents on base are zoned to schools operated by local school districts
34.3 % of 3.3m + population of San Diego County are Hispanic/Latino.
America’s military deserves better than being directed to carry out operations they don’t train for, just to make Trump and Miller (and their minions) feel better about themselves. I don’t know this, but I remember reading that one Biden-era priority was reinforcing the focus that America’s military takes an oath to the constitution, not to the president – I hope that’s first and foremost on the professional military’s mind.
I think Pendleton is more basic in training than 29 Palms. But I don’t know anyone at either.
29 Palms is in the Mojave Desert in SE California. It’s remote, and not only from the prying eyes of the press and public. It’s physically large, more so than most military bases, someone on the outside would never know or see what’s happening inside.
29 ‘Stumps’ is the major USMC desert warfare and combined arms training base. Its permanent personnel are dedicated to training and support, so I am at a loss as to why a desert training base would be the supplier for anti-riot troops.
Pendleton is the west coast base for the USMC. It is both a training base and the home base of the 1st Marines, the 11th Marines, 1st Tanks, and the Fleet Marine Force, as well as others. I think the only personnel on base that have some training in crowd control are the MP’s. I’ve never heard of any infantry, tank or artillery unit that ever received such training, and I spent enough time there that I think I would have noticed.
I know where it is. The company I worked at provided some of their utilities, so we had to know what was there. (It isn’t very close to 29 Palms the city.)
Twentynine [or 29] “Palms,” is in San Bernadino County. Culturally as well as physically further away from L.A. than Pendleton.
Pendleton is more than a training base, it’s the major West Coast base for the Marine Corps.
At Trump’s Big Beautiful Birthday Parade he will spin it as “These incredible men and woman in our military sacrifice it all to Keep our Country Safe but the Democrats fight against Law and Order.”
Trump enters women illegally.
Trump’s “wag the dog” moves have turned into Newsom’s wet dream for his political fortunes. Just another extreme overreach by the wannabe Mango Mussolini.
That was very well said by Gavin Newsome. “But there’s no working with the President. There’s only working for him.” It cuts right to the point.
I imagine that he also has a recording of any phone conversation with Mr. Trump. That kind of proof is always needed with him.
Prior to Sunday, the protests we mostly the crowd grumbling at ICE for how ICE was treating those rounded-up. Now the protests are feeding into the Rwing narrative of vandalism and mayhem.
The protesters feeding into the Rwing narrative is so counterproductive.
I’ve read the Operations Order (OPORD) for this. It is not classified. Although not entirely comforting, no Army or USMC personnel will carry live ammunition. They can have so-called non-lethal ammunition, but actually carrying it or loading it requires several decisions. USNORTHCOM (ARNORTH – Army) is the decision maker, not National Guard units. They will be under Title 10, that is, regular Army control. They will be using long established Standard Rules of Engagement (SROE) and Standard Use of Force (SUOF). They shouldn’t be “winging it”. The actual OPORD was sloppily written and has had at least one Fragmentary Order (FRAGORD) to update it. The OPORD confirms that SECDEF has been given the authority to send in the National Guard, and yes, there is at least one Marine Corps Battalion awaiting his order. I’m not sure which USMC Battalion it is. There are USMC Civil Affairs Groups and a Reserve Law Enforcement Battalion. The USMC does do humanitarian missions, but usually via ship to shore transport. The Marine Corps has fielded “Directed Energy Weapons” to counter drones. Of note is that one such DEW is the “High Power Microwave”, which has been tested as a non-lethal crowd dispersion device. Being cooked from the inside has been described as ants crawling under the skin.
A list of USMC Battalions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Marine_Corps_battalions
“Stone Cold Liar” makes me picture Trump as pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin.
How about Weasley-mouthed-piece-of-crap Liar instead?