Tipsheet

Newsom Called Bessent 'Smug.' The Treasury Secretary Had No Issue Putting Him Back in His Place.

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  January 21, 2026 1:15 PM

Gavin Newsom clearly has his sights on a 2028 run for the White House. Why else would the outgoing governor of the failed state of California be in Davos this week? Yesterday, Townhall reported on how Newsom went on an unhinged rant about Donald Trump, Europe, and Greenland, and at some point he called Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "smug."

To that, this writer has to ask: Has Gavin Newsom met...Gavin Newsom?

But Bessent doesn't need anyone to come to his defense. He took matters into his own hands and absolutely nuked Newsom from orbit.

"Governor Newsom, who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken, may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris. He's here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is a perfect place for a man who, when everyone else is on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church," Bessent said. "Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything."

He also told Lawrence, "Let me know if you need any further clarification."

For those who don't know, Patrick Bateman is the lead of American Psycho, a book by Bret Easton Ellis that was later turned into a movie starring Christian Bale as Bateman. It's the perfect way to describe Newsom, who will now always be Sparkle Beach Ken to us.

Here's some more from The New York Post:

The Democrat governor sat in a last-minute open seat next to Bessent’s staff during the Treasury Secretary’s Fox Business panel.

Newsom took notes and silently scoffed at some of Bessent’s comments, including claims that “drill, baby, drill” has pushed gasoline prices below $2, that Trump has helped other prices come down, and that there will be a real rise in income in the coming year, a senior CBS News reporter shared on X.

During Donald Trump’s address at Davos on Wednesday, he reiterated comments from a day earlier saying he and Newsom “used to get along.”

“We’re going to help the people in California. We want to have no crime. I know Gavin was here. I used to get along so great with Gavin when I was president. Gavin is a good guy,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Newsom urged European leaders not to give in to “T-Rex” Trump.

“It’s time to stand tall and firm and have a backbone. I can’t take this complicity, people rolling over,” Newsom told a reporter when asked what Europe should do amid the president’s threats to take over Greenland. “I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders.”

California had a budget surplus when Newsom took office in 2019. In just seven short years, Newsom managed to turn that budget into a massive $45 billion deficit. It's so bad, Democrats in Sacramento are looking to steal five percent of billionaires' wealth (not just their income), and revisiting the idea of levying taxes retroactively on those wealthy people who were smart enough to flee the state a while ago.

So Bessent is right: Newsom has no idea how the economy (or anything really) works.